Giampaolo Sbrogio, you are a super human !!!

I often wonder, how the human race continues to evolve stronger & stronger amid paramount corruption and wars around the world; shouldn’t we seize to exist?  Its sheer miracle or some invisible force that keeps us going and negating all bad vibes. What that force is? 

I found partial answer, when I met Mr. Giampaolo Sbrogio in Venice Italy this year.

Across faith, sect and religion, spiritual wisdom preaches victory of good over bad or angel over evil…. Probably world is full of unrecognized and not so popular people, who keep radiating positive energy that overcomes these evil forces and negativity;  They are in millions and can be found in every nooks and corner of the globe, they are the driving force behind our sustainability over corruption, war and human greed.   I prefer to call them super human.

Giampaolo is one of the, he is a super human for me and my family.   Here is small story, why…….

We (I along with my wife Deepshikha, my son Divit and my office colleague Anuradha) reached Venice on 21^st Oct 2016.  We availed Airbnb for accommodation and were staying in Moligano Vento, a small but very beautiful & peaceful town.   Only drawback for us was language barrier, hardly anyone speaks English there.

To visit Venice we use to catch train from Moligano Centro, which is about 45 min walk or 5 min bus journey from our apartment. Off course, we opted for bus, with 4 year old child, 45 min walk just to catch train was never in our agenda.

Good quality buses, always on time bus (one can adjust your watch as per their timing) and free of cost, we can’t ask for more or look for any other option; first two days all our travel (to & fro, from apartment to Centro) were on bus only.

On Sunday morning, we were at bus stop at 9:35 am. Exactly as we planned – to take 9:39 bus, so that we will be at Centro by 9:44, then go for breakfast at Gopiano Cafe and take 10:24 am train to Santalucia, Venice. 

All happy and ready to roll, we started clicking photos and my son was busy playing with pebbles near to the bus stop. After 10 minutes we realize bus has not arrived yet, first we stopped clicking photo, then in next 5 min with growing anxiety all of us referred to time table one by one. In next 5 min, we sensed that something is wrong today; to confirm our fear an elderly lady somehow informed us that on Sunday no bus ply.   What more, no taxi service either.  

My watch was showing its 10:02 am and we are yet to figure it out how to reach Centro; to add to our trouble, mobile data of all 3 phones were consumed, so no phone and no internet.   We tried to take lift, it was 18^th Car, which passed by, but no response to our lift request, may be in Italy there can be a different sign for lift.

Imagine, you are in the middle of a town, were no one speaks English, you have no phone or internet and there is no bus or taxi service, and your destination is 45 min by walk (if you walk fast) and you have a kido with you.   

After sometime, a young man with his strong pet was on morning walk (yeah, pleasant weather out there allow one to go for walk or jog any hour of day).    He sensed we were in trouble and asked if we need some help.  With help of sign language and common words, we could explain our situation; he made 2 – 3 calls, first to enquire about bus service, then to Taxi Company, then to his friends as what can be done.  But nothing could be arranged, all response were negative.  People of such a peaceful, beautiful & easy going life must be wondering, why on the earth people would want to spend a Sunday roaming around here and there. 

The young man, thought for few seconds then looked at his watch, thought for few more seconds and finally said – “You wait here for 10 min, I am coming with my car”; those words were a music for my ear.

In next 7 minutes, he was there with his car, no pet around though.  He want back, probably said sorry to his pet for not continuing the walk, took his car and arrived at bus stop in the fastest possible time.  And at 10:22 am, we were at train station and were able to catch the train just on time.

While thanking him, we connected over facebook, technology is another miracle, even though, my train was about to arrive in 2 min we could connect over FB.  In no time, he could search me on FB and sent friendship request. Now, I am proud friend of Giampaolo.

To us, it was no less than a miracle. In foreign land, uncommon language, unknown people, still you will always find people ready to help… unconditionally.  They are truly super human, Giampaolo is a super human.

Thanks buddy, not just to help us but to deepen my belief on good deed and humanity. God bless you.

Certificate Or knowledge !!!!

Today, we can see many technology startups around us who are trying to follow the Agile methodology for software development. But are they really doing it in the right way?  Most of us mainly go through some blog, article and book or learn/hear from here and there and start doing our own scrum, but this approach is not very useful.      To know exact scrum, one has to go through scrum certification, which cost around $500, plus most of such certification program organizes outside Pune (mostly Bangalore), so over the program fee, one have to bear the logistic expenses also.  To learn and getting certified, actual cost go around 40-50 thousand. 

Certification is useful for someone who is looking for getting Job as scrum master.  But for startups aim is not to get the job, but to do the job.  To do job properly, one have to have good knowledge of scrum (certificate is optional).  ? If you are one such startup and find yourself lacking in the skills used to implement Scrum you need to attend this seminar which is going to be held on 6^th and 7^th October 2012.

Arnab Saha and his team are here to present you with a USP – Uncertified Scrum+ Professional. You might be wondering what this is. Actually, USP is a series of seminars started by these two IT gurus to help you understand the real meaning of Scrum. That too at a very cost effective price, only Rs. 6500/-.

In this two daylong seminar organized by IDYeah labs, you will get to know the right way to implement Scrum from experts who have a collective experience of over 20 years in the IT industry.

For more details, contact – 9823 403 832 (Arnab) or mail at experiment@idyeahlabs.com

The rise and fall of DOSA PLAZA

No, this blog doesn’t talk about success or failure of Dosa Plaza (speciality food chain, which serve over 106 types of Dosa).... I am not an expert to write on such issue.   This blog is just an expression of a loyal customer, who is now more than disappointed with distorting services of this potential food chain.

