EDITORIAL

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost said this years ago, yet this thought is still young and driving, as
we quote it here, here in this issue of E-mag!ne which has completed one whole
year. They say life comes a full circle and how? Today takes us a year back when
We identify we first incepted this wild idea…which led to a number of raised eyebrows and
even more number of smirks! All we could do was to smile and…well…smile
with the pain again. Our silence was itself confused, whether we are sure of what lies ahead…
whether this would be just another random idea that would fume away with
and the the haze of umpteen cups of hot tea or is this something that would eventually
immense joy get entwined with our lives so much so that a 365 days would pass with just a
batting of an eye. We wanted to risk the unusual…we just didn't want to settle
that is felt to for the ordinary.

let it take on And as all great people have said, that hardship owns its reward, our initiative
the world on too reaped a lot of accolades, over the months comprising its journey, that
silenced our retractors. E-mag!ne not only broke across many barriers that had
its own. Pain entwined our lives, but it also forged many a relationship with a world hitherto
unknown to us. It not only did good for the cause we established it for, it also
to let it go.. enriched us & all our stakeholders in ways which never ceased to surprise us!
Joy.. to Slowly E-mag!ne became as integral to our lives as water is to a fish's existence.
The hard stones stepped upon along the journey only made us bask rather
witness it take unabashedly and merrily on the fruits we gathered later on. When we say that
E-mag!ne has reached far and wide, we do so with a fair amount of conviction
its first flight because we have witnessed its reach touch lives beyond the domain of our
and every mother land India even!

flight ever We know what it feels to dream and when that dream takes a form of of its
own. We identify with the pain and the immense joy that is felt to let it take on
since. the world on its own. Pain to let it go.. Joy.. to witness it take its first flight and
every flight ever since. Having gone through all of those juxtaposed emotions,
having spent a full year of living this dream every single day, we realize and
salute the spirit of “Doing your own thing”, the spirit of doing it differently, the
spirit of Entrepreneurship.

This month E-mag!ne comes with an exclusive look. All sections that
you shall see in this issue are anniversary special. Also introduced Is the
“blog this!” feature. Now you can blog on the articles you read here.
Just follow the link on the bottom-right corner of the page. Hope you
have a good read and also that you continue supporting us! cheers!

- Team E-mag!ne : Srimoyee Ray & Bikram Sarkar

C o n t e n t s 01/10
FEATURED INTERVIEW
04 Survey KAUSHIK MUKHERJEE 06
A survey on the entrepreneurial Chucking a career at Goldman Sachs,
attitude amongst the people of Kaushik Mukherjee took up the bold
India. descision to be an entrepreneur.

14 Entrepreneurs RAMPRASAD RAJENDRAN 09

Nandini Vaidyanathan writes her Gaming on social networking sites?
experiences on entrepreneurship for this is the man you got to thank!
us.

Tete-e-tete
VISHAL SETHI 11
The man who revolutionized event
management in India speaks up in
an E-mag!ne exclusive.
 FEATURED
SURVEY

Entrepreneurship survey
An E-mag!ne initiative.
We had conducted a survey to judge the attitude of way, are more inclined and interested towards taking it
people towards the idea of entrepreneurship. A up seriously in the near future.
questionnaire was administered with 10 questions
which tried to find out what percentage of these
respondents actually wanted to take up
entrepreneurship seriously. This questionnaire is not a
structured one in the sense that we kept it open for
people to fill it up. We believe that only sheer interest
in Entrepreneurship should be the motivation for
these people to partake in this survey. At the end, we
got a decent sample size of 30 with age groups across
the following:

Here we see that the maximum number of

The majority of the respondents belong to the age
group of 18-25 with an inclination towards the age of
23 & 24 years. The gender distribution was fairly
decent with male respondents being more in number
than their counterpart female ones.
respondents have a prior stint with entrepreneurship.
Close to a 60.90 % said that they belong to background
of entrepreneurship and about a 39.10 % said that
they has no exposure to the E-way, in the past.
Consequently, we have seen that these 60.90%
respondents have designed or rather tried to design a
B-plan of their own. We can account this again to their
relevant background which might have acted as an eye
opener for them.
When we asked the respondents to give their
preference of startup industry, as in the industry that
they want to venture in, we noticed a very interesting
trend. Most of the respondents showed an interest
towards starting some thing of their own in the
Education sector, followed by food and service which
ranked equal. But the majority of the responses
included varied sectors like, Rural healthcare,
transportation, etc.

