Journey to Shirdi

Today is 23 June and I m right now in sarvodya express heading to delhi from ludhiana. After this there would be a train from delhi to sainagar.This is my first railway journey after a long time. I haven't counted but I think we are 20 pilgrims including mom and dad.   We started from garshankar at 1:55 pm for ludhiana in a large van type vechile. The vechile was of 'babaji' - our spiritual guru, who are also accompanying us. Today was a exceptionally hot day and its effect was more elevated due to the humid atmosphere. I was feeling uneasy due to the weather earlier, but now sitting in this air conditioned berth, I m enjoying the trip.
This is the first time I m using my cellphone Nokia E63 to write a blog. The keypad is working smoothly and the buttons are adequately spaced. Here, comes the difference in nokia and micromax - A low cost mobile manufacturing company doesn't pays much attention to these intricate features and the usability of device. I can say this because I have used the micromax Q5 recently bought by Dhruv. The buttons in keypad are quite hard and narrow. Moreover, it seems like a great job while one is writing. But, in E63, it feels like my hands are gliding on butter.
Its 11:58 now and i m sittting at hazrat nizamuddin railway station, waiting for the next train from delhi to sainagar. We reached new delhi railway station at about 9:40 pm and then got into a bus to reach nizamuddin. The bus was low floored and despite huge amount of luggage, we were able to get into it. The path we travelled in bus was amazing. I had visited Delhi after a long time and I was really amazed after seeing the beauty of our capital. The road was filled with myriad govt. offices. I saw 'Nirman bhavan', residence of vice president, akbar road, head post office, ashoka road and many more.  A proud feeling developed in my mind at that moment, i felt like India is really developing and my long cherished dream of seeing India as a developed country is not far away. But just then, i thought success was at horizon, I saw some people sleeping on footpaths and then more came. I woke up of my dream and tasted the  bitterness of reality.
I don't know what the destiny has thought of me in future but its my real wish that I want to choose such a career that I can help my country grow and make it the best place to live on this planet. I really don't know what to do. My mind is in a great confusion.        
Today  is 24th of June and i woke up when the train halted at 'Jhansi'. The atmosphere was classic, a cloudy day with mild raining. It rejuvenated my mood and I m feeling full of life now. We just had a short and nice breakfast of tea, biscuits and bread. Now, I m relaxing on my berth and enjoying the vista around me. The landscape of Madhya Pradesh is totally different from Punjab. The lands here are rocky and filled with lot of trees. I have seen only a few farms, otherwise it seems like these lands are untouched. The more we are penetrating into Madhya Pradesh, the more I am coming to know, how beautiful this state is. Earlier than, this time, I always admired the beauty of western countries like USA, UK etc. But now my perspective has completely changed and I feel that we are not spreading information about the beauty of India. India is really incredible. We passed through lalitpur, karoda stations.  
Its around 8 pm and we are in Maharashtra, the journey which once was looking exciting has become grim and my mood is really off. The fellow passengers are behaving childishly and busy in freakish show offs. My trousers are ruined after the curry leaked from the box I was carrying last night. Frankly saying I m totally pissed off. I just want to go back to my home and I have come to a conclusion that it is always better to go travelling alone or with your family, rather than other people. I have brought with myself book borrowed from my cousin Rahul titled 'Imagining India' by Nathan Nilekani. The book is a good read and  arouses optimism about India. Its been a good companion in this journey.   
Finally we have arrived at shirdi, its 25th of June; I don't know the exact time but its well past over 2 in the morning. The railway station of shirdi is spacious and clean. The atmosphere out here is rejuvenating and a cool breeze is blowing. The road leaving the station is also clean and wide. The sky limit of this city is also looking good. Even in the midst of night I can say with full assurance that the city would be beautiful. A few high rises are clearly visible and I think they would be hotels. Its half past four in the morning and we are looking for rooms to stay. My guess was correct, this place is full of hotels. I am having feeling that I should now pay some attention toward myself. I should focus on building my body, fitness and looks. These things are important as the first thing a person sees in other is his/her looks. This determines the further relations of that person with others. Till now I have just emphasised on intelligence and haven't cared about looks. But an engineer should look different from others. He should carve a niche for himself in the crowd. I don't just want to be a geek, I want to enjoy my life as well. One of the closest ideal I have in life is my brother Mukesh; he is a great source of inspiration and I want to be like him. He is so smart, intelligent and brave. He knows how to live in this world. He knows how to maintain that intricate balance of life. Maybe one day I would be like him.      
Today's 28th June and its 10:00 pm. I am resting on the bed in the hotel. I was quite busy for few days so I wasn't able to write, I hope I will get sufficient time in train to describe our tour in shirdi. I have also taken lots of photographs. I will try to upload a few. Other than that everything else is fine. We will board the train tommorrow night 00:30.    
Today is 29 June and around 8:30 pm. We are all ready to leave for manmad from where we will board the train to delhi. We have checked out from the hotel room and are waiting in the lobby. We gonna travel to manmad by an automobile 'Force traveller' I think. At last the trip to shirdi has come to an end. It was a really long trip and I enjoyed it. Today I woke up in the morning around 8 and then took a bath. Then we went for a light breakfast and I ate two vada paos. They are bread with potato stuffing which are dipped in gram flour and then fried. Then, I went to buy some papayas, but alas we couldn't find any. Then, I returned back to room and watched movie of Jackie chan on star movies. I don't remember the name but the movie was about racing. Then, we went to the temple of Sai baba again. This was my third time and after about an hour, we were able to reach the interior of temple. There I prayed before Sai baba and then I went to see Dakshin mukhi hanuman temple and dwarka mata temple. There was the flour grinding machine of Sai baba and there was a sack of grains of that time preserved in a glass chamber. Then, we went to have lunch in Sai Prasadyala, which is place where anyone can eat as much food as one wants in only Rs 10. This place was being managed by the Sai trust and offered delicious and warm food at really cheap prices. There is a idol of Sai baba there, very beautifully made. I have also captured few pics of that. Then, we went to the temple premises again, where I filled our water bottles with RO purified water and then we sat in the park. The park was really beautiful and was covered with lush green lawns and variety of fauna. There was also an artificial waterfall there which added more natural theme to the park. Then, a drizzle began to appear out of the sky and we started to move to our room. But then dad said, he wanted to have tea. So we had tea from the temple canteen which is also managed by the trust and offers tea, coffee and milk at 1; 1.50 and 1.50 Rs respectively. It also provides biscuits at subsidy prices. Then, we went back to the room and packed our stuff. That's it for now!   

