God Money in Rome and what we did with it!

I recently came across an article on Indians being lousy tippers, which reminded me of something that happened last year when my friends and I went on a backpacking trip to Europe.

Last year, my friends and I went on a backpacking trip to the Europe and during the last leg of our trip in Italy, while we were trying to board the metro in Paris, , my friend who lives in Germany noticed something fluttering on the platform, he noticed a 50 Euro note lying in our path, I ran and grabbed  the note before it flew away, my friends joined me and we all had a Eureka moment.

We an early morning flight to catch and so we didn't have time to discuss what we had to do with the 50 Euros, we retired and early and the next morning caught our flight from Paris to Rome.

We checked into our Air-BNB's that afternoon, hunger forced us to venture out.
We walked around the streets of Roma, looking for half-decent cheap hotels that would fit in our bootstrapped budget. While we walked, we all debated on what we should be doing with this 50 Euro note, we termed it "God Money".

We arrived at an Italian place in Roma, Italy, we were still debating what to do with this "God Money", when the waiter an old man in his late sixties came over and charmed us by ranting out the Menu in classic Italian, we couldn't understand a word, but we were thoroughly impressed.

The debate on what to do with the God Money was put on hold to satiate our hunger. My Vegetarian friend ordered a Pizza which had a bizarre name, assuming it to be Vegetarian. Just when it arrived, he looked at it, Unquote, " Maga, this thing doesn't look Vegetarian and smells funny.  It turned out to be true and that Pizza was made of Fish, he then ordered another that was Vegetarian.

While we had our Pizza, the debate on what to do with the God Money continued, we were pondering over whether we should buy something for ourselves or just add this to our pool and spend it, that's when a brilliant idea came-up. We all knew we had tipped badly (Literally hadn't tipped) previously in all restaurants we had visited, that's when it hit us, the next place wherever we went, we would be very generous in our tip. We had taken the responsibility of changing the image of us Indians in Europe and we took our jobs seriously.

At the very place which witnessed our world-changing debate, we let the old man who served us and served us well have a very big tip, before leaving he gave us all a salute and a warm smile and for a moment, we felt newly crowned-kings and left the place with an air of superiority.

We continued to tip generously till the 50 Euros became zero, after that we became the lousy tippers we originally were. 

Raghu Dixit - The voice or the story behind the voice

Long back, I had heard from friends and acquaintances the story of Raghu Dixit- a nice guy from a middle class background who took up music because of a silly challenge with his classmate. A bharatanatyam dancer, and a Gold Medalist in Micro Biology. He quit all that and took up singing, went on relentlessly for 6 years looking for a big break. He did get one, at a Bar in Mumbai and the rest as they say is History. I have since then been a big fan of his story.

Straight from the man himself - TEDx-Raghu Dixit

Its 8.30 PM and a gazillion people have gathered at Basavanagudi for the Ganesha Utsav, a stage set, lights flashing. Comes there a man, in lungi and anklets, guitar in his hand followed by two other guitarists and a violinist and the drummer settles at the back. He waves and the crowd roars. He strums the guitar and sings, there is pandemonium all around.

The song is a poem composed by a 19th Century Saint Poet, " Santha Shishunala Sharif. He begins, the crowd roars and sings along. Is this a rock concert or what!!

The first concert I attended was way back when Raghu Dixit and his band had come to our college (Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering) in 2010. I had heard his songs and I did have a thing for them. He has what I think a soulful voice and a quirky style. That's what makes him so popular!

The dude went deep into Kannada literature hunted down some of the most meaningful and beautiful songs added a folk rock tune to it and stole our hearts away. He has travelled aroung the globe and his music is popular in Europe and the US. His concerts are packed and he gives the international rock bands a run for their money.

His music is soulful, innocent and quirky  & His story is unbelievable
A lot has been written about Raghu Dixit in the past and a lot will be written in the future as well. He has been one of the most celebrated artists from Karnataka.

