Category — Personal

I have been invited to blog for Podtech, the Silicon Valley based podcasting startup. Podtech is in the process of launching an India focused channel, for which they are sourcing content from some Indian tech bloggers/writers. In India, podcasting is at a very incipient stage whereas in Silicon Valley, it has almost become an industry. Many podcasting startups have recently got funded and they have very aggressive plans. People are betting big on this space, and these companies are starting to attract some highly talented people. Robert Scoble (who needs no introduction) now works for Podtech.

I see this as a personal oppurtunity to explore a new medium (voice/video). And I plan to focus on the small startup landscape in India, and blog about latest trends or, interview key influencers in this space. The channel is likely to pick up steam in the coming weeks. More on this later…

My laptop had a catastrophic crash a couple of days back. As a consequence (and in spite of my best efforts), I have lost my entire emails for the last three weeks (that’s when I had my last backup).

I had received quite a few emails from the readers of this blog in the past week, but now I have lost those. So if you happened to have written to me in the last week (or so) and you haven’t got a reply back from my side as yet, your email is probably lost in the crash.

Can I request you to reforward the mail once again to me. Thanks for helping me out!

If you are an Indian sports enthusiast, you must spare a few moments to read this post by Sanjay Manjrekar, former Indian cricketer on the current Chappel-Ganguly imbroglio. There has been drop-dead coverage of this issue in newspapers & television channels over the past few days. And every Indian, true to the collective obsessive-compulsive-cricketing-disorder that he/she suffers from,has a passionate viewpoint on this. Amidst this cacophony,I found Manjrekar’s analysis of the issue brilliantly incisive and levelheaded.

I can’t agree more with him; viewed narrowly, this issue would seem to about Chappell v/s Ganguly, about bruised egos, about conspiracy theories or about the cricket team losing steam for the next World Cup. However at its core, the issue revolves around whether we Indians can learn to be disciplined, practical and objective in our sporting decisions. Can sports be a meritocracy or will it continue to fall prey to the politics, factionalism, regionalism, favouritism, ad-hocism, red tapism etc that characterize almost every aspect of Indian society.

I am an avid sports buff (as opposed to being just cricket crazy) and my respect for Sanjay Manjrekar has gone up tremendously post this article; till now I have looked upon people like Sunil Gavaskar or Vijay Amritraj as the most sensible sporting thinkers in the country; Sanjay Manjrekar’s name can surely be added to that list.

At last….phew !!!…..phew!!!…It gives me a tremendous sense of achievement to let the world know that I am finally joining the bandwagon of the “I am , Therefore I Blog” brigade. This enterprising effort has taken the better part of the last twelve months to fruition - it took me two months to understand what a blog actually is , another couple of months for others to convince me that I should have one and the next six months for them to push me in overcoming my deep rooted inertia in actually starting off.

So at the start itself , I resolve to be a “need based blogger ” rather than be a compulsive one . Issues that are likely to be on my radar screen would include business management (specially about small technology startups ) , marketing of technology and services , market research , outsourcing to India , software / technology project management etc besides an occasional personal topic.

Through this blog , I look forward to reaching out and sharing my thoughts/experiences with like minded people who are searching the web for issues related to the starting and running of small technology startups in India and what all it entails .

So , to all those who somehow happened to land on this page - please wish me luck as I start on this journey of self exploration…..wish me a fertile imagination and loads of motivation ………..Believe me - I need the last one really badly !!!

Amit