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Closing the deal?
Nov 4th
In interactions or transactions, when do you think a deal is closed?
When commitment happens?
When the agreement is signed?
When one of the parties refuse to agree to the terms?
When all the parties deliver as promised?
Or do you think a deal is ever closed? I would say, no. Even after completion of the project, the people involved with you will be asked by others about your credentials and the kind of person you are. In this connected world, whatever we do can be easily found out by anyone who is curious. I would say a deal happens when mutual respect occurs, whatever happens after that are just (in)actions mutually agreed to. One might sign countless agreements or memorandums of understanding, but if along the way one loses respect, he ain’t going too far.
So how to handle these never ending deals?
No outlined strategy to do this. Just be genuine and do occasionally take out time to drop a simple “Hi” to people with whom you have worked in the past or who have contributed in some way in our life. The value of whuffies we will earn along the way; cannot be accounted for any of the agreement that we will sign in life.
What do you think about this?
Image Credit : http://www.masternewmedia.org
Journeying for Change : Interview of Pooja Warier – TED India Fellow
Nov 2nd
Welcome to the TED India Fellows project where a team of 15 volunteers interview TED Fellows to get to know them better.
Let’s meet Pooja Warier who is a Social entrepreneur and a Director at unltdindia.org & journeysforchange.org. She is excited by startups and changemakers; travel, food & dance. To know more about her and the scope of Social Entrepreneurship in India, read on!
Pooja Warier
How did it all begin? How did you get interested in Social Entrepreneurship and is there anyone who inspired you?
Since my college days, I have been volunteering / working with social initiatives and non profits. After my graduation in 2003, I joined a non-profit organization on a full time basis. Even though the organization was doing amazing work on the ground, the issue and the approach just did not do it for me. Soon I left the job and promised myself to keep exploring until I find an issue or approach that triggered my passion.
Two year later, I met Michael Norton, the founding trustee of UnLtd (UK) in Mumbai. This led to the life changing internship in 2005 with UnLtd, an organization in the UK that supports social entrepreneurs. I was fascinated by their model of investing small amounts of money and large amounts of hands-on support to individuals that have an idea and the passion to create a positive change in their communities.
The experience convinced me that investing in individuals is the only way to bring about a long-lasting change. Together with my partner Richard, I started searching for a similar model in India, in 2006. I was surprised to find that for a social entrepreneur who is starting up here, there is almost no access to seed-funding, hands-on support, networks or information. Most funds or investors shy away from investing in an individual who has no track record, a proven model or a legal entity.
During the same period, I found three exceptional individuals with ideas that had potential to make high impact. All three of them were struggling with issues of how to get funding, learning skills to run a project, access to information etc. This evidence was enough for us. As UnLtd in the UK did not have a mandate to operate in India, Richard and I, supported by a group of mentors, took the plunge and set up UnLtd India in 2007.
What are the essential differences you try to gauge between an entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur?
I firmly believe that the DNA of a business entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur are interwoven. Both are visionary, highly resourceful, risk takers and are ambitious in their plans. The difference lies in the primary motivation of the individual – while an entrepreneur is motivated by profit, a social entrepreneur is motivated by the social impact his/her idea can create.
So in our selection process, we focus on the following criteria:
- The individual’s entrepreneurial qualities
- The potential social impact that his/her project can create
- The match between the entrepreneur and his/her idea
How do you go about finding the social entrepreneurs? Any process you would like to share with us?
We find these social entrepreneurs through the following channels:
- Referrals from other funders/support organisations like Ashoka Youth Venture
- Colleges
- Communities
- Existing network of investees
Each potential investee goes through a three step process:
1) First meeting with UnLtd India team member to assess if they meet the basic criteria
2) Submitting an application
3) Interview with a panel comprising of people from other organisations
How is social entrepreneurship in India different from what you have seen across the globe?
At the core of social entrepreneurship is the belief that people can shift the status quo. I can’t think of a place or country where this seems like an easy prospect. However, in India, the task of creating systemic change seems particularly daunting.