But what is it about Raghu Dixit that makes him such a big crowdpuller, that makes people chant his name and that makes people sway, dance and jump whenever he sings. 

Is it the voice or the story behind the voice ? 

RIP Champ!

I write this post with moist eyes and a heavy heart.

There was a young boy who would come in everyday to serve tea for us. He served tea with a wide smile and a warmth that was hard to miss. Always punctual, he would show up twice everyday, at 10.00 AM in the morning and at 4.00 PM in the evening, day in and day out serving tea with the whole world's enthusiasm. He would come to you, ask you if need tea or coffee, hand-it over with a smile, I'd say thank you and he would reply "Welcome".

Our interactions were limited to Hello, Good Morning and Yes or no for Tea. I used to call him Champ and he addressed me as Sir.

With the Festive peak ascending, work had kept me on the field meeting clients and ground teams and because of that, I had not visited my office Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Thursday, after a busy half day, I entered the office in the second half. A colleague and I were talking, when an acquaintance came over and interrupted, " The boy who used to serve tea for is no more", He died in a fire that was caused by a LPG leak.

I was devastated. The F word came out and I didn't have anything else to say.

An innocent life lost. Was it negligence or bad luck or both?

Many such lives lost day in and day out, yet we continue to work with "Chalta Hain/Swalpa Adjust Madkoli"

RIP Champ. You will be missed.

Gandikota & Belum

5 Lads packed into a hatchback on a Friday evening.

We left at 6.30 PM  and by the time we scraped out of Bangalore, it was 8.00 PM. Rain and Traffic pulling us down and making sure we had a red eye drive. We all felt hungry at around 9.00 and decided to stop at a local hotel that we found by the highway. The dining experience was nothing short of forgettable and  my friends decided to hold me responsible for choosing the place.

My persistent efforts in pushing my friend to get the booking done in advance failed miserably, my friend wanted to make the trip much more adventurous 

We arrived at 1.00 AM at Jammalmadgu which is where our Telugu-speaking friend had assured we would get accommodation. To our misfortune, half the hotels had been shut and the remaining half told us they were full". My friend had to listen to a earful for his brave deed. Talks of sleep in the car went on in the background. We then decided to try our luck at Gandikota which was our original destination. We reached Gandikota in about 20 minutes and having reached Gandikota, we went to a Andhra Tourism hotel. 

The place looked deserted. We looked for the hotel manager or any executive who could give us a roof to sleep under. We saw a few cars parked outside a couple of cottages, which gave us some assurances of this place being still inhabited by Humans. 

We followed a trail and read a board that said reception. We reached the reception and found a couple of guys resting on wooden benches. My friend blabbered something in Telugu and the one of the two blokes woke up and in slumber, tried to shoo us off saying, there are no rooms. My friend used all his negotiation skills to convince him otherwise. There was some nagging and finally, he directed us to meet his boss. We followed him to the Boss's chambers where the boss was napping too. My friend mumbled a couple of lines in Telugu again and the boss replied in slumber, my friend looked at me and gestured a thumbs-up with a wide grin. I let out a sigh of relief. We returned back to the rest of the group with an air of success.

There was still a catch. We were asked to vacate the rooms by 6.00 AM the next morning. That literally meant, a 3 hour nap and an hour to get ready and leave, we reluctantly agreed to this. One of my friends suggested, we lock the doors and dose off till we want to get up. But we didn't have much time to sleep anyway, We had a whole of lot of things to cover the next day.

The room was not much of a room, but more of a dorm, although to me it looked like the general ward of a hospital, beds lined in parallel, the only thing missing was an attendant's chair and nurses to serve. We couldn't complain either, what more can you expect at 1.00 AM In the night.

My Telugu speaking friend set an alarm for 5.00 AM, he promptly woke everyone up and we sequentially got ready like inmates in a jail.

The three of us headed out to look around and see if we could get some coffee while the remaining two got ready. We caught hold of the guy who helped us with the room the previous night and asked him to get us 5 cups of piping hot filter coffee, meanwhile we were exploring the area. He returned with cups of coffee in a tray and I quickly took a cup in my hand gulped it down, I did grumble about the flavor of the coffee being inferior to the one I was used to.