Story of A Few Entrepreneurs

A few days ago I read a book titled “Stay Hungry Stay Foolish” by Rashmi Bansal. This book discusses the story of 25 entrepreneurs from IIM-A who created a niche for themselves in the market and their journey from the fresh graduates to founders of India’s most successful entrepreneurs. I bought this book around 3 months earlier but I wasn’t able to give time to it. The title is chosen after the famous speech given by Steve Jobs at the Stanford Commencement Speech in 2008.

The first story I read was about naukri.com and its founder Mr Sanjeev Bhikchandani. The book clearly depicts his struggle to make the India’s largest internet based company having the official name InfoCom. Sanjeev passed out from IIM-A in 1989 after doing a post graduate course in management. From an early stage Sanjeev had chosen to start his own company. The obstacles in his ambitious path can be estimated by the fact that he wasn’t able to pay himself salary for six years as the company wasn’t successful. He had to have a part time job in order to feed his family. But, still the company was in red. The revenue was increasing but the company never became break even till 2001. Then, due to the dot com boom, ICCI approached them for funding.

First, Sanjeev refused as he was happy with the company’s break even revenue of 18 crores. But soon he noticed that many competitors were arising to make themselves firm in the market of jobs database. So he choose to accept the funding but net day the dot com bubble burst and markets crashed.

But the patience and hard work of Sanjeev paid work and the company survived the market crash and rebounded strongly. In 2006 InfoCom launched its IPO and till now it has the highest market capitalization of 1 billion$.

According to Sanjeev, one should never start business for money but for passion because in difficult times only passion would be there to support us in continuing the business. If it would be for money, we will soon leave hope. Further, he advises us to choose a good team and using ESOP for that as good team members would want more money and space.

He also suggest us that we should start early as we can commit mistakes while there is no competition and we should undercommit and overdeliver. 

In the end, he advises to stick to the plan as a good idea will take time to be established in the market. If you are lucky then, it will happen in 5 years, if having average luck then 10 years, while if you are unlucky then in 15 years, but it will happen one day. Just Stick to it.

The next story is of Shantanu Prakash who created Educomp after passing out of IIM-A in 1988. Shantanu was interested in business from an early period after he realized that even after working his whole life in SAIL, his father wasn’t able to buy himself a house in Delhi. Educomp is the company which provides digital content to the schools so that they can provide better education to students. Educomp was started with a zero capital and is now well established in India, USA and Singapore. Moreover, the company has some very ambitious plans in pipeline and is working to scale itself to new heights. According to Shantanu, building this company was never too hard for him and he enjoyed every moment in it.

He tells us that one benefit of graduating from IIM-A is that you can happily start entrepreneurship and even if you fail , you can get a job easily. 

In the end Shantanu advises young entrepreneurs to start their business as early as possible and he says that business is always better than job. You can earn manifold in business even if the company takes time in breaking even. According to him, two questions we should ask ourselves before, we delve deep into business:

• ·       Is the business inherently scalable?
• ·       Is the market opportunity large enough?

The third story was about Rashesh Shah who passed out from IIM-A in 1989 and created the investment banking firm Edelweiss Capital. Rashesh came from a pure business family and started Edelweiss in 1996. Rashesh saw potential in this field and yearned to create a bank which will compete with colossal global giants like JP Morgan, Merill Lynch etc.

He designed a plan for the company and worked hard day in and out with his friends. But soon he realised that unlike what they teach in business schools, nothing goes according to the plan in the real life situations of business. Before, starting business, Rashesh took guidance from Narayan Murthy who created the IT services giant Infosys and he suggested them that “Give capital to people who add value or to strategic partners. Don’t go for capital for sake of capital”.

Moreover, Rashesh diversified the company into many different areas to reduce the risk which worked and the company was able to survive the crash of 2001. After that the company touched the sky with glory by breaking its own records of growth. In 2007 it launched an IPO which was oversubscribed 119 times.

In the end, Rashes advises young entrepreneur that cash flow is very important for a company and they should work on that carefully. Moreover, he advises for not going for equal partners. One should have a slightly higher stake than other. This keeps things going smooth in future. But the one with higher stake is one who is working more. Further, the up and downs are a part of lifecycle of business and thus, you should have a patience and power to endure it.

In the end I will conclude that it is a fantastic book which guides us a lot about how to approach the business with very useful tips and suggestions. The language of book is easy to understand and attracts the interest of reader. I would suggest this book to any young entrepreneur and to students who are eying this path in future.