Entries Tagged 'Personal' ↓

Outlook is one of the most respected magazines of India. Their Mumbai supplement (Mumbai City Limits) has a cover story about Young Turks in the September 2008 issue. The story is all about young entrepreneurs who started their ventures even before graduating.

The story features:

• Suveer Bajaj, 20. Runs a brand building firm - Foxy Moron
• Samyak Chakrabarty, 19. Runs three communications firms.
• Radhika Mehta, 22. Runs a cafe and event management firm.
• Shawn Lewis, 21. Runs a theme wall-painting firm.
• Arun Kale, 22. Runs an online radio and magazine.
• Vidit Chitroda, 21. Runs a production house.
• Aditya Malkani, 18. Runs a youth magazine.

Congratulations to all these young entreprenuers. I am the guy who’s featured as “Been There - Doing That” in the story, and I know the hardwork needed to venture on your own!

Here’s my interview from this cover story.

Been There, Doing That
Nirav Mehta [28]
Chairman of Magnet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

On winning a national competition as an SYJC student, Nirav Mehta got to visit Bill Gates and peek into the Microsoft headquarters. “I was always a computer geek. But that experience was a turning point,” he feels. And as a 19-year-old SYBCom student, in early 1998, he launched India’s first electronic magazine, or e-zine: Magnet (’Mag’ for magazine and ‘net’ for internet), a feat marked in the Limca Book of Records. The online magazine included everything from reviews of good websites to celebrity interviews and a humour section.
Its success soon found an investor. And about a year later, Magnet Technologies Pvt Ltd was born. At that time, this global tech company, providing web solutions, was one of the few to use software like Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP in the Indian market. Despite professional demands, Mehta went on to complete a postgraduate diploma in software technology. And a decade after the launch, he now heads a 100-strong team, with offices in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

“I remember rushing to office after college, and the daily struggle to balance both - I couldn’t wait to graduate!” he recalls. “I was in a hurry to establish myself. And I know it’s the same feeling that echoes within student-entrepreneurs today. It’s the drive to do it before someone else does; especially when you have unconventional idea. Besides, when you start early, you can afford to risk everything - maybe even fail a couple of times - before you get it right.”

Mehta feels Mumbai’s intense competitive spirit is a shaping force. “Many youngsters around you are also up to something. It’s an accepted scenario. It eggs you on to get productive. The media coverage of success stories is another instigating factor, urging the question, why not me?” The city’s educational institutions and corporate houses also support such moves. “Our professors at business and technical schools have always encouraged students to venture into the market, even helping them fine-tune their products. Mainstream colleges may not be as focused but, yes, even my college teachers at Narsee Monjee were very encouraging when I started out,” he says.

And with corporate clients, the city’s famed professionalism sees competence override any prejudice over age. “Many corporate firms here let your work speak for you, especially as this is such a technology hub,” he believes. “In fact, I may actually trust somebody younger for new ideas in technology, rather than older people with set notions.”

Thank you Ornella for capturing my ideas in beautiful words!

Chaos is the answer. Chaos is the master plan of the universe.

Not equilibrium.

What you experience today, is just part of the master plan! Chill!

(Inspired while listening to Kaos by DJ Aligator from Summer Jam 2008!)

Kaos on YouTube

I’ve been playing with a few open source CMSs for my new book. And I am actually surprised! Most of them are just so darn difficult to use! Not only they are jargon filled, but they are also unintuivie!

I am looking at both user side and the admin side.

I think WordPress excels in usability. The design is good, and it’s easy to figure out how things are laid. It follows task-centered approach to design. Which is great.

Joomla is confusing. The action buttons are above the form where you fill in the information. That’s very sad. The content adding interface is overly complicated and difficult for an intermediate user too.

Drupal makes me feel I have landed in wonderland! The taxonomy and nodes tangle me! And where is the WYSIWYG interface? That should be on by default!

What’s been your experience? Which CMS is best in terms of usability?