In particular, social entrepreneurship in India, in my opinion, has the following traits:
- First of all, the term ‘social entrepreneurship’ itself is not widely understood or known
- Most social entrepreneurs have leveraged minimal resources for maximum impact
- As compared to acceptance of social enterprise/business models across the globe, there is still some resistance in India to mixing business with social change
- A lot of the organisations still ignore the communities they serve as agents of change and treat them as beneficiaries of their programmes
- There is very limited access to seed funding, hands on support, networks or information for start up social entrepreneurs. As a result, there is a lack of new ideas and leaders emerging from time to time.
What are your thoughts on bridging the gap between business and social sectors
Collaboration is a key element in creating social change. Recently there have been shifts from the traditional donor-grantee relationship between corporates and social sector. We can see more and more social sector organisations adopting or learning from business acumen and businesses being keen to partner with social sector to develop new products/services.
At UnLtd India, we have strong corporate partners who mentor the start ups. However I think that in order to truly bridge the gap, every entrepreneur must be a social entrepreneur. In other words, every business must look at their social returns as well as financial returns.
So what are the future plans for UnLtd India?
The future plans are to establish UnLtd India as a respected home for start up social entrepreneurs in India. In 5 years time, we want to achieve the following:
- Find and support two major award-winning social entrepreneurs with innovative models for large-scale sustainable social change
- Find and support 100 start up social entrepreneurs every year across India
- Create 2,500 jobs through our start up social entrepreneurs
You have been interacting with other TED India fellows recently. How the experience has been? What are your expectations from the TED India event?
To be honest, I haven’t interacted a lot with the TED India fellows yet. However, I am looking forward to do exactly that at TED India! What I am expecting from the event – to be inspired, to share ideas, to return re-energised and to meet some incredible crazy people!
Thanks to Pooja for taking out time and telling us more about herself. Keep following her on Twitter to know more about her experiences at the TED India and experiences with Social Entrepreneurship in India.
Knowing Amit Varma – TED India Fellow
Nov 2nd
Welcome to the TED India Fellows project where a team of 15 volunteers interview TED Fellows to get to know them better.
Moving on to the next interview, and we catch up with Amit Varma.
He started the blog India Uncut in December 2004 after working with MTV, Channel [V], Cricinfo in various capacities. But the one thing that has remained consistent, is his love for writing. People who have followed India Uncut over the years know Amit for his engaging wit and tone of his posts, where he has not shied away from discussing and taking a stand on issues which other bloggers or media is hesitant to take.
Besides India Uncut winning and being nominated for various International Awards, Amit was also awarded the Bastiat Prize for Journalism in 2007 for his column Thinking it Through for the business paper Mint.
In 2008, he gave up writing columns and doing freelance journalism so that he could devote his mental bandwidth to writing novels. He wrote My Friend Sancho that year, the manuscript of which was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008 and the novel was published in May 2008.
So let’s get started with the man who was chosen amongst India’s 50 most powerful people by BusinessWeek.
Amit Varma
Your posts on India Uncut as well as tweets are a continuous reflection on how you are amused by the things happening around us. Are there any days when you are not amused? If yes, what happens then?
On the days I’m not amused, I’m bemused, and there’s enough WTFness in the world around me to keep me busy.
So what’s most difficult and why?
a) writing the first book b) writing the second book c) the book tour
Writing in general is hard. Book tours are easy in comparison. I was quite nervous at the thought of having to read from my novel, My Friend Sancho, especially as there is lots of dialogue in the book, which is always harder to read out. But I started having fun doing it — especially the only orgasm scene in the book, which I’m quite good at now. I’m India’s Meg Ryan.
The second book is also tough to write, in the sense that for a lazy half-Bong like me, just being disciplined enough to write every day is quite a task. But I gave up everything else to focus on writing novels, and I’m sticking to it.
What has been the most memorable moment of your last book tour?
The many readers who told me that they read My Friend Sancho in one sitting. That’s an enormous compliment, because one of the biggest tests for a writer is whether he has the skill to hold his readers’ attention, to keep them turning the pages. On at least that one parameter, I seem to have done okay.
