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”