meeting entreprenuers over dinner

We invited Rashmi (co-founder Abhyas labs) and Piyush (co-founder Routeguru) for dinner this week end.

Rashmi is a student of final year B Tech Electronics from Lovely Professional University. Still she is full of ideas on how to set up an entreprise and guts and courage to go ahead and start Abhyaslabs. As part of abhyas labs, she is organising training events at various colleges. I met Rashmi during SLD3 (Startup Lunch Delhi 3).

Piyush is an entrepreneur and has been working on a wonderful concept of providing directions via SMS and Web (mobile as well as from PCs). He is a good speaker and when he deliveres a talk on stage, you can't do any thing but to listen to him with full attention, He can speak for hours on entrepreneurship, why to join startups or webdesigning and every one in the audi will be impressed with his knowledge and energy.

Today when one finds that for 200 jobs in DRDO over 1 Lakh engineers applied and for a bank with 1100 jobs gets over 10 Lakh applications including B.Techs and MBA, Rashmi is on way to become an entrepreneur and create jobs in place of searching/applying for jobs.

Piyush and Rashmi are every thing that I am + want to be.

Hi, This week we completed 24 years of marriage. During these 24 years, we have gone thru various phases - state of extreme love and affection to the extreme hatred and anger towards each other.

We started our married life on Sep 22,1985. With a low cost marriage on a sunday afternoon, my mom was very upset as few of my Mama's and Massi's skipped the marriage function due to some dispute with my parents.

Initial few years were tough, there were financial problems, my rigid ideas about religion and dowry, my focus on work and my hobby of reading books and electronics development were not very conducive for love and affection.

My mother completed her life in Feb 1987 due to high blood pressure. She was in hospital for around 3 months.

We moved to a rented accommodation. Geeta was pregnant and we had no money for backup. Geeta resigned from her job as a teacher in Manav Sthali School and we managed on a monthly salary of Rs 3600/-.

Upasana was born on July 22nd,1987 in a 'five star' nursing home with airconditioned room, color TV and a large double door fridge. We did not have either of these at our home. Thanks to medical expense reimbursement policy of DCM Data Products, we were able to afford this luxury.

I visited Hongkong twice in connection to my part time work. Upasana was growing and we enjoyed her activities. Extra money from part time work allowed us few luxeries like a 14" color TV and frequent holidays to Massoori, Hardiwar, Shimla and few more places.

In 1990, I changed job and moved to PCL at a salary of Rs 6,000/- per month. I was able to get some part time work. I designed two software packages for a 5 star hotel and ASIC for a computer printer.

In 1992, I got a job at INTECON (same company for whom I designed ASIC) and shifted to Noida at a salary of 15k per month. I bought a second hand moped and learned driving it. Travelling on our own conveyance gave us lot of freedom and enjoyment. My part time work continued and I kept on making few thousands every month extra.

In 1995, I designed a set top converter. That got me good money in Lakhs, I bought a second hand fiat, A two bed room flat and of course a mobile phone. Geeta took care of interiors at our home and it was model flat in our colony. Almost every day we had a walk-in visitor who wanted to look at our home, wood work etc..

In 1996, Intecon closed down and I started my design work on a full time basis. This was the best period.We had money, love, growth and happiness in our life.

In 1998, Geeta suffered from sever back-pain and we had to move to a rented accommodation. One of my design on CALLER ID became instant hit and I earned again few lakhs. I bought air conditioned SANTRO car. This car changed our life and we travelled long distance to Haridwar, Rishikesh, Sariska, Ludhiana by road.

Dimpi and Abhijit joined my company as trainee, Very soon they were part of our family.

In 2003, we shifted to JSS Incubator. Our profits kept on increasing. I did not know at that time, But now I realise that the earnings made me an arrogant and rude persons.

We bought our first luxury car HONDA CITY in Jan 2004.

Things started going down the drain and I started loosing business, money and on top of it love and intimacy at home.

Between 2004 to 2008, it was a dark period of our life, Geeta decided to kill herself, I decided to divorce her and we had bitter fights regularly. This further affected our business. We lost all love, intimacy and peace.

Vijay, my younger brother suffered from Pancreatites and Heart Problems. He was able to recover thanks to his will-power. Despite his health problems, he performed well at his office and was able to reach to a high(est) level in his office.

In Aug 2006, I attended Landmark Education's program called Landmark Forum. The three days spent there opened my eyes and I could see my mistakes. However realising mistakes did not solve any real world problems. Geeta and Upasana also participated in landmark programs. However slowly and gradually, period of love and intimacy started increasing and fights and anger reduced.

Landmark taught us that every thing is possible, just declare what you want, work for it and you will get it - no small print or conditions apply.

I declared some targets - one was to let go of my anger towards my mama and mami not attending my marriage. Geeta supported me fully and very soon, we re-created our relations with Mama and Mami, our cousins and their kids. We spoke with Suparna in Sep 2006 almost 20 years after her marriage and met Neerja in Jan 2007 and her cute little princesses, Neha and Vritti, first time in June 2007.

