The new domain integrates all of my various blogs and now will be the central place for all my posts.

I’ll have two sessions at BCM3. First is a FireTalk. Details only at the talk but it has something to do with unconferences. Second will be the launch of Startup Saturdays in Mumbai. Do drop in and add your views.

BarCamp Bangalore 6 meanwhile has been announced on 19 and 20th April at IIM Bangalore.

Its interesting to see these two events shape up side by side. Both have a very enthusiastic planners team. Both teams have seen an increase in number of folks who want to be planners. In fact, we’ve had people add themselves to the Google groups or crib on the general list about being left out from the planners list. In the end, all got included in the true spirit of BarCamps. The confusion arises since each edition has a different planners’ mailing list. This allows for new faces to come up and olds ones to recede. The only criteria is demonstration of some degree of commitment for doing things. Usually turning up for a planning meet is enough. This time all commited folks got into the planners list and I guess more would be getting in.

Later Gauravonomics asked an interesting question:

“Has anyone read an Indian perspective on the “startups need workaholics”
controversy created by the @JasonCalacanis post http://xrl.in/mz ?”
“Especially because part of the controversy was about “family vs work”
& Indians are supposed to be both more hard-working &
family-oriented.”

The answer is a bit complicated actually when it comes to India. I thought of providing an overview of what’s happening today rather than my views (which are not very different from others! Relaxed mind produces better and more).

In silicon valley, one quits a large company and takes a cut in salary for stock/stock option. However, in India one joins a start up for a higher salary plus stock. This is in an extreme form in the Indian Mobile VAS industry where the average life span for an employee is about an year before s/he hops to another VAS player for higher cash. This means that the bosses do demand more work and results. This also means that the future holds little incentive and doesn’t drive people. Only the founders and very early employees tend to motivated by the future ahead.

On the other hand, the Indian family man (or woman) doesn’t have the same concept of work life balance as in US (and certainly not Europe!). Almost everyone here works long hours without any protest; start up or not. Its common to sit around in office even without work because it doesn’t look nice to leave early. Amongst younger folks, the real reason is that there is nothing better to do at home. Older folks just can’t say no the boss who asks for one more thing at 6 PM.

The end result: Long hours almost everywhere. But some are working hard for the extra cash, some because they are too timid to say no, some are not working at all!

Its not all bad at office though. Most of the early stage startup offices that I’ve visited seem to be a bunch of friends or a family. They get along very well and have fun together. They also have pizza parties, siesta time, movie outings etc. Later stage ones may compromise a bit on location for saving money but offices are quite plush and comfortable inside. People are taken care of.

I attended the panel discussion between Sharad and Ashish. The initial talk was something I had heard from both albeit in different settings. Both of them were very candid and frank in the Q&A. Sadly the questions were pretty bad. The worst was when a NITIE professor got into a self promotion mode by asking a question: why can’t entrepreneurship be taught from LKG? And then he told us about how they are very successful at doing so at NITIE where all MBA students have 30% grades dependent upon the performance of the company each has to start when they join. Not a bad idea. Just that success is measured using 30 parameters! He should probably refresh his corporate finance basics.

Another self congratulatory question was on how well have the IITians done in both India and abroad. Both panelist shot it down. In summary, IITians of an earlier generation made it to IITs and continued to do well later too because they were hungry. Training at an IIT had little do to with it. Today’s IITians don’t have the hunger and still have a big attitude problem. As Ashish put it, he doesn’t hire from IITs anymore. Pretty damning statement coming from someone who holds a Gold medal from IIT Kanpur.

This is something I completely agree with. The problem at IIMs is even worse. Lot more people with an attitude but not enough competency. I remember giving a project to 5 IIM students (will not name which IIM). Out of the 5, one did well, one was ok, rest three were bad. Sadly the three who didn’t do well had more attitude! Similarly, in tech projects given to 5 IIT B students in the same time frame, only one guy had some attitude. And one could even justify it given that he did well.

I would take an IIT guy over an IIM guy anyday given my personal experiences. But the experience of Sharad and Ashish who have seen it for far longer makes me think if I should just look at RECs.

This will be very interesting for me; being on both teams. Bangalore one is the larger, older and more mature one while Mumbai one is just starting out. Also Bangalore is a city where one can’t throw a stone without hitting a techie. In Mumbai, there is an mazing variety even though the financial world dominates the mindscape. With the schedules matched up too, it’ll be easier to observe and compare.