Another very interesting conclusion that we got out of

the results of the survey is that people who already
have had an exposure to the entrepreneur bent of
mind i.e, they have had members of the family,
relations, friends who have had gone the entrepreneur

4 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com

 FEATURED
SURVEY
On asking their preference of the city in India that they
would want to start their venture in .i.e, the city that
would be the base camp and on it the venture would
eventually spread its roots to other parts of the country,
this was the trend that followed :
Kolkata was preferred most in terms of the city ranking.
The reasons that we could ration out was Kolkata being
a fairly cost effective locale, people thought that it
would be a comfortable zone to kick off their venture,
even with a not so handsome capital investment. Only
next preferred location was Mumbai, obviously because
it is the financial capital of the country and consequently
the opportunities and possibilities are immense in the
city of dreams. Delhi followed closely with a host of
other preferred city like Bangalore, Gurgaon and
Chennai.
We also tried to gauge a little of the
emotional/psychological aspect that is entwined with
entrepreneurship in an indispensable way. We asked our
respondents, who is that person or icon that they idolize
when it comes to taking this bold step in the world of
different thinkers? This is what we got :
We noticed that a host of respondents between the age
group of 23 to 25 years idolized stalwarts like Mr.
Dhirubhai Ambani and Mr. Narayan Murthy. Amongst
the other responses were, Mr. Steve Jobbs, Richard
Branson, and even our very own, the greatest “Bapu ji”.
There were responses that claimed that a lot of their
inspiration was due to their family members who had
already taken a plunge into this interesting world and
emerged victorious and successful.
Based on certain myths that we keep on hearing every
now and then, that out country India, produces
potential minds but however does not support
entrepreneurship when it comes to the opportunities
that are available. So we tried to find out what
percentage of the respondents feel likewise or rather
unlikewise the above. We found that :
5 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne
39.13 % respondents felt that the opportunities that
are available in India are very good and that India is
very much able and capable to support the minds that
harbor the interest to take “the road not taken” with a
host of opportunities and amenities.
Inspite of all the planning and the background work, at
times some ventures fall flat on the face or get
handicapped mid way. This in turn creates a sort of
prejudice amongst the people against this particular
field. We tried to find what according to the
respondents might be the reason that lead to a
sudden demise of a plan which was alive and beating
at one point in time.
§ Poor Planning/research/analysis/study
§ Poor funding
§ Lack of vision
§ Lack of endurance
§ Power politics
§ Environmental change
§ Lack of risk taking ability
The above are some of the reasons that was cited by
our respondents as being the primary concerns for a
startup to meet its unnatural death. Respondents
between the age group of 23 to 25 years felt that lack
of enough funds and poor planning whilst our
respondents of 30years and above adjudged, lack of
operational skills and inability to think long term as
the major reasons for failure. The proper flow of
things that should help a startup in the long run would
be : Right Information, Right Funding and Right
people.
So what are the necessary traits that one should
possess in order to be an Entrepreneur?
Heres what our respondents feel: Focus, Hardwork,
Perseverance, Non -Conformity, Leadership, Patience,
Innovation, Sacrifice are the key pillars on which an
able head rests with a firm foot on grounds. Yes, we
agree too, but E-mag!ne would prescribe just one
tonic – Imagine !! and that should take care of
everything that follows
Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com
 INTERVIEW
ENTREPRENEURS
KAUSHIK MUKHERJEE
Founding Director,COO : fintact.com
Kaushik Mukherjee, an IIM Ahmedabad and BITS Pilani alumnus gave up a lucrative investment
banking career at Goldman Sachs, New York in 2008 to found Fintact.com – a leading online
insurance portal in India. At IIMA, he was awarded the KVS Gold Medal for Best All-round Student. In
his spare time, he enjoys teaching western ballroom dancing, long-distance biking and playing poker.
1 Why
entrepreneurship?
The decision to be an entrepreneur is a very personal one
for most people who end up doing something out of the
ordinary. Since I had already worked both in India and
abroad in technical and financial domains, I had a vague
idea about how much a regular job would have to offer in
terms of
(a) learning
(b) excitement, and
(c) money
The problem is that as life progresses, the dependency
on a stable stream of (c) becomes so important that we
are forced to push (a) and (b) lower down in our priority
list and sometimes erase it altogether. When I started up,
to me (a) and (b) were more important than (c) since