Geeta also re-created her relations with her younger sister in Oct 2006. Both of them particiapted in Landmark Forum and Geeta gave up her anger towards her sister and today there is lot of love and affection between sisters.

In Jan 2008, Maggie came and joined our family. She contributed unconditional love in our family and became darling of all of us including our neighbours. Now to all kids we are 'Maggie ke Papa and Mummy' and not 'Tau and Tai'.

In July 2008, I shifted to Amity Innovation Incubator. My business profits started increasing and by March 2009, we are clear of all debts. During next few months, we made some extra money and kept it safe as buffer stock. Upasana joined MA (Psychology) in Kurukshetra. She was happy in doing what she wanted.

Dad completed his life on Aug 8,2008 after remaining unconscious for few weeks due to (probably) his sugar level falling very low . As per his wishes he was cremated at Indraprastha, a small village near Bhuj, Gujrat. I spent few days at the village after cremation. We also donated his eyes and other organs.

Geeta started working for half day from home and his earnings increase to 15k per month soon. She also controls all the finance of my business and visits my office once or twice every week. She remain busy, happy and excited. She spend all his earnings on buying gold / jewellery.

Abhihit resigned from his job in May 2009 after working for almost 10 years with us. Dimpi also left the job some time in 2006, however she kept doing some part time work in between. She moved to Mumbai and then back to Gurgaon. Geeta and Dimpi have developed a good bond and keep on sharing lot. Hardik (Dimpi's son) has developed a good bond with me and during his last visit to our home, declared his desire to change his name to Hardik Vinay.

In Aug 2009, we shifted back to our home. Again Geeta worked hard on interiors and renovated our home. IT IS LOVELY, BEAUTIFUL and FULL OF LOVE, HAPPINESS AND INTIMACY.

Now we are looking forward to Sep 2010 when we will be completing 25 years of marriage.

Have faith in Love and Truth. Give 100% to your partner. Nothing matters more than Love and Happiness.

"Tere Sang" first day first show

This thursday all three of us (Me, Geeta and Upasana) saw movie "Tere Sang"

Manoj Mittal who co-produced this movie invited Upasana and her parents for a premier of the movie at Spice Mall, Noida. Upasana was his coach at Self Expression and Leadership Program.

Upasana was thrilled at a chance to meet Ruslaan. After seeing him and the others from the movie, we found Anupam Kher much smarter than Ruslaan.

We enjoyed the movie, free snacks and drinks, meeting the star cast including sweet Sheena in bright red dress.

In 1982, when I spent over two years learning about various aspects of Human Psychology, I became firm beliver that "kids need love and mother more than money" and "that sex education starts at home".

This movie talked about both the issues and also raised a new issue of "LAW OF THE NATURE vs LAW OF THE LAND".

Message is clear "LAW OF THE LAND IS IMPORTANT. LET PARENTS SUPPORT KIDS IN TALKING ABOUT LAW OF THE NATURE AND BENIFITS OF PATIENCE".

Do watch this movie. It is worth the time and money. Do take your kids (or parents) along with you.

Love

I did not succeed in entering second round of ET Power of Ideas

My name did not appear in ET Power of Ideas, second list where 254 out of 1000 were selected. The sad part was that I knew it about it as soon as my qualifying telephonic interview with Ranjeet Shastri of IAN completed.
Reason - Over confidence. I did not do any mock before the disucssion and was very casual.

I also could see a patter where I easily cross initial hurdels and then loose interest and become careless in most of the deals.

Any way, this was a good lesson learned hard way. So my commitment is to be serious and remain serious and won over 90% of deals

Discussion on Cleantech @ TiE

On Friday May 15,2009 I attended a two hours discussion at Mr Swarup's residence (TiE Charter Member) at Vasant Vihar.

Geetika of TiE modertaed it and Ashok Das (Sun Moksha, Banglore) was the key speaked. he already has a SIG at TiE, Banglore and head a company on solar technology. He shared about his views on govt policies, future of cleantech and wide meaning of clean tech.

Other participents that I met included Anil Garg(AGM Marketing) Hero Electricals. He shared how poor govt policies has resulted in poor sales of Electrical Bikes in India where only 2L bikes has been sold till date again china which has electrical bikes in millions becuase of Govt Support Policies.

I also met Dolly Bhasic of SPH Consultancy and Services. She knew a lot about BEE and lot of information about Govt Tenders.

Bharat Shrama Technical Director of Vin Industies (also a landmark graduate) talked about his vision of using Cowdung to produce power at villages. He has roots in Rajasthan where his ancestors had large herds of cows and he plan to use Go-shala as source of cow-dung and set up small electrical stations.

Rilka from Austraila who head Indian office of Beyond Business Connections, Anil Srivastava of Global Economic Advantage Pvt Ltd, Pranet Gupta of Booz&Co, Shiv Walia of Mauryan Capital Advisors are few more persons that I met.