You have bid adieu to Journalism and have moved to being a Novelist. What are the demands and requirements you have to meet up to be a novelist?
One, you have to be disciplined.
Two, you have to do that Bhagwad Gita thing and just do your writing without thinking of the fruits of your labour. Writers in India hardly make any money — certainly nowhere near the opportunity cost of being a full-time writer, considering the jobs I could have had if I’d remained in the market. So you have to be really driven from inside to not regret the inevitable sacrifices you make.
Three, you need patience. Big book advances and prizes are like a lottery, you don’t just have to be good to get them, you also have to be lucky. The thing to do is to put books out there, one novel after another, and hopefully by the time you have five to ten novels, you start getting your due, and build enough of a readership to draw in decent advances. Until then, you have to keep yourself motivated to stay at it.
What is more difficult to put in words – a fictional character or a character inspired from real life?
That’s a false dichotomy. All fictional characters are drawn from the sum total of humanity that you’ve known.
So, what you write for?
Well, I love writing and storytelling, and it makes me happier than anything else I’ve done. If I weren’t a writer, I wouldn’t have wanted to be somebody else.
If you ever decide to write a novel as a city being the theme, which city in India will you go for, and why?
My Friend Sancho was based in Mumbai, as that’s the city I know best. A city’s never going to be the theme of any book I write — my books will always be about people — but part of the backdrop. For that purpose, Mumbai is a fascinating city to live in and write about.
So when can we expect your next novel to hit the stands?
I’m writing it now, and hope to finish it in a few weeks. That being the case, I’d expect it to be out in 2010.
What are the things one should carry before he approaches Amit Varma for fraanship during TED India?
Just a warm smile. I’m a friendly guy, and you’ll find it easy to get along with me.
What are the major takeaways you are looking at from the TED India event which is going to start next week?
I’m looking forward to meet lot of interesting new people, and getting exposed to exciting new ideas. It’s rare that you get a chance to be in a room with so many smart people, and I’m going to soak it all up.
Thanks to Amit Varma for taking out time and telling us more about himself. Keep following him on Twitter to know more about his experiences at the TED India and things which keep on amusing him!
Brewing up with Nikhil Velpanur – TED India Fellow
Nov 2nd
Welcome to the TED India Fellows project where a team of 15 volunteers interview TED Fellows to get to know them better.
The next in series is Nikhil Velpanur, who is the CEO of letshead.to and also is the Chief Evangelist at Strangebrew Media Pvt Ltd. In his Twitter profile, he describes himself as a doctor of journalism; sailor of art and sommelier of music, who is masquerading as a captain of commerce.
So let’s try to know him more in this brief but candid chat.
Nikhil Velpanur
Q. Disillusioned at 19, in debt at 21, letshead.to at 23, what’s at 25?
25 is all about taking the things, I started, to the next level. When Strange Brew magazine crashed, my entire world crashed. But we managed to pick the magazine and ourselves off the ground, revive and start making money. Now it’s maturing as a company, and we’re doing some cutting edge work. We have a great client list, and some solid in-house projects (including the relaunch of Strange Brew magazine) that are seeing fruition!
With Strange Labs, we launched letshead.to and its gotten a great response. Now we’re tweaking it to meet customer needs/demands, and it will only grow from here on – the tough, starting phase is a past. Also, we’re incubating some fun new product ideas and lets see where that goes!
Personally, I am having the best time of my life. The going is good – I have learnt a terrifically lot over the past 5 years of the start up life and now I am applying the lessons. Also, I am writing a lot, exploring art and I’m single!
Times are good! 
Q. For someone like you, who has tried to walk the different path than your peers, there are moments of doubt. Tell us about people or personalities who have inspired you in those walks? And how you look upto them?
There is doubt. All the time. But once you have made the jump, there is no looking back!
But having said that, there are 3 kinds of people for me –
a) those that I look upto and respect greatly, the kinds who make me want to lift myself to live upto the standards they have set,
b) those who I relate to and
c) those who make sense.