there is only so much money an unmarried male in the
mid-twenties needs to afford a good lifestyle. Hence, I
did not have too much of a hesitation in taking a longer-
term bet on my life, since I was confident that the
opportunities that I was foregoing to pursue a dream on
my own was something that I could get back to at a later
date.
In the present, it was more important to do something
different. Engineering, MBA, IT – beyond a point, if you
don't differentiate yourself from the people you see
when you look around you – you lose yourself in a crowd.
And the way I am – I knew I would never be happy if I let
that happen. The small probability of striking gold is still a
chance – and I was prepared to take a chance on that.
6 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne
How has been your
2
entrepreneurial journey?
How did you start out?
During my days at IIM Ahmedabad, there used to be
many case contests and personality assessment
events, which gave me ample scope to test myself
against my peers and earn some money as well.
Together my business partner and I had won prize
money totalling to approx 5 lacs. Since this was excess
money anyways, we decided to invest that in
registering a company and launching our business.
It was a different thing that we blew that money in 8
months and were virtually pushed to the brink of
going back to a job – but we stuck it out and the
learning from those days is something that help me
even today. We started out with an eCommerce idea,
but much like most over-educated, self-confident
MBAs we missed out on analysis some of the basic
elements of the business we were getting into –
whether the idea was right for the time, the market
and us. This turned out to be a self-imposed
internship, which helped us ensure that the next time
we set out to run a company – we would be better
equipped and better prepared.
What were the initial reactions
3 of your family and friends when
you said that you want to start
something of your own?
Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com
 INTERVIEW
ENTREPRENEURS
I think this one's predictable. They were visibly
disappointed as the job offer I was giving up was one of the
highest grossing salaries in my batch as an Investment
Banker at Goldman Sachs, New York. Hence, for a little
while – my decision seemed quite inexplicable to them. But
as they say – with parents you can't negotiate, you take
your time and you reason.
So after a week's talk, they did see that it wouldn't hurt my
career if I took a couple of years off at worst to try out
something. And from then on, whether they understand
my business or not – they know from the days of bus travel
in 2006 to the days of frequent flight travel nowadays, that
all is well.
Friends were excited of course – but clearly divided into
two categories. Those that were worried about how we
did and those that were curious about how we did. Those
that cared and those that wagered bets on when we
would get back to a 'normal' job.
How would you describe your
4 venture? Some details about the
business idea that you started
out with?
Fintact.com is an online insurance portal that helps
people choose the right insurance policies for themselves
and their family. We have tied up with a number of
agents across different cities and service our customers
by connecting them to these agents.
What would you describe as
5 your target market?
Our target market is mostly the age-group between 21-
45 gender-agnostic, who mostly turn to the internet as
the primary source of information. Geographically we
serve 10 cities in India as of now with plans of spreading
into 14 other cities by the end of the year.
7 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne
What kind of recognition has
6 your venture gained over the
years? Has that been along
expected lines?
The first wave of recognition for any venture comes
when you are planning to raise some funding to
operate it for a specific amount of time. With
Fintact.com we went through a long-drawn and
sometimes-painful VC/Investor-pitching exercise,
which finally closed with us sealing our first round of
funding from Rediff.com. A year from now will be a
good time to take stock since we would have been in
market for more than a year by then.
What do you think sets your
7 venture apart?
All business ideas are replicable. I think our strength
lies in our team and our execution ability. Over the
years we have been able to attract talent from India
and overseas – people who have stuck on because
they love the company culture and the freedom they
are given to set their own targets and achieve them.
This is difficult to replicate and as of today, we are
fortunate to have a company where the employees
treat the company as theirs and worked really hard to
beat the service that our competitors are offering.
8 What are your future
plans ?
Learnt my lesson earlier. Answers to such questions
should never be in print. Sometime in the future, they
always come back haunt you in one way or the other.
Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com
 INTERVIEW
ENTREPRENEURS
Your message for young to tap the right sources to fund his/her dream
9 entrepreneurs out there? Which
venture.