After the shots of morning coffee, we loaded the car with our luggage and rode off to Gandikota. On our list that day was, the fort, a temple in the interior of the fort, the canyon, Belum caves and finally Yaganti.

We started with the fort which was 10 minutes away. The fort dates back to 16th Century, built by one of the subordinates of the Chalukyas of Kalyana. A naturally protected fort with river and a valley acting as a natural defence. Not much of the fort is seen as of today. Part of the  fort walls dilapidated and part of it covered with vegetation etc and part of it brought down to house the villagers. It looked like any other Indian fort. Nothing fancy. We spotted a beautiful Chameleon which surprisingly was not trying to blend with the surroundings but was trying to make itself extra visible by showing off a beautiful orange colour in a green background. I went close and it ran away. And that brought the fort visit to an end.

Next we headed to a temple which was a few meters away from the fort. The temple tower had only half of the original structure remaining. On going inside, we discovered it had a huge corridor and a brilliantly crafted inner sanctum with intricate carvings. However, there was no deity inside. We then headed to the master piece, the canyon with a 300 foot drop.

We enquired the localites, they said it's just by the mosque. We went till the mosque and saw a trail and assumed the trail was the route to the canyon. We went on and on for nearly for 20 minutes without bothering to ask anyone. Our arrogance gave us a tight slap. The trail that we followed went nowhere. Our incessant walking lead to us a deep valley which we couldn't cross. We were hungry and tired. A friend took out a packet of peanuts and that to us was the best food we had had in ages. The packet was emptied in a jiffy and we all felt like Men who had earned everything there is to earn.

We rested there for a few minutes, everyone to themselves not a word uttered. There was peace and quiet all around. The wind blowing to a tune that seemed so melodious.

We all then headed back to where we started, our foots covering more ground every second. We were in a hurry to get the real view of the "Gandikota Canyon". 

Having got back to the place where we had originally started, we found a few village souls going about their jobs. My Telugu speaking friend, ranted a few words in Telugu and the villager pointed to a direction that we had previously ignored. There was a clear sign-board which we had missed. We all cursed each other and finally put the blame on the Telugu speaking friend. We walked about 200 paces when we were welcomed by a 300 foot canyon, a parrot green coloured river flowing at the bottom.

The weather was just about right, not too sunny and not too overcast. We settled at the edge of rocks looking deep into the river. We spent a few moments quietly and then a friend pointed to another hill another group was trying to find. We all contemplated if we should climb the hill or not. We had lost a lot of time and we had a lot more ground to cover. We decided against climbing the rock. Spent some more time by the edge of the canyon, taking in the view. River Penna flowing beneath peacefully and the canyon guarding the river. It seemed like the Canyon was the protector with it's chest held high and standing tall in all it's might and the river flowing ever-so majestically. The river was "The Royal Highness"  and the Canyon, " The Noble Knight".

The ice was broken and we headed back to the car. Our next destination was Belum caves, a 3 kilometer long underground cave formed naturally centuries ago. Belum was 60 Kilometers from Gandikota, about an hour and a half drive. Hunger was killing us and yet there was no hotel to save us throughout. Huffing and Puffing, we reached Belum. Upon reaching there, we had only one thing in mind, FOOD. We headed straight to a cafe and ordered them to give us everything they had. Munched down a plates of rice and a gulped down bottles of juice.

After satiating our hunger, we moved over to the ticket counter and began our journey into Belum. Derived from the Telugu word "Bilum" meaning an underground hole.

The cave was warmer and humid, it was mystique and the air around gave strange feeling. The cave was dimly lit with lights being lit in patches. The scant light added to the mystique and awe.

We walked along, observing the many natural formations of stalactites and stalagmites. We bent, we crawled, we crouched all along the cave. It's hard for me to describe beyond this. Belum is a must-visit. 