We work on outsourced software development projects. One of the biggest challenges in that is to communicate effectively. We started having weekly telephone calls with customers to improve project execution. Here are some tips on drastically improving your effectiveness of handling conference calls with customers.

1. Connection: Have the number to call handy. And an alternate number to call in case the first does not work. Understand the timezone difference. Where will the client be when you call? Get connected 2 minutes earlier than scheduled.
2. Accent: Just as our clients have accent, for them, we have an accent. Indians have a variety of accents (per their cultural background) and that makes it even difficult for the client to understand what we say. Speak slowly, make sure each word is clear.
3. Disturbances: If there are disturbances on the line, don’t keep saying “are you there”, “can you hear me”, “i can hear you” etc. Keep going slowly. If you did not understand something because of the disturbance, tell the client “I didn’t get what you said (about …)” and let them answer.
4. Echo: Mute your microphone when you are not speaking. You may be on a speakerphone in a conference and the client may get echo of what he is speaking if you are not on mute. The same may happen to you if the client is on speakerphone. You can request them to mute their line while you are speaking. This will even save you some bandwidth if you are using VoIP.
5. Homework: Be prepared for the conference call. A conference call is a meeting. So be prepared with the agenda, be ready with your status updates or questions.
6. Culture Difference: Be aware of the culture difference. Your client’s expectations and understanding will not be the same as yours. The slang will be different. Some clients will be very demanding, some will be easy. Watch for this and act accordingly.
7. Cutting Long Conversations short: You or the client may keep on talking. Cut this short - unless it’s contributing. If the client is repeating himself, check whether you understood what they said, and if you reiterated that to them. Go ahead, explain the client what you understood. This will most probably reassure them that you got what they wanted to say. When needed, remind the client about the agenda and time limit for the meeting. And get back on track. Tell them you “would love to get to work on what’s been discussed. And will give an update at the end of the day”.
8. Correct Grammar: Speak good English. Incorrect grammar can upset the customer. It will not only make it difficult for your client to understand you, but will also give a bad impression of you. Practice speaking.
9. Greeting and Closing: Greet with a “good evening” (or similar, depending on the client’s time). And close with a “Thank you”. At the end of the meeting, summarize the actions to be taken now, and provide an update on when can the client expect to hear from you.
10. Listening: The most important thing on any call, is to listen to the other person! Listen actively. Repeat what the client says in your head. This will help you understand it. If you don’t understand, say what you did, and request the client to explain the rest. Practice listening! This is one thing that can elevate your performance anywhere!

What do you say about this? Are there any other tips you’ve got? Any experiences you want to share? Feel free to comment!

It’s been more than two weeks that we are back from Uruli Kanchan Nisargopachar Ashram. I wanted to write a lot about it, but have been so busy with work that I haven’t written anything!

Overall, the experience was great. Taught many things about health and fitness. And rejuvenated the mind and body!

Here are the core principles of Naturopathy!

1. All disease, their cause and their treatment are one.
2. The basic cause of disease is not bacteria. Bacteria develops after the accumulation of morbid matter when a favorable atmosphere for their growth develops in body. Basic cause is morbid matter and not the bacteria.
3. Acute diseases are our friends not he enemies. Chronic diseases are the outcome of wrong treatment and suppression of the acute diseases.
4. Nature is the greatest healer. Body the capacity to prevent itself from diseases and regain health if unhealthy.
5. In Naturopathy patient is treated and not the disease.
6. In Naturopathy diagnosis is easily possible. Ostentation is not required. Long waiting for diagnosis is not required for treatment.
7. Patients suffering from chronic ailments are also treated successfully in comparatively less time in Naturopathy.
8. After emerging, suppressed diseases can be cured by Naturopathy.
9. Nature Cure treats physical, mental, social (moral) and spiritual all four aspects at the same time.
10. Nature Cure treats body as a whole instead of giving treatment to each organ separetely.
11. Naturopathy does not use medicines. According to Naturopathy “Food is Medicine”.
12. According to Gandhi Ji “Rama Nama is the best Natural Treatment”, means doing prayer according to one’s spiritual faith is an important part of treatment.