trait is most essential that you

think an individual should
possess to venture into a start
up?
Be ridiculous. No, seriously. Till about a year back, I used to
think that being persevering would be enough – but there
are far too many people who exist and fade away without
making a dent. To stand out of the crowd – the crowd is not
going to move – you have to draw attention to yourself by
being different.
Make a conscious attempt to be different from the person
next to you. Entrepreneurship is a bent of mind that
teaches you to look for arbitrage opportunities in life.
These translate into large-scale opportunities that help you
make money, name, fame – and of course spread some
cheer.
What do you feel about the
10 current state of
Accolades :
In April 2008, Kaushik was awarded the
prestigious KVS Gold Medal for the Best
Graduating All-round student of 2008 at IIM
Ahmedabad.
In November 2007, he was awarded the title
of ‘Ashwamedha – The Best Manager’ from
amongst over 1000 participants from 30 of
India’s best business schools at IIM Indore’s
annual business summit IRIS. In January 2008,
he finished Runners-Up in a similar event,
‘Olympus’ at IIM Calcutta.
Social concern :
Kaushik has shown his commitment to social
causes by being a regular blood donor,
participating in the Revlon New York Run for
fight against women’s cancer and being a
member of the NGO foundation aProCh
during 2007-08.

entrepreneurship in India?
What are its strength's and
pitfalls?

It's pitiful. When I started up, it was almost a shameful

thing to give up a job and try something on your own.
Thanks to the NEN, proto.in and organizations like yours
that evangelize entrepreneurship, today – starting up is
not considered akin to committing hara-kiri. However, far
too many people are thinking about far too many ideas
with far too few people who have money.

In India you'll find investors and VCs aplenty who appear

at these conventions and talk nineteen-to-the-dozen
about how amazingly awesome it if to start up and how
they believe in backing people and their ideas. However,
when it comes to putting their money where their mouth
is – you'll see quite a different person.

I think the strength lies is the non-conventional channels.

There are enough and more HNIs with risk appetite and if
one is able to network effectively, he/she should be able

8 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com

 INTERVIEW
ENTREPRENEURS

RAMPRASAD RAJENDRAN
Co-founder : Hashcube
Hashcube is a social gaming company started by school friends Deepan (26) and
Ram (25) that makes popular puzzle type games on social networking sites and
mobile platforms like the iPhone.

There have been mixed reactions. Some people

1 Why entrepreneurship? encouraged and motivated while the others had their
doubts. We would have never know the result until we
start out.
I've always been fascinated with entrepreneurship. I
worked in a few companies before I ventured to start on
my own and got a feel of how companies work. There is a How would you describe
lot of freedom when you are on your own and you get to 4 your venture? Some details
explore and try out your own ideas and the ideas that
you believe and trust in. about the business idea
that you started out with?
How has been your
2 entrepreneurial journey? HashCube is a social gaming company that makes fun
to play puzzle games on social networks like facebook.
How did you start out? We initially started of with building games on
standalone websites but later realised that gaming on
social networks was a new and a bigger industry and
Deepan(my co-founder) were schoolmates. We did a we shifted focus.
bouncing ball game back then and during Deepan's
college he made a sudoku puzzle application and built a
website around it. It started to gain traction and after
that we started out. The entrepreneurial journey has
What would you describe
been fun and tough. There are multiple lessons that
we've learned over the years and we've had the chance
5 as your target market?
to meet and interact with a lot of interesting people.
Everybody who uses social networks and plays games

3 What were the initial What kind of recognition

reactions of your family and 6 has your venture gained
friends when you said that over the years? Has that
you want to start something been along expected lines?
of your own?