We came back soaked in sweat and our lungs so happy to get a breath of fresh air. Spent another half an hour there indulged in friendly banter. Next on our destination was Yaganti, a small holy town which is above a tiny hill and is home to quite a few deities. The thing worth seeing is a cave of the Sage Agastya, which is located so beautifully amidst two hills. Light seeping through at an angle of 70 degrees lighting the cave so perfectly. The climb to this hill nearly vertical and quite literally takes your breath away. There is a certain unexplained calmness and tranquility to this place. Again a must visit if you happen to be close by. 

With that, the must visit places were over. We headed off to Mantralaya that night and paid a visit to the temple, next morning. We then headed back to Bangalore after a very brief stop at my friend's village. 

Two days well spent, 2 more new places visited in my bucket list of wanting to visit ten new places this year. 

Relationship is everything

Recently, a video of Vijay Shekar Sharma addressing his team in "Wolf of the wall-street fashion". . The whole world has been divided, one side,he has been condemned for his emotional burst and the other-side has rallied behind him strongly.

I think that's the coolest thing a founder could do. Often, people who are higher up the food-chain are often perceived as Androids or Hitlers. They tend to give the image of being dispassionate and nearly Vulcan. But, is that what is needed? Does your team actually needs this image for them to do their work ? for them to build a great company.

What really drives a human being to give out every ounce of energy for his leader/for his company? This has been a question that I have had countless debates with myself, my peers and my friends, and I am yet to get an answer that is firm and fair. Maybe I never will, only time will tell.


In one of my previous roles as a project engineer, I was extensively involved in the automation of the various manufacturing lines, whose end goal was reduction of manpower and increase in throughput.  Having spent some-time studying concepts in lean manufacturing, time and motion study,I really was convinced that automation was the way to go and always felt there is a limit to a human-being's potential. But, then came a sweet-surprise to me in the form of one of my colleagues who became a dear friend in the days to come. He was thin and a highly-energetic maintenance engineer, spearheading the maintenance efforts. A calm and an affable bloke, a few years elder to me.

We had a unionised work-force in the factory and getting work from them was a skill. Of all the engineers in the maintenance department, this light-hearted engineer had a reputation of being the magic man with a midas touch. Any problem in the plant, pick up the phone and call this dude and he would get work done in no time. Whenever, I got a chance to work with him, I would grab that opportunity with both hands, Observe him closely and understand how he would get work done from a workmen who were not only much older than him but also carried with them a big bag of  ego. For starters, I thought he was lucky that his team of workmen were all affable and easy-going folks, it seemed as though only nice guys were in his team. Always listening to him and always supporting him through the good and bad times. But then again, I found other engineers who would struggle to get the same work done through the same set of guys.  What was the magic formula that this guy had that the others lacked. This question haunted me for a long time.

One fine day, I mustered all my courage and pulled him to a side and asked him, "Dude, what's your magic formula? it's as though the world dances to your tunes!". Perplexed by my illogical question, he jokingly asked me if I was drunk. That's when, I threw everything there was in my mind and he looked a bit taken aback at the weird observation which could have been perceived as borderline stalking. He brushed me aside and told me to stop giving him the star-status, but I wasn't going to let him go without getting an answer. Inspite of the pile of work I had to complete, I decide the answers to these questions were important than anything else that day. He began by giving me his philosophy of life, I was like a curious child sitting with my ears wide open and he started off like seasoned story teller.