In 2006-07, I first got chance to try dosa of Dosa plaza; when its Kothrud outlet had just opened.  I became fan of this place, in my very first visit.  Good interior (not luxurious, but definitely trendy and hygienic), well mannered and uniformed service staffs, competitive price, wide range of dosas in menu card, and biggest thing – ultimate taste.   It was sure winner, so it did.   In subsequent visit, I tried almost all of them, from traditional to experimental one (Mexican and American stuffing dosa); but Garlic roast is my favourite, and it was a consistent order in my all visits to all its outlets (they had couple of, at Mumbai-Pune expressway as well).    With time, somehow I could not visit any Dosa plaza outlet for few years. I can think of two reasons; first, I moved to pimple Saudagar, where it does not have any outlet nearby, second, now a day’s new entrepreneurs keep on starting new food chain – so I was busy trying them.  

On 28^th July (Saturday), I along with couple of my friends was going to Mumbai; as usual, we stopped at food court near khapoli.   We hungry souls were desperately checking out food outlets to decide what to eat, and guess what – Dosa plaza ....   a momentarily happiness in heart, which fade away by  looking at the condition of outlet, extremely ill managed and dirty, torn posters, poor lighting... looking like roadside food stall.   Ignoring its state, and rude (read not so polite) behaviour of service staff, we decided to go with it, off course Garlic roast was in order list.    In next 10 min, we were served with one of the worst dosa I ever had, partly burned, no taste, it was somewhere between yuk and thhuuu..... anything but eatable.     I got the reasoning of ill state of its existing outlets, and no new outlet in any new area........

Now, this is not going off my mind, once it was so good and... only in few years time.. it’s nothing but a disappointment.   I wish it bounced back and control its quality and may manage its expansion; but first thing first, Dosa plaza may survive.

Boulevard – visit at your risk and with expectation as low as possible

The Orchid five star ecotel hotel at Pune is unique in its own way;  its probably only star hotel where you find – mosquitoes and loud music in coffee bar, cooler instead of AC, and so on.... while missing items are valet parking, coffee menu in menu card of coffee bar and off course hospitality.  In one word this place can be best described as “Sarkari”- good infrastructure with pathetic service.

I love late night coffee at 24 hour cafes, mostly in star hotels, and being an entrepreneur, I have to do it frequently and have visited various star hotels and their cafes in almost every major tier I & II cities of India.    Common thing in all such cafes is their relaxed ambience (perfect temperature AC, no loud music and well mannered service) and they all serve coffee in coffee jar with ceramic cups – so that one can enjoy hot coffee for quite long time and chit chat.  

As I said “The Orchid” is unique in its own way.   We (me along with some friends) entered its well decorated coffee bar “Boulevard” and surprised to see that in place of AC there was air-cooler with constant annoying sound. Soon they start playing music – as laud as CCDs.  No mention of any coffee related product in menu card, surprised us further – when  I enquired about same with service staff – he simply (read rudely) said – what if it is not in menu, you ask, we will serve coffee...

They off course served it – but again in their own unique way – cold coffee was anything but cold.  Hot coffee too was served in cup and saucer, no coffee jar to keep it hot, hint was very clear “finish it ASAP”.   This time we were not surprised to find that coffee was steamed, the one that usually served in parties for huge gathering – “Fatafat coffee”. A birthday party was going on in conference hall of hotel, so it might be outsourced.   And then final nail in coffin, soon some mosquitoes joined us.

You can visit “Boulevard”, but definitely on your own risk and keep expectation as low as possible.

Travel time sucks…. I almost missed my flight, because of them

Preface -

My flight to Delhi from Pune was scheduled at 10:20 pm; as airlines wisely request travelers to be present at least 45 min prior to schedule departure, I planned to be there by 9:30.  Keeping in mind the 35-40 minute commute time from my flat to airport, I decided to book a cab at 8:45.   I called travel time traveling service around quarter to eight and booked my cab accordingly.  A polite call executive confirmed my booking and assured that driver will call me by 8:15 pm (30 before booked time), I will also get a SMS confirming my booking along with driver name, number and cab details.  

Actual Drama

All my bags were packed and I was fully prepared well before time.   By 8:20, I neither get call from driver nor any SMS,  I called them, and they assured me that driver will call by 8:30, he didn’t.  I called them again, and they said driver is on the way, very near to my flat and will call in next 5 min, he didn’t.    Frustrated me, called them again , and they again assured me driver will be there by 8:45 (in next 5 minute) and will call you up, he didn’t.   Finally I call my friend ‘SOS’, help me to reach airport; in no time he was in my society, and I was sitting next to him in his car, watch was showing 9:02.  Just to check, I called travel time again and said – “I had a booking at 8:45, and cab never came ” , in response, call executive politely said – “sir, your booking is still there, and driver is about to reach your place and will next 5 minutes driver will call you” he didn’t J.   

At the end

Finally, somehow I reached airport exactly at 9:40, and with pleasant surprise, they allow me to check-in without any exchange of words.  Since at the end I was able to catch my flight, I was about to forget travel time experience, but out of curiosity I check their review on yahoo local (http://in.local.yahoo.com/pune/traveltime-car-rental-pvt-ltd-e1f56f17e433cddac69e3f5e04914bc1/ ) and happy to know that I am not the sole victim of their pathetic service.  They are constant travel maker to many customers.  Thanks to God, I am on board.