In the 1st type -
Gandhi – Needless to say, he’s Mahatma, Bapu, the father of India. But what I really take away from him, is the power of his word. He said India shall be free, and it happened. And it happened out of him, honoring his word deeply – in every action of his, till his very utterances were pure as glory. I could detail hundred character traits of his that I am crazy about, but this is the biggest.
Muhammed Yunus – Just one look at a mass of people steeped in poverty, would leave a person disturbed, and with a feeling of hopelessness. I cant even begin to imagine what would it have taken for a man to look at them and say that they are more than capable of lifting themselves out of poverty, and that we just need to empower them, not condescend or help them. And impacting their lives with micro credit.
In the 2nd type – I don’t find inspiration, but relatedness. I feel related to certain people – they make me feel normal, and that you can do something seemingly insane. But their lives have shown me that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Leonardo Da Vinci – Just the sheer number of things he was great at! It gives me the space to NOT constrain myself to one particular skill. Through my experience with starting a magazine, and then a technology company etc. I have picked up a lot of skills like writing, photography, design, tech etc. I genuinely feel that I can spend time honing each talent, and create art that is an expression of me everywhere. There is no necessity to constrain myself to being good at just one thing, and that I am not losing ‘career focus’ by exploring other skills.
Richard Branson – He is a true maverick. The kind of renegade entrepreneur who spots an opportunity, and jumps into it with intuition with an unbelievable confidence of ‘making the kill’; screw society and normal ways of doing things! I have been screwing with society and accepted norms since I was 19, and he makes me feel normal in this world of should-be and should-have.
In the 3rd type, there are 2 people who just make sense.
Tim Ferriss – a TEDster himself, and the author of ‘The 4 hour workweek’. The book hit me like a bolt of lightning – it is possible to automate and hack your life, replace yourself with the boring tasks, and focus on what’s really up. I re-read the book whenever I get overwhelmed!
Marc Andreessen – The guy who built the first web browser Mosaic and founded some really big firms. His blog (that’s now offline) had some of the smartest entrepreneurial advice I have ever read. There is so much bullshit out there, with jokers masquerading as VCs talking absolute rubbish, but his blog was rooted in rich experience and sensible advice. Can’t wait for it to be re-launched online!
I hope this doesn’t sound like an Academy awards acceptance speech, but the person who is my backbone in all of this is my Mom. When in doubt, there’s a supermom to the rescue!
She believes in me. Period. And thats all I need in life. I go home at the end of the day, fraught with doubt, and left battered by the struggles of the start up life, and she just gives me a smile and says she is proud of me. That’s the source of all my power. And its an interesting struggle at home because my dad does not believe in me at all, but that silent brooding support (along with regular admonishments regarding my career) is always there!
Q. So what is the next big thing happening in your life?
Sigh. I wish I knew that! Then I would make money calling for bets on my future 
But the next big thing for me is to use all these skills that I have picked up and my energy which is always bordering on the obsessive to make a difference. I might sound stupid, cliched, and arrogant to think I can change the world – but I really want to! Honest! And right now, I don’t know how I am going to do it, but it’s on the agenda. Few other things I want to do are write, shoot, make films, travel, learn great new things and have a ton of fun. Oh, and I also want to study at some point. Maybe art school, or economics, or public policy, or literature, or maybe all! I think that would broaden my perspective.
Q. In times of crisis, what would the doctor of journalism tell the captain of commerce?
Don’t believe anything until you get the reality!
Q. How to do you think TED India fellowship will help you in your endeavors? How has the experience of being a TED fellow been like?
I personally think that the TEDIndia fellowship is an incredibly big responsibility. I have suddenly started watching what I am saying; beoming responsible about my behavior, acting like a TEDster.
TED is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me. I have been following TED for a really long time, and I am a huge fan about what’s possible in a confluence of such great minds. Till now, my experience of being a TED fellow has been great because now I am someone who is seen as a credible person; no more a kid hacking away in his basement.
So this is Nikhil for us and we wish him the best in years to come! Do keep following his excitement and experiences at the TED India event on his Twitter profile.
Rules for my unborn son
Oct 28th
I have been following Walker Lamond for some time now. He started this project, which if simply put, lays down 1001 rules for his unborn son. The differentiating thing is that Walker is laying down these rules “before he gets old and uncool”.
