The True Art of a Start- is by Instinct: The entrepreneurial spirit, Stretching the funds, A woman’s perspective, Meeting of soul mates

My first steps into the Tech world in a very non-tech way. One afternoon, I got a call from these friends of mine who had started their new company-.

RockeTalk. They wanted me to give them an honest feedback. The Good, the bad, the ugly- all of it. After a bit of convincing - notice it did not take too long- I was game to start playing with this very basic phone application that they showed me which in the Founder’s words was basically ‘SMS on steroids’.

There was something about this concept- maybe it was the Founders’ enthusiasm, yes it was two of them, that made me say yes. In hind sight, I had a suspicion that they had read Guy Kawasaki’s very firm advice and exercise in his ‘The Art of The Start’ to rely on the smartness of women. Well, they hadn’t.

Their reasoning: I came from a background of working, volunteering, with Non-profits/NGOs. I was involved in event and artist management. I had a strong Arts background – Psychology and Sociology. And that I was a people’s person. Loved talking…lol.. OK so most women do.

I was rolling my eyes by now. I read between the lines –all that talk about my background was a crock! It was my ‘volunteering spirit’ that drew them to me. Great entrepreneurs that they were, they were trying to get as much help they could for-FREE or at the cost of a couple tall Mistos at their favorite Starbucks! I saw that appreciated the effort.

I was, at that point, intrigued enough by the application and decided I would devote a much disciplined hour or so everyday to play with it (after all I had my day job too) and by the end of that week, come back with feedback.

I started off, created a username and within minutes had people pinging me! I was taken aback. I was told that the application was a neat way to send voice, text and picture messages painlessly- something that the promise of MMS had miserably failed at, to my friends and my network and here I was getting pinged by random people from- Russia, all over Europe, South Africa! And how did they find me? Well they said they just searched for a female user and there I was!

I was beginning to understand the application better. I was seeing it in a totally different light- very different from what the founding ‘tech-team’ thought they had put together! In the founder’s words, ‘Of course, I had to be able to see if my other friends were online and yes, I need to be able to search for my friends.’ Unknowingly they had introduced two very powerful components to their multi-media messaging platform - presence and search.

Soon I was getting voice messages from all over the world. From places- Turkey, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Canada. I was enjoying myself and was spending every spare minute I had, staying online constantly, talking to this mélange of people round the clock, at times waiting for some of them to get back on.

From my interaction with some of the people online, I knew I had in my hands something with great potential, something that could change the way people interacted. There was a flood of things racing through my mind. You got to remember I came from a non-profit background and had very strong views about the World, global understanding and working with people who did not necessarily know English. This was perfect! OK you’ll say I had a very naïve view of the World but I still believe this is the best tool. (More on this later) but I had run a business of my own and knew that everything needs to make money- even non-profits.

Needless to say, I could not hold back for the week to get done. I called and told them coffee was on me and that they could count me in every way! They knew the minute they saw me that they had indeed found a soul mate.

Factoid:
Man Smart. Woman Smarter (How could I resist)

Men have 6.5 times more gray matter in their brains than women do. Women have 10times more white matter. Gray matter creates processing centers in the brain, and white matter creates the connections between them. In other words, men have lots of areas for processing concrete data -- like mathematical equations -- and women have lots of connections that allow them to see and process patterns [Source: Live Science] :)

Kashmir: Paradise lost? more....

"Ro rahi hai ye zameen,
Ro raha hai aasamaan..."

"The Earth is shedding tears,
The sky is shedding tears"

I understand the sentiment... I hope we all understand the true implications of our actions.

Do we want to go with one side or the other? Is going one way really better than the other? Have we looked at all our options? Is there another invisible party involved? Will any one side much rather keep fueling the unrest in that region? So many questions...



Well- some of my answers- still getting clarity on some came in from a surprising source- NPR. NPR or National Public Radio has been my source of good, unbiased opinion from a mix of interviews and very level headed comments from listeners. I'm talking about this afternoon broadcast that came about the NorthWest province in Pakistan and exactly what was going on.