9 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com

 INTERVIEW
ENTREPRENEURS
HashCube was incubated as part of the iAccelerator
program that happened at IIM Ahmedabad. Our userbase
has significantly grown and we've been featured by
bloggers and the press.

What are your future plans?

7
We want to continue to make games that are fun and are
played by millions.

Your message for young

8 entrepreneurs out there? Which
trait is most essential that you
think an individual should possess
to venture into a start up?

Start out as early as possible. Patience and perseverance

are necessary along with other traits.

What do you feel about the

9 current state of entrepreneurship
in India? What are its strength's
and pitfalls?

Entrepreneurship is booming in India. There is a lot of help

that you could get from mailing lists, fellow entrepreneurs
and there are also multiple events focussed on startups
and entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship is
booming in India...
10 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com
Tete-e-tete
ENTREPRENEURS

There is a lot of learning in the

entire startup process...

VISHAL SETHI
Founder : Meraevent.com

Vishal Sethi is the founder of MeraEvent Interactive Pvt Ltd, one of the
iaccelerator 2009 companies, an initiative by CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad, which
he describes as a 'platform to connect the event stakeholders'.He is also an
Institute of Management Technology and St. Xaviers college, Kolkata
alumnus. He, a first generation entrepreneur, shares his journey and
experiences with us...

[Q] Tell us something about yourself?

[A] I had my schooling from DPS,Farakka, around 300 kms from Kolkata. After that my family settled in
kolkata, then i took admission in B.com (hons) at St. Xavier college. After passing out from St.Xaviers, i
worked a bit for companies like ABN amro and Cadbury India Pvt Ltd. Then i Did my MBA from Institute of
Management Technology (IMT). From there i got a job in Idea cellular, There i worked for around 19-20
months. I had a business idea from my MBA days,won few business plan competitions also.

In fact, my enthusiasm towards these competitive events led to the initial idea for my entrepreneurial
journey. I used to miss out on a lot of these events due to lack of proper information. So i came up with
the idea of having an event directory, i.e an medium to spread information and awareness about these
competitive events. Later on this business plan was refined and remodelled to take its current shape.

I decided to work for couple of years,get some work exp. and savings.

I quit my job in january 2009 ,jumped full time into my venture.Then in march it got selected in as one of
the iaccelerator companies 2009 - initiative by CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad..

[Q] Sir, how did this IIM-Ahemdabad thing happen? A little bit more detail?

[A] CIIE at IIM Ahmedabad runs a program called iAccelerator. 5-6 start ups are selected which are then
mentored and seed-funded.

We had to stay in IIM campus during this prog.which was a great learning for me.

[Q] Sir, a little bit about your venture?

11 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com

Tete-e-tete
ENTREPRENEURS
[A] Its called Meraevent Interactive pvt ltd.Its a platform to connect the stakeholders of events and
entertainment industry. There are basically 3 parties related to an event, The user- who watches it, the
performer, and the organizer.

It gives the opputunity to all event vendors to expand their business and increase their reach and also
ease to users who want to get an event done across all categories.

[Q] Sir, is there any minimum amount that a user has to have as a budjet for the
event he/she is planning in order to be able to access meraevent.com?

[A] No, we cater to customers with all kinds of budgets. Someone might have a venue budget for 10 lakh
rupees, while for someone the entire event budget might stand out to be 50k. We have arrangements to
meet both these requirements.

[Q] How much potent does an online business model have in today's world?

[A] See, in India Online is not as big a thing as it might be in other parts of the world. Shaadi.com, Naukri.com
all started off with their online models, slowly down the line they have ventured into offline models in big
way like Shaadi centre's Naukri Centre's etc. Our business model will have a 50-50 online/offline focus.

[Q] Where are your branches located?

[A] As of now we are present in kolkata and Mumbai.....we will soon be starting off in Delhi and Bangalore.