Rome wasn't built in a day my friend and like Rome, this so called magic took time. Initially, when I was a newbie in the company, I struggled like everyone else to deal with the workmen. But, thanks to my earlier bosses who had told me that life is all about relationship building, I began to employ techniques and tools that my earlier bosses had drilled in me. Whenever, I was called from any of the plants, I would hold the tools in my hand and take the workmen along with me, I would be the first one to get my hands dirty. Instead of directing them, I would jump in and solve this issue myself. I would lead by example. I spent a lot of time on the shop-floor and won their hearts. Along the way, if one of the workmen in my team would give me a solution/get the problem solved, I would appreciate their efforts and genuinely call them out during the team meetings. This motivated them, made them to work hard, win my appreciation and get the spotlight. Slowly and steadily, my visits to the plants reduced, my team would tell me to not come and assure me they would get the job done. This was an old-school trick, but it had a guaranteed result. I stuck to it and it paid off.  This was not all, whenever, they needed a personal favor, I would go out of my way to help them. I would make sure they had what they wanted and that strengthened the camaraderie that was already there. Lastly, I will give you an icing on the cake. whenever, they asked me leave, I would give them without a second's thought, however difficult it was for me. With that, I had tied all ends of the relationship knot. Thanks to that, my off-days were never interrupted with calls. He concluded with a line saying, " "Relationship is everything", just when I got a call from my boss and had to leave.

Walking back alone, I took it all and said Aha!

For me some, this was one of the best pieces of advice I could get on leadership of people. I have tried to follow this since then.

To sum it up, "Relationship is everything". 

The good, bad and Ugly of startup ecosystem

Start-ups have been pipped to be the next big thing. Many economists and visionaries are openly stating that start-ups are going to be the drivers of Economy. Start-ups are being seen as the solution providers to the developed, developing and the under-developed economies. Start-up hubs are gaining traction across all continents. Each trying to solve problems and monetise along the way.

Having spent some time in this space, I am slowly getting an idea of the good, the bad and the ugly here.

The Good

Startups are trying solve problems with the use of technology. They are trying to organise sectors that have been dis-organised since ages. It's trying to cut out the middlemen and mediocrity and set a benchmark.

Companies like OLA and UBER have made life convenient and cut out the taxi Mafia. Flipkart, Snapdeal have transformed the whole shopping experience. Swiggy has helped us in getting food from our favorite eateries delivered to our doorstep. Start-ups like Encashea & Karma-recycling are making recycling old goods easier and convenient. Zoomcar is trying to give the common man, the experience of car travel. Life has become really easy and convenient thanks to these companies. These are exciting times! The world is watching closely on how these companies will scale and grow

Apart from solving problems, these companies are also helping in wealth distribution. I know these are still early stages, but it's happening. Today, a taxi driver who works for OLA//UBER earns anywhere between 50k-1lakh. Delivery boys who work for various hyperlocal startups are earning about 20k per month. Truck drivers are now getting a taste of steady income in the range of 30-40k. Small business whose sales were once confined to a particular region are now able to sell to places across India. Start-ups are giving new ways for people, SME's and MSME's to earn more. Technology has in many ways been the driver of this wealth distribution. For India, where the wealth distribution is so skewed, this is great news. I truly hope this is not a fad.

The startups are also giving youngsters an opportunity to take up responsible and challenging roles. Startups are handing key-roles to youngsters and most of the youngsters are living upto the expectations. Roles that were once reserved for the men with grey hair or no hair are now being given to dudes with Turkish hairstyle.

Start-ups are promising us a future that is more organised and transparent. It is giving hope to the people to grow economically.People's aspirations are going North, there is self-belief and confidence.

The bad

To begin with, some of the startups are like eccentric over-achieving kids. Like people who have always excelled and don't know what to do when faced with failures, these startups tend to struggle when faced with setbacks, quite a few of them have even closed down because they had no idea what to do when they failed and thus they shutdown or changed their Business model. Did they truly see no future in that line of Business or did they screw up big-time and not take the right calls at the right time or was it bad timing? No one will really know.


The result, employees are fired, suppliers are hit. There is too much uncertainty. Cities shutdown overnight, employees let go in an instant. Disruptions in the socio-economic balance, conning and robbery because of a lack of process and regulations.

Although, this is bad, this is also a phase of learning. We are trying to raise children and the children are generation-1, as parents, this is as much new to us as it's for the kids. We are learning how to raise them, we are figuring out which is the right path, so on and so forth.