I really appreciate extreme politeness of call executive, every time I called them, sometimes it seems like shamelessness (smiling even after screwing up everything); they must be feeling same way about me as well.  I wish I should called them up around 10 and check if drive is still on the way, I am sure they had responded that – driver will call in next 5 minute. J

एक ख्वाहिश अनेक ख्वाहिश

एक नजम जड़ सकू, बस इतनी ख्वाहिश है |

एक नब्ज जुड़ जाएगी, खुद-ब-खुद ख्वाहिशो के ||

दिल के शीशे में कोई, यो ही उतर आती है - Ghazal

दिल के शीशे में कोई, यो ही उतर आती है |

बन के परछाई मेरी, बात लिख के जाती है ||

कोशिशे करता हूँ फिर भी न चला, एक भी अक्षर उसका |

लगता शब्दों को स्वयं आँक, गजले गुनगुनाती है ||

चाहता हूँ की पकड़ पूछ लू, वह धुंध में आने का सबब |

जब थम - कदम बढाता हूँ, वो घूम के नट जाती है ||

मैं इधर चैन को बैचेन रहा, कौन क्या जाना क्या आना है |

देखते - देखते वह छाया, झट से मुकर जाती है ||

The rescuer of Life

They save life for charity; in the last 10 years they have carried out over 300 rescue operation around Lonavala and Khandala valley, saved hundreds of lives, they are God sent for the people who get stuck in Valley, Lake & dam due to an accident or natural disaster. They also rescue reptiles (catch snakes, rescue them and then send them back to deep forest). They do it out of passion and interest, free of cost, a purely for charity. The members of Shivadurga Mitra adventure club are real life heroes. This inside story is D2I’s salute to them, their act of bravery and unique charity of saving life.

Shivadurga Mitra adventure club was founded in the year 1980 by Mr. Sunil Gaikwad; with the vision and aim of promoting trekking, rappelling and other adventure sports for people in Lonavala. From the very beginning the club used to teach adventure sports to the school children at no cost and they are still doing so in schools. In mid 90s, the next generation of the club started participating actively in various other activities. And over the time activity list of Shivadurga club grew from Trekking, repelling, rock climbing, valley crossing etc. to survival camping, archery, shooting to special & customised training programs for corporate and government agencies.

Young and energetic members like Sunil Gaikwad and Ashok mate, completed basic courses from NIM, further added new horizon to this club.

In 2000 out of interest and passion, they started rescuing the accident victims in and around Lonavala- Khandala valley. On an average every year they do around 30-35 rescue operations in dense forest, to deep valley and under water (Dam & Lakes).

The valley in the Lonavala-Khandala is around 3000 feet deep and quite accident prone especially in the rainy season. After an accident if someone gets stuck in the valley then the rescue team either comes from Mumbai or Pune; the major damages occurs prior to their arrival, immediate help is needed in most of the accidents. Sunil, Ashok and few more like minded youngsters decided to start rescuing operation by then. With very little resource and equipment, in the year 2000 they started rescuing the accident victims in and around Lonavala Ghat. They do not charge anything for it, they even bought all the equipments and gears required for such rescue operations themselves. All the earnings of Shivdurga Mitra Adventure Club are being spent for these purposes, they even put their saving. It was shear passion and feeling to help, keeps them going. By 2005 Shivdurga Mitra became a reliable and famous entity. Even the Police started to contact them for rescue operations. They became top choice for cops and life saver for victims. On an average every year they carry out around 30-35 rescue operation.

After 2005, they started to maintain the record of operations and related activity. Now they are a 200 member strong team. The rescue horizon too expands from valley to lakes and dams. From dense forest, to deep valley to under water, they started rescuing everywhere. It was not only geographical horizon of Shivdurga which was expanding, they also started rescuing snakes.

They catch snakes, rescue them from people and later let them free into the deep forest. To promote it, they have started courses on identifying snake, their poisonous characteristic and how to catch them, and how to survive if a poisonous snake bites you, etc.

They also train the cadets of Force One, for repelling, valley crossing and rock climbing. On 26^th November 2009, on the mark on one year of terror attack on Mumbai, the cadets of Force One demonstrated their preparation to fight terror. An important portion of this drill was trained by Shivadurga club.

From members count to rescue operations to activities and their passion to their popularity, everything is growing up. The only thing which is still in bad shape, are their finances. Members are running this noble organisation on their own; its parent club which organises various adventure sports too is less of a business establishment and more of a charitable institution. Their most of programs are to promote the activity and free training for locals and the underprivileged; very few camps and activities earn them the much needed money. Time to time they get support from local business houses, but still they are way behind what they should be in terms of the finances.

Finance has never been their vision, idea and aim, and they continue rescuing people while betting on their own life out of passion and will. They not only conduct adventure games, and rescue work, they are also promoting sports and culture among youth in a big way. Shivadurga Mitra Mandal is in true sense serving the society.

Doors2India salute the brave hearts of Maharashtra.

“This blog was originally published in blog.d2i.in as inside story of Shivadurga mitra mandal, Lonavala; republishing here with permission from D2i team”

Pune's journey back to being - City of Bicycles

Everything has its own cost, so did Pune paid, for its growth. From pensioners paradise to paradise lost; from city of bicycle to city of motorcycle, Pune kept changing its identity with industrial & IT development.

Back in the late nineties, a health & environment friendly group of visionary Puneties formed a group “Pune Cycle Prathisthan” to promote cycling and regain its lost identity. Started with 15 - 20 people; this group has now over 3000 members. On 5^th June 2010, Pune’s Pedal Power had organised a cycle ride to celebrate world environment day and over 1200 people turned up for it. It’s a strong evident of growing passion among Puneites for cycling. Especially in the last few months (After opening of Life Cycle, India’s largest cycle mall) cycling has become a movement in Pune.

This inside story is an attempt to salute the passionate cyclists, who are pursuing rides which are in real sense healthy, adventurous as well as environment friendly. Our pre-investigation finds that Mr. Nachiket Joshi (of Life cycle and Zen of cycling, a cyclists group) is one of the main contributors who are helping achieve Pune its lost identity of ‘City of Bicycles’; and for this reason we contacted him for more inside scoop on the same. This inside story is based on the conversation of D2I-Mag team with him.