I made a presentation on FICCI Seminar

On April 27th, I made a presentation at FICCI seminar on IPR and INNOVATION - A Way forward for SME.

Presentation focussed on my experience  about making progress using innovative ideas and how IPR can help protect innovations and result in sustained profits.

Just for records I have files three patents and applied for trade mark "Joy-n-Freedom"

CII-DIPP seminar on World Intellectual Property Day on April 26,2009

I attended half day seminar at Le-Meridian, New Delhi on April 26,2009. It was worth getting up early on sunday morning. Drive was easy as there was not much traffic on the road and morning tea and lunch were added benfits.

This was organised by DIPP and CII and talked about what showcasing India's IPR initiatives, achievements & its importance in shaping the Nation's future.

The key focus was simple. IPR are going to be here and  profits and growth  need  protection of your IPR.  

CII also felicitated following individuals/companies in different area. 

• Hindustan Unilever got award for getting over 300 patents granted last year (over 300).
• Reliance Industry got award for getting maximum brand names registerd.
• Bill Clair, Pune got award for innovative packaging for pharma industry
  
• Venkat Reddy of Andhra Pradesh got award for grassroot development for patenting novel method of improving soil fertility and getting this patented in multiple countries.

Speakers included following persons

• Ramesh Adiage - Chairman CII Task Force on IP Policy and ED Ranbaxy Lab
  
• NN Prasad - Jt Secretary DIPP
• JM Khanna - Ex Director Jubilant Organosys Ltd
• Dr T Ramasami - Secretary,DST
• R Saha - Member CII National Committee of IP Owners, TIFAC
• Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul - Delhi High Court  

I interacted with some persons and learned few new things.

Anjan Das (senior Director CII and Head - Technology, Innovation, IPR and Life Sciences) who talked about GITA which can help individual innovators. He invited me to learn about it and even visit CII to meet him.

Dr Nitin Deshpande (Patent Attorney - Registered Patent Agent, Unilever Research Banglore). He takes care of patents by Unilever group.

Ridhima Dhar from Evalueserve.com. She said that she works for Business Development for her company.  Her company takes care of patent drafting and other  IPR related service.

Dr Monika Shukla(consultant)  and Mr D.N.Verma(Vice President-Legal) from Sanshadow Consultants Pvt Ltd)

Siddharth Kumar (Journalist with PTI) . I shared with him about my innovation on traffic lights. He promised that he will be doing a story on this.

Somanth Chowdhury (Consultant). He was tech editor with EFY 2 years back and published my articles on Vending Machine. (See my visual CV for article). I also discussed with him about suggesting some one who can work with me on profit sharing basis for embedded development.

Srikanta K Panigrahi (Director General Carbon Minis India, ex Director -Planning Commission).

"Creativity and Innovation Workshop" organised by FICCI and Economic Times

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. 
- Michelangelo

ET and FICCI organised a seminar on Creativity and Innovation called "IDEA CLOCK". The faculty was Pravin Rajpal  (Author, Coach and Thought Leader).  He has written two excellent books "ACHIEVING BUSINESS EXCELLENCE" and "5  THINKINGS TO WIN"

The workshop started with a 2 minute video clip of JAN GAN MAN tune and it set the tone of the program. That 2 minute clip changed the mood, there was excitement and I just kept all pending issues on back of the the mind and focussed on the presentations and discussed.

During next six hours, we got present to ways to be creative and innovative.

At 11k+ taxes this was pretty expensive but end result was worth the price.

During the workshop I met following persons

• Dr Arun Kumar - Reader, M Com, D Phil at Motilal Nehru Institute of Research & Business Administration, University of Allahabad.
  
• Saurabh Srivastava, Dy Manager Engineering, Research and Development, Maruti Suzuki Limited, 
  
• Prashant Bammi GM Manufacuring GROZ ENGINERRING TOOLS (P) LTD
  
• Rohit Rajpal, Sr Executive, Karnal Agricultural Industries Limited
  
• Sunil Chandra, Director, Pentagon Impex International

All the participants also got a software program called IDEA CLOCK. This is a clock with lot of innovative ideas.

I filed my third patent on April 18,2009

I filed my third patent on Cable TV Network Management on April 18,2009. This patent was drafted by Pooja Bhatia (pooja.bhatia@sanshadow.com) a qualified team member of sanshadow. This company has created technical documents for SUKAM, IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi and recently over 50 patents for Amity.

Samsung Vs An engineer from Madurai in Patent Case

An engineer from Madurai filed a patent for DUAL SIM CARD long time back. He was granted the patent last year. This year he filed a case that resulted in all imports of dual sim card phones getting held at airport.

Chennai High Court has rejected the SAMSUNG petition.  Engineer from Madurai has demanded a royalty of Rs 35/- per piece from importers.

I am not sure what will be the outcome, yet it shows that Indians are getting aware of IP rights and taking actions to protect it.

See the complete articles in Economic Times March 23,2009

and Livemint March 13,2009