The rules are not convoluted commandments but simple one line sentences, which are easy to understand but bear profound wisdom in them. I have loved reading them for so long and now he is out with a book which contains the rules. A must for everyone living in our age of confusing times when the generation gap stands for a difference of 4 years and morality, values, experiences are fluid.
Sample few of them here -
Rule #398 If you want to know what makes you unique, sit for a caricature.
Rule#395 Be mindful of what comes between you and the earth. Buy good tires, good sheets, and good shoes.
Rule #389 After writing an angry email, read it carefully. Then delete it.
Find more rules here – Rules for my Unborn Son
Brilliant stuff. The book was released yesterday and you can buy it here. Waiting for the book to arrive in India and wishing the best of luck to Walter and his Son .
Grooving with Gaurav Vaz – TED India Fellow
Oct 27th
Welcome to the TED India Fellows project where a team of 15 volunteers interview TED Fellows to get to know them better.
Interviewing Gaurav Vaz is an allowance. He is the VP at Muckwork, a bass-guitarist with The Raghu Dixit Project and co-founder of RadioVeRVe.
His other amusements are – being Music Critic, Event Manager, Semi-Pro Footballer, Part Time Painter, Tattoo Enthusiast, Technical Writer, and Software Engineer!
Here’s an excerpt of my dialogue with him:
Gaurav Vaz
Q.1 How did Raghu Dixit Project help you in getting more perspectives about music and expectations of people?
The Raghu Dixit Project completely changed my perception about how the music scene in India can work. At a time when bands are complaining about the lack of gigs and various things that are “wrong” with the scene, we’ve played almost a gig a week last year!
When I joined the Raghu Dixit Project, I came from a much smaller band (my college band Phenom) and had a very constricted view of how things worked and about the type of music that I listened to and played. Infact, before I started playing with Raghu, I had never played a Kannada song on stage EVER! All that changed and how! Over the past 4 years that I have been actively involved in the project, we’ve toured 7 countries and played over a 100 shows and have taken our own original brand of music to places very few Indian bands have. The learning for me has been immense.
The Raghu Dixit Project is a testament to the fact that regional music works in India and also, the importance of being original with what you do. A decade back, a bunch of South Indians singing in Hindi and Kannada would have been brushed aside as a bad idea, but what we have managed to achieve in the last 2 years after releasing our debut album is quite extraordinary.
But frankly, that has been the easy part, these were songs we’ve played over a long time, and with them, have set the expectations of a LOT of people. Exceeding those expectations with the next album (due in the first half of next year) and giving the audience a whole new experience live is where we are focussing our energies and I am quite confident we won’t let people down there!
Q.2 What did the IT Industry (un)teach you?
When I was in Engineering College, I was told that I would not use most of what I studied there. I do was skeptical about that statement, but now I can completely vouch for it 
Yet, it’s not that I didn’t learn much from the IT Industry. In reality, I learnt a lot from my first job at NetScaler; a dream-company, now called as Citrix. One of the most important things I learnt was that there is a LOT of money out there to be and it can be earned if you do things the right way.
Moreover, I was never the someone who could be coupled to his desk-job. I pursued my music and other passions along with my first job. My bosses there were most co-operative of my other pursuits and allowed me to take time off work. They redefined the concept of “flexible work hours”, i.e. all’s well as long as you get the work done. This is something I will never forget!
That job made me a happy man as I had the flexibility to work without interruption; was very productive at work then. I had a point to prove and the folks at NetScaler let me prove it! I will carry that work ethic with me wherever I go.
Q.3 Has Radioverve become profitable? What are the future plans? Is there any update about MuckWork?
RadioVeRVe was never meant to become ‘monetarily profitable’. However, the profit that we have gained is that we have achieved what we set out to achieve, i.e, to provide a platform to the Indian Indie scene and make “Indian Indie” a recognizable genre. This is an achievement because we started RadioVeRVe at a time when there was no other platform like it. Today there are similar, well performing platforms and that in itself is brilliant because we too are working towards the same.