Young, energetic and dynamic entrepreneur Nachiket is a passionate cyclist. This passion is in his blood, his father Mr. Ulhas joshi (he is founder of Life cycle) is a big time cyclist and has organised & participated in numerous cycling ride in India and abroad and go to Himalaya on cycle ride almost every year. Nachiket’s interest in cycling goes back to his childhood, but like many other youngsters his first love too was motor-bike. In 2007, he was in a group of four riders who went to Goa from Pune on Bike (for biking adventure) and unfortunately they met with an accident. With no major physical damage, it was a close shave for him. His father Ulhas said – “If you really want to enjoy riding adventure, try a ride with us”. Ulhas along with Dr. Dilip Dhawan had formed “Cycle Premi Group” in 2006 which Nachiket join. Started with 2 members, the group has now grown to over 1400 members and is known as Zen of cycling (to know more about it, visit www.zenofcycling.com). In 2010 only over 700 people joined it.

Turning Point

In Early 2008, cycle Premi group had organised a Konkan cycle ride, and around 60 people participated, most of them were first timers and coming from the IT sector. This event got huge mouth to mouth publicity over the mail, social networking sites and blogs. Nachiket realised the power of IT; with this media he can effectively promote the message of cycling and its event to the masses. And from then onwards Zen of cycling is organising frequent cycle rides and with effective promotion of events more and more people are joining.

Frequent rides

Zen of cycle organises cycle ride almost every week. On first Sunday of every month a cycle ride from Deccan gymkhana to city area, aims to convey the message to the PMC that cyclist exist and they need a dedicated road for them. A special ride on third Sunday of every month is normally a long distance (40 – 60 KM) ride around Pune. It also organises many similar rides and practice rides for Himalaya or tough expeditions. Breakfast, support vehicle and thing for all the safety measures are provided by members only. If you have never been to any such ride, then one must attend one, it is highly recommended by Doors2India.

Many Groups one destination

Ride 2026, Pedal Power, NIBM Cycle Group, Zen of cycling, etc; when we asked why so many cycle groups. Nachiket explains (with a gentle smile, which he always posses) actually there is only one group “Pune cycle Prathisthan (PCP)” and all these group are part of it. We can say sub group of main organisation to promote and organise cycling ride in a particular region. Like NIBM cycle group is active in Kondarwa, Hadapsar area, Zen of cycling is active in Peth, Swardate, Kothrud, Katraj area, Ride 2026 in Aundh area and so on. There are many more groups of 4-5 people, who enjoy their cycling in their group but all are under PCP, and actively participated in PCP events. It’s like there may be many religions, with their own set of rules, but all are in union with God. Here too there are many cycling group and all are part of the PCP only.

Life cycle

On 26^th January 2010, Life cycle (India’s largest cycle mall) opened its first mall at Tilak road, Pune. With over 6000 sq. foot of area, it sells imported cycle and cycling gears of all major brands. It has cycles of ranges start from INR 6,500 to 5.5 lakhs. From common man, to politicians to Bollywood stars; cycling lover from all sector are its client. Life cycle does numerous things to promote cycling along with many social activities. Keep following inside story segment of Doors2India, we are very soon going to Publish a dedicated inside story of Life Cycle.

Cycling movement after life cycle

Life cycle sells around 150 cycles a month which in turn is actually addition of 150 more cycling enthusiasts. He promotes the upcoming events among them, and most of them turn up for the ride; after all cycling is probably only ride which is healthy, adventurous and environmental friendly too. Since Life Cycle’s inception, it has become the main catalyst for increase in the cycling activity in and around Pune. With frequent events, region wise small group, availability of world class cycle & required gears/equipment, along with workshops and free consultation; the whole cycling movement in Pune is break free now. And once again Pune may soon be known as City of Bicycles.

“This blog was originally published in blog.d2i.in as inside story of Zen of Cycling; republishing here with permission from D2i team”

Ice Cream made of spices !!!

Who doesn’t like to add a bit of spice to one’s life ? The spice loving Indians & videshis are going to love the unqiue concept of spicing up their ice creams too !!

An unconventional & unconvincing idea, calculated risk and wonderful execution are the ingredients that make `Spice Cream’ a reality ! Did any of us think that the famed Indian spices could be blended with ice creams and relished by people ?

Indian food has been traditionally known to have the heady flavor of spices, then why should ice creams be left out ? says co-founder and man behind this idea, Siddharth Shirole.

Our D2I Team tasted these innovative ice creams and were found to be yearning for more !

What an idea, Guruji !

It was in Oct’09, when Siddartha with his family were in Indore to meet their spiritual Guruji. Guruji threw an idea in the form of a question – did anyone of you ever try blending Indian spices with ice cream ? Gentle laugh, was the first reaction by everyone ! For some, it was like a joke, while for others it was a thought-provoking point. But for Siddartha, this was the inception of a concept which was soon going to create its own identity.

The Evolution !

After the Indore trip, the idea given by his Guruji was churning in Siddartha’s mind & heart. He shared this idea and discussed the feasibility with almost all ice cream vendors known to him, but the Idea enthralled none. The initial disappointment did not stop him from exploring further and one fine day he convinced his maternal aunt to experiment. She made normal homemade ice cream with Milkmaid and added cloves to it ! It tasted good & different and thus the first ever `spice cream’ was born !!

This encouraged Siddartha and convinced him to conduct multiple trials to evolve new spice flavors. With a vision to realize its potential, now Siddartha started hunting for a place to put the concept into action. He zeroed on the Sabree restaurant (which is one of most popular Maharashtrian restaurants in Pune & owned by Siddartha’s family) and soon enough, he started to experiment on spice creams along with the Master Chef there.

The next 2 months (Nov-Dec 2009) were spent in serving various spice creams to Sabree customers on complimentary basis and taking their feedback. The idea was to analyse each feedback carefully, work on the suggestions & complaints and serve the improved spice creams again. This went on for the next two months and helped to evolve many flavors.

The Launch

Fully convinced with this idea, Siddhartha’s friend Jay Joshi joined this venture and whole process accelerated further. Finally in January 2010, they set up their manufacturing plant at Gokhle Nagar, Pune. And now the spice cream was all set for the commercial sales from the Sabree and Sharvaree restaurants !