[Q] What about advertizing?

[A] Most of the start ups fail due to money issues, so spending too much on promotion is not IN OUR right
now. More importantly we are trying to partner with major events that are happening to let our
presence felt.Then there is social media...we are planning some interesting activities too but i believe the
best marketing is word of mouth one...nothing beats that.

Our aim is to reach each and every Family, because every family has an event.

[Q] Its known that certain states are more active in terms of the number of the
number of events that happen there. So which are the states that you are
targetting majorly?

[A] We have chosen 6 cities to be present in by the end of 2010.

[Q] How important would kolkata be to your operations?

12 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com

Tete-e-tete
ENTREPRENEURS
Kolkata is obviously very important, We are currently head-quartered in Kolkata, but also its true that a
major part of the operational work is being done in Mumbai.

Yes, region wise East is definitely very important to us, not only Kolkata but surrounding areas like
Jamshedpur, Shillong etc are also vital to us.

[Q] Who do you think are your competitors?

[A] I would say as a venture meraevent does not have any direct competitors. Yes, information directories
like justdial can be taken as a competitor, but we focus only to events and entertainment industry.

We will have a lead time of atleast 1 year to any other player who enters this market..thanks to our
major tie-ups and network.

[Q] Why do you think start ups fail?

[A] Lack of proper mentoring and funding....Though number of incubation cells have come up but still its a
long way to go...But there is a lot of learning in the entire startup process....even a startup fails the
founder learns a lot from mistakes and helps him/her to rectify those later.

[Q] Your word of advice for budding entrepreneurs out there?

[A] Have a holistic plan and talk to someone who can give blatant opinions before you start implementing it.
Be open and flexible and take a look at market demands while running the business

13 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com

 FEATURED
ENTREPRENEURS

NANDINI VAIDYANATHAN
Mentor on entrepreneurship

Professor Nandini Vaidyanathan, an alumnus of Delhi School of Economics and

London School of Economics, spent twenty years in the corporate sector in MNC’s
across all inhabited continents.

For the last four years, she has been teaching entrepreneurship in premier biz and
engineering schools around the world. She is passionate not just about creating
entrepreneurs but a mentorship institution for building a vibrant entrepreneurial
India.

She has set up Entrepreneurship Development Centre at PES School of

Engineering, Bangalore, which along with its sister institutions has over 17,000
students. The Centre has an incubator attached to it and provides pre-seed
capital, infrastructure and mentorship to aspiring entrepreneurs.

She is a Mentor with New Ventures India, which is a joint venture between World
Resources Institute, Washington and Godrej Green Building Hyderabad and
promotes clean tech entrepreneurship.

She is also Mentor with MentorPartners, an online mentoring platform for

entrepreneurs.

She is co-founder of two companies, Startups (forstartups.blogspot.com) and

CARMa (www.carmagroup.in).

CARMa works with SME’s in getting them investment-ready, helping them raise
capital and providing them exit engineering, post capital-raising.

She writes a regular column in the magazine Entrepreneur called Your CARMa.
has written a series of books on entrepreneurship which will be in print sometime
this year. Following is an insightful article on entrepreneurship penned by her.