Although, RadioVeRVe has been lying low for a year now (as Shreyas and I are figuring out our careers, and that there have been recent developments in the Indie music scene), I am working with OML Digtal (Part of Only Much Louder, founded by Vijay Nair). OML is supposed to be an evolved form of RadioVeRVe. The project has been named as NH7; after the longest national highway in India and should be ready by the end of this year. With NH7, we will work on Indie music, all over India.
MuckWork is currently on the back burner. But will be up soon as it is a fantastic idea; as some brilliant people alongwith Derek Sivers (my idol) are involved.
Q.4 From Phenom to TED India Fellowship, what has been the most challenging phase of your life?
I’m not sure I can point to one phase of my life and say, there, that was the most challenging! My career has shaped in such a way, that I am jumping from one challenge to the next. Managing my IT career, creating and running an online radio station and at the same time playing in one of the biggest bands in the country was quite challenging, but it was nothing compared to quitting IT and with it, letting go of that financial security blanket to work with someone you have admired for years! And then to the next challenge, building a brand new start up, setting off on a very ambitious dream and hoping to make a difference with it while working on how to take the band to a whole new level with our music and the way we market it in a music industry that is in such a state of flux and a world where physical boundaries are inconsequential.
All of these phases have been critical in helping me become the person I am today and I am lucky to have gone through all these phases because they ground you! The perspective you get when you carry your own equipment, wait for your turn, perform the show of your life, pack up and then go sell CDs to people after your gig can never be substituted when you try to build a store that will sell music!
Gaurav in a concert
Q.5 You mentioned in one of your interviews, “Be true to yourself”. Easier said than done. Has there been any time when you have given or almost gave to the easy way out?
Many times! There is always the temptation to stick to the “formula”. But today, its much easier, you can actually categorize and hold a ‘job’ that pays the bills when you work on what you are passionate about and have a good working balance between the two until you are actually ready and confident to go one way or the other. I’ve had a lot of things fall into place for me and that has helped me be true to myself but things just got started!
Q.6 The independent music scene in India is quite fragmented and you have been part of taking some initiatives to bring it together. How do you see it shaping up in the few years to come?
The Independent scene in India is all set to explode. It just requires the right trigger and its all building up now. The gigs have increased, the clubs holding these gigs have increased, there are a lot more original bands, musicians and most importantly, music has finally started to become an actual career for musicians and that is a sure sign.
People have started realizing that there is music beyond Bollywood, and infact, Bollywood has started recognizing that there is music beyond Bollywood.
Bands need to support each other and get more serious about their music, release quickly and release often and get more professional about how they go about their careers. The tools for all this are being put together by various people in the scene and very soon I am sure it will all come together very soon.
Q.7 Lastly, does the ring on the finger now makes it difficult to play the guitar or it is easier than before?
Well, I’ve played half a dozen gigs now with the ring on the finger and they’ve gone well, so I guess the ring is staying :p
But seriously, Shilpa has been the most amazing thing to happen to me. She has finally gotten used to the musician / entrepreneur lifestyle and even pretends to like it sometimes! and at this point, I can use all the support I can get. Also, guitar playing is never easy, it takes a lot of hard work!
I hope all of you enjoyed this interview and you can get in touch with Gaurav at –
You can read the interviews of other TED India Fellows here –
Satyabrata Dam - Mountaineer, adventurer, and crime fiction author
Sean Blagsvedt – CEO of Babajobs.com
Siddharth Kara – Author of Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery
Anab Jain – Designer and founder of Superflux, a UK- and India-based “futures” design company
Introducing Rohitz
Oct 21st
After ages of dilly-dallying I do have my own blog now . Would like to thanks Sandeep Kalidindi and Devadatta Sahoo for helping me out to create this blog.
Here, I intend to write about my experiences of working with PaGaLGuY.com community, the various initiatives and activities I am upto. Also, would like to share my lessons as a Social Media practitioner and some humor in between. If I encounter anything which I think I would like to share with you it will be also definitely here.
As always, any kind of feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Contact me on -
Email : rohit.awasthi@gmail.com
Twitter : http://twitter.com/rohitawasthi