For next 2¹/₂ months, they continued taking feedback and using it to modify the flavors. They added spices with fruits, spices with traditional ice cream flavors and gradually they had 20 flavors well accepted by customers from all age groups.

This gave them the confidence to go main stream and launch the brand. On 16^th March’10, the Zayka Spice Cream opened its first outlet at __________ on F.C. Road and followed this with the second outlet at __________, Kothrud on 16^th May’10.

Truely Indian

The theme of both the outlets is distinctly Indian - the interiors, Lantern shaped lights & hut shaped cash counter, traditional wooden serving bowls & spoon, which all help blend the spice creams with the traditional Indian aura.

The Spice Merchants

The biggest challenge for the Zayka Spice Creams now is to make the idea acceptable & palatable to a larger population of Pune. The Puneites who have tasted these spice creams have found the concept interesting. The very fact that the Pune citizens are quite urbane across the age groups, is what keeps the motivated. They are convinced that the mouth-to-mouth publicity will also help them.

Apart from these 2 outlets, the spice cream is now served at 4 different restaurants in Pune, including Nawab and Daalchini.

Siddhartha says ”the best part is that the spice creams are not just liked by Indians but the foreigners too are relishing the taste and that’s why the demand from Koregoan park area remains the highest”.

Taste Control

Apart from the spice cream catering that has picked up, spice cream is now aiming to set 4 more outlets by the summer of 2011. In Pune, all spice creams are produced at their Ghokhle Nagar plant, but to ensure the flavor & taste remain the same at all outlets outside Pune also, they have completely standardized the manufacturing process and even applied for the intellectual property rights too. The next step is to set up a franchisee outlet in New Delhi.

The Spice Dream

Spice cream hopes to establish a pan India presence and Siddhartha strongly believes that spice cream can create ice cream revolution in Europe and USA. You got it there ! His dream is to launch the spice creams in the European and American markets.

Give it a try, buddy !

The yummy Spice Creams are priced at just ` 35 a scoop. Needless to say, D2I strongly recommends everyone to try the spice creams, with the “honey-clove-daalchini” flavor being the D2I pick !

“This blog was originally published in blog.d2i.in under inside story of Jayka Spice Cream; republishing here with permission from D2i team”

why D2i (Doors2India)

Why d2i ?

“You love to do the things, which add purpose to your passion”

Why d2i? This was definitely not the first question when we planned to create d2i. It got its purpose with time.

Initially it was fuelled by our passion in the fields of EAT, DO (hobby ideas) & VISIT. d2i just provided purpose to our passion, and that’s why we love it !

And as the significance in the name “Doors to India” suggests, we wanted our users to enter and explore the many facets of India in terms of EAT, DO (hobby ideas) & VISIT.

There are many web portals, which offer information on eateries; in fact whenever I try to search or Google for eateries in Pune or Delhi, the search results upto the 3^rd page end up displaying results and reference to another portal.

It implies that there were at least 30 portals offering infotainment services and the results definitely surprised me. But there were two things which surprised (read disappointed) me even more; first, the fact that almost all of them had more or less same & very limited info; and second, all or most of them had info either of only eateries or of everything in the world, from real estate to insurance product. It’s like over 30 portals which are mere classified or yellow pages but claiming themselves to be infotainment.

You could blame it on our (my fellow founders/thinkers & I) disappointment with ‘this too little info in too diversified a sector’, that compelled us to visualise a true infotainment portal. We didn’t want to try to be

next Google local or plain Just Dial of the world.

So that’s how the concept of a dedicated portal limiting to EAT, DO and VISIT segment in a city was born, with a vision to offer detailed information of the `places to EAT’, `things to DO’ and `places to VISIT’ in a city, without the malaise of the info being stale &/or unverified, as was our experience with the existing portals.

We conceptualised a portal which could provide verified & interesting info on all sorts of ethical entertainment in a city. And Yes, the data was to be supported with images and more importantly, reviewed by experts ! This, along with interesting facts in form of articles & inside stories; events and offering of the places or venue, was to add value to the users.

When this idea germinated way back in 2008, we started to build a structure, classifying the category for EAT, DO & VISIT and portal’s offering, etc. The biggest challenge was, of course, Data collection.

Our experience was that most data/info on the net was either limited or stale and also skipped most small but interesting joints. So we evolved a multi-pronged strategy for data assimilation – from trawling through the net as well as out-sourcing the data collection to a competitive agency, to ground surveys & visiting the venues, and ultimately managing the whole activity by our own.

It surely took a few hit and trials before we gradually developed a process of fast & efficient collection & verification of data.

Going by the spirit of high speed parallel computing, we simultaneously burnt a lot of midnight oil (more likely to be many precious units of electricity !) to work on the design of our infotainment portal and it was only after 7^th version that we actually got convinced to start coding.

There were multiple rounds of discussion, debate and also pressure from other stake holders of d2i, but end product didn’t satisfy us and thus, we put off the launch.

In fact, we developed the whole portal and scrapped it totally not once, but three times and finally it was 10^th internal version which was launched released on 1^st April ’10 ! Now, who would select such a date for the launch ?! Passion driven Entrepreneurs are fools, so we choose 1^st April or `Fools Day’ to launch `Doors to India’ the portal with Pune.

And being proud & patriotic Indians, we added Delhi/NCR to an improved version of d2i on 15^th August’10, India’s Independence Day.

Our next target is to add the happening cities of Mumbai, Goa, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, & Bangalore by March’11.

But once again we are not jumping the gun and not rushing to create quantity. Our prime focus is to achieve a high level of satisfaction in d2i and its content. We need to first to establish d2i as a truely infotainment portal, which was what we had set out to create !

The feedback that we are getting from our users, not just those who are clicking & exploring d2i but also from those who have actually visited the joints & places listed in our pages, is what keeps us motivated !!

We see no point in getting into a race to max the number of cities on our portal. We are sure that with time, our passion -coupled with the unique Indian spirit of our users in exploring new ideas , will help to answer why d2i ?