14 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com

 FEATURED
ENTREPRENEURS
Tata Jagriti Rail Yatra for Entrepreneurs

E
verybody has a 'wow' moment and if one is In mid- December, 2009, I received mail from Ananth
lucky, several of them during a lifetime. I'm Krishna who introduced himself as the co-ordinator
possibly one of the few really privileged ones of the Yatra and invited me to be a panelist either in
who meets amazing people literally most days of the Kanyakumari on 28th december or in Hyderabad on
year. Which means I have a treasure chest of wow 2nd January. I chose Hyderabad.
moments.
I had heard of this train journey in 2008 and I was
But I can tell you this,- if I were asked to pick this one completely delighted to be invited to be a small part
heirloom which i will want to pass on to the future of it this year.
generations, it will easily and uncontestably be 2nd Jan
2010 at TCS campus in Hyderabad at the TATA Jagriti On 2nd January, at three thirty I walked into the
Entrepreneur Rail Yatra. Nothing had prepared me for reception of TCS at Hi-tech city. The security guard
what I was going to experience here. manning the reception just pointed to an area
behind him and asked me to proceed there. I did and
Jagriti is a foundation involved in a number of nothing had prepared me for what met my eyes.
developmental activities but this train journey is the
brainchild of Shashank Mani and if you want to know I walked out of the reception into an open atrium
more about how and why he designed this yatra, just built like an amphi-theatre, steep and cascading,
pick up his book : India : A journey through a healing with stone steps going all the way down,
civilization, published by Harper Collins. interspersed with bushes and trees. On the steps
were some 400 odd people, youngsters, bright eyed
In 1997, Shashank conceived of an idea to discover and bushy tailed notwithstanding the ardor of a train
India beyond her sophistication (his words) and journey, waiting expectantly, as if they were in
urbanity and experience her home-spun 'genius' Woodstock, waiting for their favorite rock band to
(again his words). He called it Azad Bharat Rail Yatra. perform!!!
This was the germination of an idea which is all poised I got goose
to open the floodgates for an upbeat entrepreneurial bumps just 400 young vibrant
India. It has now morphed into a train journey for looking at them hungry unmolded
practising and aspiring young entrepreneurs from and believe you minds coming
what they call the Middle India, middle not in the me, for a minute
geographic or class sense but in the economic sense. together, meeting
I was tempted
to turn on my entrepreneurs of d
Shashank, Raj and Revathy (whom unfortunately i did heels and run ifferent shapes and
not get to meet as she had stayed back in Chennai) are for dear life
responsible for designing an experience for the
sizes and hues,
from there.
entrepreneurs which will stay with them for the rest of understanding the
What is it I can
their lives. This is an 18 day train journey through the offer them that challenges of being
length and breadth of India, where people from will make their an entrepreneur, not
different climes and cultures travel together, discover eyes twinkle
reach other and in the process manage to hold a
to be daunted by
more, what do I
mirror to themselves. have in me that
them but to convert
can make them them into a laundry
400 young vibrant hungry unmolded minds coming hungrier and list of do's and
together, meeting entrepreneurs of different shapes
and sizes and hues, understanding the challenges of wilder? What can I say to them that will inspire
being an entrepreneur, not to be daunted by them but them,- these were the big questions that came
to convert them into a laundry list of do's and dont's. flooding my mind and for a moment I lost it and just
God what a divine moment!!! wanted to scoot out of there.

Let me start the story from the beginning But the goose bumps took over thankfully!!! and I

15 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com

 FEATURED
ENTREPRENEURS
walked down the steps in awe, in humility, in
anticipation. And that was the beginning of several of
my wow moments.

Since last year Tatas and CNBC have been phenomenal

partners in this event and on the panel were Dr
Krishna Tanuku, ED, Wadhwani Centre for
Entrepreneurship, ISB, Mr Mohan Rao, State Director
for Small Scale and Khadi Industries Commission and
myself. The discussion was moderated by Suresh
Venkat, Exec Producer, CNBC. The subject for
discussion : funding for small entrepreneurs.

I wont go into the discussion here, many of you must

have caught it on CNBC last month.

Suresh turned out to be an intelligent, witty

moderator, not one of those who talks more than
those he moderates!!! We covered a whole gamut of
subjects in the panel discussion.

This was followed by a Q&A session from the audience

and I was astounded at the questions that were asked.
My favorite of course was from an overseas
participant who asked : Everyone talks of what
investors look for in the entrepreneur. What should an
entrepreneur look for in an investor!!!
Once the discussion was over I was mobbed
completely and can you believe it, they even asked me
for my autograph on t-shirts, on paper, on their
palm!!! I was dying of embarrassment.

at the end of it all, i was completely exhausted and

completely, overwhelmingly innervated!!

Shashank, Raj and Ananth? how can I ever thank you

enough? May your tribe increase.

16 01/2010 >> E-mag!ne Blog this!emagine-mhrm.blogspot.com