Don't be in a hurry to fix things; rather enrich your understanding in the ever going process of discovery and finding more the cause of your ignorance.
- Bruce Lee

The Ugly

Like every great company that's standing out there and made a name for itself, it takes time, patience and a mammoth effort to build companies. The people who are part of the company building exercise be it the investors or be it the founders/employees, should think and execute plans for the long run.

A very depressing trend these days (Esp from the investors) is that  the folks who put money are looking at startups as a means to grow wealth (Of-course it's) but that's not the primary purpose. The purpose of an Angel/Venture investor coming on board is to not only put in money, but also to guide and counsel the founders/core-team, to transfer knowledge and expertise, to connect the core team to mentors and experts. Although the founder's are responsible for building and scaling the company, it's the fundamental duty of the investor to coach their founder who afterall are like new parents who are trying to raise kids.

Instead, the focus is on getting a quick exit, multiply your wealth 10X (Just saying) in a few months and say goodbye, scaling and building the company to greater heights is not their headache. Their only focus is to raise the next rounds of funding. When the time is right, make a quick exit with pocket bursting money.

The receiving end of all this are the poor founders and employees, who work their heart out and get no or very little wealth gain that they were hoping for.

Closing thoughts
Still day-1 for the Indian new-age entrepreneur. Many battles to fight, many myths to be broken...

Is there Hope ? Yes certainly.  
But, we have to move fast and move right. If we don't, we risk the death of the whole eco-system..

Market-disruption is always better than disruption of the eco-system.

A story half-written and a building incomplete and many dreams would remain dreams.. 

E-commerce is disrupting the market and LOT OF OTHER THINGS TOO!

Flipkart, Amazon have been disrupting the market. I haven't heard anyone in the recent past who has bought electronics in a retail store. If it's shopping, it's Online! That's been the Mantra Offlate.

All said, they are disrupting something else too...

If you have ever logged on to flipkart/amazon and ordered something, 10 on 10 times, a young lad  would have come to your home/office and dropped off your package.

Have you ever wondered who that boy is, how old is he? Is this what he does full time?

There are over one lakh+ delivery boys across India. Carrying a heavy bag in chaotic traffic and hot sun. It does take considerable effort to do this. It's physically demanding to work for nearly 10+ hours. Bottomline, it's grinding, backbreaking work.

I see a dangerous trend in the industry (I feel guilty of) arising these days. Young boys, who have dropped out of their 12th/discountinued their 12th standard are opting for such jobs jobs. They are earning in excess of 20K per month and have gotten into the mindset that they can do this for the rest of their lives and there is no need to continue their education, to add to that, the parents of such boys are encouraging them to do so.

Why is it a dangerous trend?

1.The earnings today are not here to stay, Startups are burning VC money and giving fat salaries to  
   these boys and when they run out of money and the whole market comes to it's senses, their salaries
   are going to drop, much like what's happening to the UBER & OLA drivers. Surely, it's going
   to hit their pockets.

2. These boys don't know how to manage cash, manage their income and fall prey to credit cards,
    two-wheeleers, EMI's and fancy gadgets. Swipe the credit card, buy the latest iphone, buy a
    fancy bike which is kazillion times the monthly income. Their peers who are not in this field see
    them loading up gadgets, bikes and what not, are in envy of them. To quench this envy, they are
    literally getting their hands bloody.
( Flipkart Delivery Man In Bengaluru Arrived With Phone Throat Was Slit)

3. The Delivery boys handle a lot of Cash and high value goods. Somewhere down the line, if they
    don't think straight and flee with these goods, it could be a disaster for them as they will be put  
    behind bars for their act. Young lads in their 20s don't deserve this!

Closing Thoughts
I respect the work that the delivery boys do, however this job is something that should be viewed as a means to support his/her education and not something that should be viewed as a career. Education is, was and will be the best and the safest way to earn a livelihood and lead a respectable life. Pursuing this job at the cost of education is surely not a wise choice.

It's time the Flipkarts and the Amazons take stock of this and prevent this socio-economic disruption!