“This blog was originally published in blog.d2i.in in mid 2010; republishing here with permission from D2i team”

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं - Ghazal

ये तो पहली नज़र का प्यार है

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं |

मेरे दिल की तारीफ तुमसे है

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं |

मेरी छाया नहीं तुम हो मेरी

है ख्याब या ये है यकीं |

ये तो पहली नज़र का प्यार है

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं |

हो फूल या कली खिली

न सवाल अब, तो है यकीं |

ये तो पहली नज़र का प्यार है

तुम्हे हो यकीं या न यकीं |

Pimple Saudagar: One step forward and two steps backward

I am lucky, that I booked my flat in mid-2007 @2075/- per sq foot. Today rate is skyrocketing at 4000-4200. People who purchased here, way back in 2005-06 (then rate was around 1000-1500) are making killing. All thanks to its location (close to Hinjewadi, Aundh and Pimpri) and continuity of IT boom. As per an independent survey and estimation, in last 4 years around 60,000 people have chosen Pimple Saudagar as their dwelling/investment destination.

This big migration of people brings prosperity and life style. Four year back the whole area wise one of the fertile agricultural land; now gradually becoming one of the posh residential areas of Pune. High rise societies, modern restaurant, lounge, all big brand shop and services (all essential daily needs) is available at the door step; big malls and multiplexes are on the card.

Only trader, builder and early investor are not making money out of this prosperity; it’s PCMC, the biggest beneficiary of all. Property and other taxes, making it further richer (It’s already one of richest Municipal Corporation in India). Good thing is that PCMC too is playing its part, trying to provide all necessary infrastructures. A six lane main road is under construction, which will connect Nasik phata to Dange chowk, BRTC is planned, event the roads in side lanes and very wide and well planned, in a year or two the road infrastructure will be remarkable with planned footpath, all sort of underground cables, street light, etc. PCMC environment friendly norms compel builder to make their society green enough, which will make the area even more beautiful.

It was the one side of coin, which say we are moving one step forward (towards prosperity and healthy lifestyle), let’s asses other side –

Things were going good till the PCMC came up with the idea of open Nullah (rain water drainage). Rain water drainage is necessary as rain water will flow with wide web of roads all across the Pimple. It’s planned that all rain water will be diverted to Pawna River. As per Nullah plan, it was passing through some of residential societies. The builders of such societies proactively built underground pipeline for rain water drainage, and most of them got the completion certificate from PCMC on this ground.

Now, PCMC suddenly decided to go for Open nullah (instead of pipeline, as per earlier plan), and dig most of existing pipeline and making it open to sky. The world is moving toward better living with the enhancement of technology, but the PCMC is taking two steps backward with open nullah; one step back by making it opens to sky, and second step back by removing the existing pipeline.

Pipelines were not only easy to maintain, it was also offering enough real estate, where builders can build, garden or parking space. Open nullah is tend to get dirty with time; and since most of them are 10-14 feet deep, and builder of nearby society is further creating 8-10 feet high wall around it, so effective depth of nullah will be 18-24 feet, it will be extremely difficult to clean it (rather impossible). It looks bad too.

Residents are puzzled and yet to understand the logic behind open to sky nullah. To decode this puzzle, they went to area’s corporator. Like all other politician, he too assured that it will be taken care of, and ask resident to pressurize their builders to meet him, but all builders said no to this. The corporator wants to meet builder and builders are reluctant to meet, both are doing so to safeguard their own vested interest. If both party could meet, and come up with some compromising (and not so compromising) formula, then things may take a good shape.

Meanwhile, open nullah has already been excavated all around the Pimple Saudagar. The big blot on the future prosperity and beautification of the area is taking two steps backward, and we the residents, are enjoying this “tamasha”. After all such things are common to “common man”.

Thought Plan Action

Light (a small pause), camera (another small pause), Action........ probably the most common sentence used by movie directors; what implies here that there must be something before any action. This something can be anything - preparation, planning, impulsion or compulsion; I am not sure about it. All I am sure, is fact that Thought is mother of all action (please do not confuse with reaction). First come thought then come action.... then reaction, result, interference etc. etc., whatever.

Newton says ‘there is equal and opposite reaction of every action’, if Newton says it must be true. (Actually its true for physical actions, but in the IT era, people are more interest in beyond physical activity like virtual act, strategy, decision making etc) Every action leads to something whether opposite or in same direction is surely true. And if we place PLAN in between thought and action, the reaction will definitely be in same direction. And that’s why THOUGHT.... PLAN....ACTION is as essential (phrase) for leaders as light-camera-action for movie directors.

I am interested in this phrase, as this is name of my blog. And now it’s time for big confession - this title is not my brain child, rather this is a copy. Sunny (one of my best friend) told me about his maternal uncle Mr. Aviral Singh (A very humble and brilliant person), that name of his blog is though-plan-action. I liked the name right away. And later searched in blog spot and over the net to read his blogs, but could not find it since he changed his blog name

http://viewsfromawindow.wordpress.com/ Without spending a minute I registered for thoughtplanaction.blogspot.com

Thanks Sunny.

"This post was originally written and published for my blog ThoughtPlanAction.blogspot.com; later I merged I my blogs"

Train is running late by 6 hours

It’s 3:30 am and I am sitting in the AC-class waiting room of Allahabad railway station; waiting for my train to Daltonganj (my home town) which was scheduled at 11:08 pm. Train is running late by 6 hours and now expected to come at 5:08 am morning. I and my wife (Deep) are on the way from Pune to Daltonganj (by train) for last 32 hours and journey is expected to take another 9 hours. Am enjoying it; with sleepy eyes, shaken body and heapache (pain in buttock) due to sitting on single heap for last 6 hours in this overcrowded waiting hall. Deep is sleeping on the bench. All the faces around me is tired looking and in semi sleeping state. I already finished a book and then a movie on my laptop, thanks to railway department for providing the sufficient number of power plugs to charge everyone’s mobile phones and laptops. But somehow I am enjoying it; after all journeys is real destination.