The Taliban, the law enforcements and the locals. A triangle, right? But no- that's not what it is. There is so much more to it than meets the eye. The locals are tired of innocents getting shot. Don't know if you know this but very much like Kashmir, the NorthWest Province is one of the most picturesque places in the world. Just like Kashmir, their main economy was tourism. Now, all the people who could afford to move out, have moved out of that area. The people who stay on are staying there because they don't have a choice and after all, they are Paththaans! Paththaans are too proud and and loyal to abandon the place their birthplace.

They are not thrilled about the fact that the only economy that works there is the war economy. And their description of 'War economy' is not the sale of guns but rather a funny equation that the politics in that region has going there, an it is the same equation that has come in to play wherever the USA has tried to play the Big Brother/Bully and tried to make things work a certain way.

Don't get it? It is simple- USA begs Pakistan to help combat terrorism. Pakistan says- it is hard- they would need to take a stand against other Muslim countries. USA pressures them. Pakistan says OK.. but it will cost a lot. USA eagerly agrees to keep paying for supposedly keeping things under control. Does it make sense for anyone to really do anything to control the outbursts? Why should they do anything other than keep a straight face and say they are doing their best. At the end of the day, both law-enforcers and the Taliban take a share of the US pay-off and US feels they are doing their share- they are, after all footing the bill.

And can the US simply bury its head in sand and hope everything will be fine - the storm blow over by the time they look up? Can the US face the generations to come and say they really understood the situation? It is not the US at fault either- with no real understanding of how things work in those parts of the world, they are simply at a loss. Not familiar with the traditions and the culture of the region- they are hoping the ones the have chosen to sleep with, will be faithful.

Am I accusing Pakistan? Heavens no! It is the birthplace of my ancestors I would never wish anything bad to happen to Pakistan or the people there. Ever. But I do not like lazy politics. I am against politicians who put their own interests ahead of other all the time.

Am I happy with the way Indian politicians are making this turn in to a communal fight? No. I am ashamed of the fact that Indian politicians have been actively fueling the fire- not letting the wounds heal. So easily forgetting the fact that it has always been the Kashmiris who made sure all the yatras (pilgrimages) went on smoothly for all these years.

Same story for Kashmir as far as the violence goes. The right to vote for their choice of whether they want to stay with India, or Pakistan or frankly be on their own, should not be mixed with this. That is a fundamental right that the people have and they should be given a choice to do that.

That said, all of Kashmir should be allowed to stay violence free and truly peaceful for say a period of 12 months and then let all of Kashmir vote. Independent or not, it should be the people's choice.

And the people need to understand that their vote should not be an emotional vote.They have to understand that their vote will affect the generations to come.



All I can say is-

"O saare jag ke rakhwaale,
Nirbal ko, Bal dene waale;
Balwaano ko, De de, gyan.

Allah tero naam,
Ishwar tero naam.
Sab ko sammati de Bhagwaan."

Not a perfect translation-

"O caretaker of the whole world,
The One who give strength to the weak;
Please give some wisdom to the strong.

Some call you Allah, While others call you Ishwar.
Please give everyone the ability to think and do good."

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Kashmir: Updates- as it happens

Let me first and foremost declare- I am not a born Kashmiri- Kashmir is a place where I spent some great times.

One of my last happy vacations with my family was in Kashmir.

One of the first crushes I had was on a Kashmiri guy.

Some of fondest childhood memories included some great Kashmiries- as teachers, as 'massi' (mother's sister) - I know this concept of 'massi' being someone other than mom's natural born sister is somewhat hard to understand.

Some of my friend in School were Government of India scholars from Kashmir.

Some of my current friends are from Kashmir.

I will, by-n-by, get in to the good times. Everyone needs to keep the good times in mind- it just helps keep things in perspective.

I lived through some of the nasty times Punjab went through. Had real close encounters - things I was told never to mention ever. I guess I was too young to understand but as I grew, it made me a bit more open to looking at the big picture and look at things from the flip side.

I was double-minded about letting some of these posts go live. Not all depict my point of view. I don't agree with all of them but then I thought- who am I to decide? What right do I have to keep information away from the world? I have my own somewhat strong opinions about Kashmir and the general unrest in that area. And I will get to those slowly but at present the focus is Kashmir.