This also seems to be the time when techies reassert themselves. We’ve already had a Devcamp. Now both Barcamps are highly likely to have a codecamp as well.

I attended the Mumbai planners meet. The planners group has expanded to include several BCA1 folks and some folks from BCM2 participants. Looks like an awesome party already.

While I couldn’t stay at the camp the whole day (I’m in the plane waiting for the flight to take off), it already felt like a great camp. Content is good. I liked participating in the “Is facebook an Enterprise App” slot. We didn’t reach any conclusions but was nice to be hearing from Martin Fowler himself on this. He stayed away from most of the things but did comment that “enterprise grade” tends to be more of a marketing statement than anything else. Sadly, our time came to end just as we were warming up.

I missed Rajiv’s product launch. He caught me later and gave me the due lashing. Sounds like an interesting product to check out. Link to follow.

By the time u guys read this news, the body of Major Manish Pitambare, who was shot dead at Anantnag, would have been cremated with full military honors.
On Nov 27, this news swept across all the news channels ‘Sanjay Dutt relieved by court’. ‘Sirf Munna not a bhai’ ’13 saal ka vanvaas khatam’ ‘although found guilty for possession of armory, Sanjay can breath sigh of relief as all the TADA charges against him are withdrawn’ Then many personalities like Salman Khan said ‘He is a good person. We knew he will come out clean’. Mr Big B said “Dutt’s family and our family have relations for years he’s a good kid. He is like elder brother to Abhishek”. His sister Priya Dutt said “we can sleep well tonight. It ‘s a great relief”
In other news, Parliament was mad at Indian team for performing bad; Greg Chappell said something; Shah Rukh Khan replaces Amitabh in KBC and other such stuff. But most of the emphasis was given on Sanjay Dutt’s “phoenix like” comeback from the ashes of terrorist charges. Surfing through the channels, one news on BBC startled me. It read “Hisbul Mujahidin’s most wanted terrorist ‘Sohel Faisal’ killed in Anantnag, India . Indian Major leading the operation lost his life in the process. Four others are injured.
It was past midnight , I started visiting the stupid Indian channels, but Sanjay Dutt was still ruling. They were telling how Sanjay pleaded to the court saying ‘I’m the sole bread earner for my family’, ‘I have a daughter who is studying in US’ and so on. Then they showed how Sanjay was not wearing his lucky blue shirt while he was hearing the verdict and also how he went to every temple and prayed for the last few months. A suspect in Mumbai bomb blasts, convicted under armory act…was being transformed into a hero.
Sure Sanjay Dutt has a daughter; Sure he did not do any terrorist activity. Possessing an AK47 is considered too elementary in terrorist community and also one who possesses an AK47 has a right to possess a pistol so that again is not such a big crime; Sure Sanjay Dutt went to all the temples; Sure he did a lot of Gandhigiri but then………..
Major Manish H Pitambare got the information from his sources about the terrorists’ whereabouts. Wasting no time he attacked the camp, killed Hisbul Mujahidin’s supremo and in the process lost his life to the bullets fired from an AK47. He is survived by a wife and daughter (just like Sanjay Dutt) who’s only 18 months old.
Major Manish never said ‘I have a daughter’ before he took the decision to attack the terrorists in the darkest of nights. He never thought about having a family and he being the bread earner. No news channel covered this since they were too busy hyping a former drug addict, a suspect who’s linked to bomb blasts which killed hundreds. Their aim was to show how he defied the TADA charges and they were so successful that his conviction in possession of armory had no meaning. They also concluded that his parents in heaven must be happy and proud of him.
Parents of Major Manish are still living and they have to live rest of their lives without their beloved son. His daughter won’t ever see her daddy again. Finally Major Manish, to my generation is a greater hero, someone who laid his life in the name of this great nation.
So guys, please forward this message around so that the media knows which news to give importance, as it is a shame for us since this Army Major’s
death news was given by a foreign TV channel!!!

The wok is a versatile round-bottomed cooking vessel originating in China.

the wok is known as a wadjang, as kuali and kawali (small wok) in Malaysia, kawa (big wok) in the Philippines and kadai in India.

Obviously, not very exciting!

Next, I looked up Stirfry and that gave the kind of results I was looking for. Apparently, the technique followed at “All stir fry” is the Chao technique. And the one used at Yana is neither!

So the next time I see a place with a Wok, I know I need to ask whether they stir-fry or not and in what way!