Till 10:20 pm there was no announcement of delay, we reached Allahabad exactly on time at 9 pm and settled down in waiting room at platform no. 1. Finished our dinner and were preparing to leave for platform no. 4. Then the recorded voice attracted our attention when it called our train number – “2878 is running late by 4 hours”, after a while it announced for 4 and a half hours and finally 6 hours announcement came. I am not the unluckiest one, a gentleman sitting next to me waiting for his train since morning 11; 12 hours prior to me. Probably tomorrow I will be able to know the reason why almost all the trains are running late, specially the one coming from Delhi, may be fog. But here in Allahabad it is not that cold.

When I was planning my tickets I had multiple options or rather did not have any convenience option to choose from. First there is no direct train from Pune to Daltonganj, for that matter to any place nearby. Second minimum journey time is around 40 hours and may go up to 48 hours depending on route and trains, so the selection of route is very important, also most of trains run once or twice a week, so we have to plan the trip every time. With two days of brain storming along with elder brother Binay, finally I decided to go via Jabalpur; as it was the only route where I had to change the train only once, In all other possible route. Only problem here is there is a gap of 10 hours in the arrival time of our train to Jabalpur (from Pune) and the train to Daltonganj. Train starts at 8:55 pm and reaches Jabalpur by 1:50 pm next day (in 17 hours) and then at 11:40 pm in night we have train to Daltonganj. Still somehow I thought this is the best way. One can imagine if the route which has a gap to 10 hours is the best route then how horrible the other possible options are. Albeit while booking the ticket (on internet) I realise that if I don’t leave the train in Jabalpur and continue to Allahabad, I will reach there by 9 pm and at 11:10 (after 2 hours) we have super fast train to Daltonganj, which will take another 6 hours. I calculated the time again and confirm myself that yes only 32 hours; Eureka. Some where my sixth sense was not allowing me to choose it and instructing me to stick to original plan, as it was familiar to me. But I thought, why not try something new. After all change is the second most beautiful thing in the life (most beautiful thing of life is life itself, no doubt about it). So I decided for eureka.

Believe it or not but in last 48 hours I got multiple hints that I should alter my ticket and should happily stick back to the original plan. But none can change the destiny. And I am here, writing this piece of blog and watching my wife ‘Deep’ in her deep sleep. Girls really look even more beautiful while sleeping, even in discomfort position like one on the bench of waiting hall. But bottom line is I am enjoying it and thanks to God, train is still only 6 hour delayed.

Name Qonta

What is meaning of Qonta? This is the most frequent question we have gone through in last one year. The first reaction is always a smile on our face.

For us it’s a dream, so meaning of Qonta for us is ‘dream comes true’. But people are neither interested in our smile nor in what it’s meaning for us, they want straight, dictionary meaning of it. Albeit English dictionary cannot help (as it is not an English word); it is Sanskrit (one of the oldest language of the world). These days Qonta (pronounce as Kon-ta) is most frequently used in Magdhi (a lingo of ancient Magadh region, and today’s Jharkhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh region). Usage meaning of konta is ‘the corner’ (I am not sure about dictionary meaning).

The day Manjit expressed his idea of a city based web- portal which may turn up as an IT company, I agreed and asked Kunal and Naveen (our colleagues in Kanbay) to join us. Me, Manjit, Naveen and Kunal used to spend our whole office hours together, so our team members have nick named us – GOF (Gang of four), we really were GOF. So Naveen and Kunal were always the first choice as partner. Unfortunately that could not happen, but they always supported us whole heartedly.

In kanbay we were always eager to discuss and plan our idea (Idea of Qonta). But the idea and plan was secret to rest of team. To keep our secret a secret, we were looking for a nickname. As we always prefer any corner place to discuss, we started to call it Qonta – ‘let’s go to Qonta’. And that’s how name Qonta came into existence. We cherished the nickname so much (as it helped us in initial planning), we decided to name our dream company QONTA.

“This blog was originally published at myqonta.blogspot.com which is official blog of Qonta”

I GOT AN IDEA

When I was in 8^th standard; one fine day our teacher asked the class - What is the most important thing to start a business? Class came up with variety of answers – most of us voted for ‘capital’, few were with ‘infrastructure’ like transport and power supply, a few said that ‘desire’ while some of us were with ‘demand’. I (and only me) said – IDEA. Few classmates laughed at my idea of Idea as a most essential thing for business (I think the laugh was fair for 8^th standard level). But teacher was looking for this answer. And after word IDEA came on black board, the teacher resumed the session.

For long time I used to believe that Idea is first thing to start a venture, only when I reached BIT (my Alma meter) to pursue my B.E. I realised Idea is second thing one need to start a venture/business. The first thing is BELIEF. Belief on self and on idea is key of the lock (we called luck, which is third most essential thing for venture). [Wow here we are automatically getting an order of things required for venture, BELIEF then IDEA then LUCK. But the order and required stuff is out of scope for this blog, I will definitely write about that some other time.]

I was talking about belief – belief on self and belief on idea. I always have self belief that I will be able to start a business (without putting single penny in it) and will successfully establish it. Now I was looking for idea. In college days (which I prefer to call cool-age) I got an idea of starting tea chain (similar to CCD or barista, at that time we had only coffee chain and no tea chain). We did paper work, made plan and budget but many links were missing including fund and fundamentals of business.

Days were passing out, during the Post College and pre Job time; we got an Idea of Makadi.com (an educational networking site), MAKADI was brainchild of Anuj (he is co founder of Qonta, and my cool-age pal). We made some plan on paper and gathered people in Pune, Delhi and Bangalore but we all were busy in establishing our own career so establishment of Makadi got second priority and there I learnt a second priority thing can never succeed. But this time we took two steps ahead of tea chain idea.

I joined kanbay on 18^th March 2005, and after 55 days of training (termed as fresher learning program FLP), I got chance to serve bench for over 3 months. Here with two of my FLP mates Pradeep and Jitendra we started CAPITAL 99 (a stock trading company). In FLP most of us were fresher and to live an eventful life a few thousand bucks were enough (as we all were unknown to luxury) and kanbay were paying us decent, as a result we got many client in FLP only; everyone had money and no idea on how to buy and which stock to buy. CaPiTaL 99 was a sort of mutual fund – share your money to us we would trade and return it with profit without any commission (open book accounting made CaPiTaL 99 an absolute transparent company. While looking for good stocks and good time we had enough time and money in between to trade in derivatives. For inflow in derivatives we had client’s money and profit/loss was absolutely of CaPiTaL 99. That’s how CaPiTaL 99 used to make profit. CaPiTaL 99 took few steps ahead of makadi.com and everything was on track but then Pradeep joined IIM in mid 2006 and Jitendra switched to a Noida based IT company. And I started looking for idea again.

For a while I was a typical IT professional. One fine day Manjit shared his wish to make a city based web- portal which may turn up as an IT company. I immediately expressed my willingness to join his idea.

In kanbay along with our regular work we (I, manjit with two other friend Naveen and kunal) started giving thought on portal, later Naveen and Kunal switched to another company but I and Manjit were committed for it. We prepared a business plan and started sending it to venture capitalist / angel-funder across globe. Anuj, (like me he too always excited toward new ideas) joined Manjit’s idea and ultimately idea of portal turned into Qonta. Now all our ideas end up to Qonta and its peripheral. Finally I got an idea which became destination of all other ideas.

“This blog was originally published at myqonta.blogspot.com which was official blog of Qonta”

My First Day @ QONTA

After three good years in kanbay/capgemini (A wonderful MNC to work with, I must say); On 18^th March 08, I resigned in pursuit of entrepreneur excellence. Thanks to God, my parents, Binay bhaiya , Deep and Manjit Singh (Manjit is co-founder of Qonta and my kanbay colleague; in some other blog I would definitely write about how we become friend and then business partners). It’s the power of their support and trust in me that I could take the decision to quit a job which was paying me 700K a year and start my own venture. Some time I feel live is a casino and we all have to bet on it. Well I select 18^th March because it is the same date I joined Kanbay in 2005.

Three years tenure in a pose corporate office having all the modern amenities’ and facilities has definitely brought bad habits of materialist luxury in me. Now to perform well I need clean desk, managed office, hygiene bathroom and a class cafeteria. At least I used to think so.

27 April 08 was my first day in Qonta (my own company and a dream destination), though we inaugurated our office on 3^rd May 08, April last week was time when we were busy setting up things like real estate, hardware, LAN, Legal formalities and other infrastructure. Well I reached office at 9 a.m., Office was a mess, but it looked beautiful to me, I cleaned the floor, pour a bucket of water in the few small plant, planted by our landlord (he ask me to take care of the plants). I light few scented candles for good environment and then open up my laptop to start the work. My laptop was taking its time to starting up the vista and other programs and I was in waiting mode. Then suddenly I felt ecstasy, an indescribable feeling (at least words can’t describe it, it was wonderful), I felt a chilled air in my muscles, appreciation clap by all 206 bones of my body, a sense of accomplishment and on top of it an expectation of challenge to do and learn something unknown but definitely interesting.

I immediately called Manjit and Deep to share this feelings, I can’t live without sharing that is for sure. Later I called my childhood friend Dhananjay Singh (aka Sarkar), a versatile artist by nature and an engineer by profession, when I told him about the incident he suggested me to pen down it, as feelings can’t feel again by remembering the things.

One fine day Manjit come up with the idea of a blog where we will blog all the technical challenges faced while developing the software along with their most effective solution (from our perspective), but later we realize why not blog everything related to Qonta (from technology and management fundas to human emotions and love for contribution toward common goal. So I decided to start with my first day in Qonta as it was not only special it was different too.

“This blog was originally published at myqonta.blogspot.com which was official blog of Qonta”

शाम सुरीली एक जाम नशीली - Kavita, Geet

शाम सुरीली एक जाम नशीली, हम बैठे बैठे कुछ गुनगुनाये,
कहकहा कुछ यू ही कह जाए, दिल्लगी में दिल कही खो जाए,
यू ही खोते पाते - पाते खोते, हम अपने आप से मिल जाए,
हम अपने आप से मिल जाए |

मय की मधु मन मन की बात को छलक छलक दोहराती है,
हर बूंद बूंद बहती गाथा सब राग के गीत सुनाती है |
छन छनन छनन - सर सनन सनन, मय छलक छलक यू मुस्काय
हम अपने आप से मिल जाए |

सकी का साथ जैसे श्याम राग, संग सवप्न लोक ले जाती है
आँखो-आँखो में चुभती राते एक सुबह की प्यास जगती है |
मय चुपके चुभती आँखो में एक शीतल साथ दे जाए,
हम अपने आप से मिल जाए |

बात निकली बड़ी तकलूफ़ से - Ghazal

बात निकली बड़ी तकलूफ़ से
और मजमा ज़मा, हंगामा हुआ
बात निकली बड़ी तकलूफ़ से

सोख सकी के सुर नए सुनकर - 2
जरे जरे मे यूं गुनगुनाना हुआ,
और मजमा ज़मा, हंगामा हुआ

चाह रहा चाहतों की चाहत करना - 2
पाए ऐसे खाब को जमाना हुआ,
और मजमा ज़मा, हंगामा हुआ

उफ़ ये बातें राज की बहकर - 2
एक अनजान सा फ़साना हुआ,
और मजमा ज़मा, हंगामा हुआ
बात निकली बड़ी तकलूफ़ से .......