escape velocity

French TV never made sense to me. The programmes are usually broadcast in French language and are viewed by French speaking viewers. So, why do they have French subtitles? The Dutch show English programmes with Dutch sub-titles, so that makes sense. The Germans…well, they are a bit too skewed, they dub everything into German.

Anyways, I was going through the Google Foundation’s site (http://www.google.org) today and looked at one of the organisations they fund/support. It’s called PlanetRead (http://www.planetread.org/), which according to the Foundation’s site, is an organization seeking to improve literacy in India using same-language subtitling. By adding subtitles to Bollywood films and videos of popular folk songs, PlanetRead gives people who have low literacy skills regular reading practice.

I think this is a brilliant idea for a country like India to get people to learn and improve their reading skills. Now…did they get this idea from the French? I wonder if this is also the reason why the French subtitle their French TV programmes in French Or maybe, they are just scared that their citizens might start forgetting their native language :).

Imagine this. You are by yourself, at your desk. One day you sit up and feel that you need a change, and a new challenge. What would you do next? Ideally, you’d salvage an old copy of your CV, brush it up, look up some sites, speak to people, glance through the ‘opportunities supplement’ in your local paper, and soon, you’d be wading into new waters. Before you realise it, you’re starting at a new screen, sitting by a new desk, conversing with new colleagues, and maybe you will also chose to have a new wardrobe to go with all this. Like a snake that sheds it’s skin, you’d find yourself wearing a new life. Fresh.

I think this is one way people try to ‘not’ feel stagnant. Now, what if one is an entrepreneur! How to ensure that he/she isn’t stuck or burdened. Arguing it the other way, how does one ensure that he/she does not feel comfortable being associated with the furniture of the company. This thought does not hold true for those who transform themselves into serial entrepreneurs, wherein they usually, build-operate and transfer (move on).

As an entrepreneur, you are supposed to drive your company’s existence and growth. But entrepreneurs also need a refreshing experience on and off. They must be able to start fresh at points in life, without feeling burdened by the responsibilities of their ventures. Frankly speaking you are an entrepreneur on the upward gradient. Once you’ve hit a plain stretch, you’d end up being yet-another businessman.

How to remain an entrepreneur and simulate conditions wherein, one is able to sit up one day, feel the need for a change, and affect that for oneself, without leaving the horse mid-stream! The more I think about it, I feel it is as important for an entrepreneur to be able to start afresh in thought, action and ambience, as it is for an employed person. Anyone would rot, without that.

The problem is similar to relationships. Most people get into relationships, and find it easy to get out, and seek something new when there is no commitment beyond a point. The married ones end up stuck if there is a hitch. But not all stay stuck, they converse, and re-invent themselves while being within the relationship, but in conversation, they seek new ways to transform what is, into something exciting. It doesn’t seem any different for a company.

At our company, we want to try doing this differently. And my initial and uncooked thoughts on this are as follows:

1. An entrepreneur/founder should drive the initial stages of his/her company’s growth
2. There should come a point, wherein, the entrepreneur replaces him/herself with a capable leader and a management who can take the company to the next level
3. The entrepreneur should thereafter do what he/she is best at, if he/she choses to continue working for the company. Incubate new ideas, build new teams, target new markets. Stay in the trench.

And, with the right team in place, any entrepreneur should find a role where he/she is able to constantly add value to the company. I want to find a model, whereby, I do not get stuck parenting a company that I am not capable of beyond a point. And yes, when that point comes, I want to work with someone capable, and aligned with the goals of the company. And, I hope I get a sabbatical or two, to move to ground zero elsewhere and intern with other company once in a while. I really don’t like the feeling losing contact with the start line.

Words like ‘Shameful’ and ‘Cowardice’ just don’t seem strong enough. No matter what, no one deserves to be hurt, and least of all at a time when they assemble together to pray. Innocent people were killed in a blast at the Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad a few hours back. Any fool can see that this is an act intended to provoke. The time, occasion, day and manner cannot be mere coincidence. Whoever did this, those fucking retards need to be nailed to the road in this summer’s scorching heat, and flogged. Why would anyone do this! morons!

And for those of you who do not know, Mecca Masjid is one of India’s biggest and most beautiful mosques. It’s construction spanned over a period of 70 odd years, during the 17th century. Folklore goes that bricks shipped from Mecca were used in the construction of the central arch and hence it’s name.

I just picked the image below from this link. It’s a site called xkcd by Randall Munroe. It’s interesting to see how he conveys an online community as a ‘nation state’, size included, and represents the online geography with a real world metaphor that most people relate to.

Pondering it, most people live in one city or one state for all their lives, and do not know of a world other than the one they wake up to each morning. Like frogs in a well. The Internet was supposed to have changed all this, and people were meant to become ‘global’. Has that happened? Having moved back to India late last year, I realised that anyone and everyone I knew in this part of the world once upon a time, today inhabits Planet Orkut. And, I got down to using this site in Autumn 2006, just to connect with old friends and acquaintances. In plainspeak, online communities are as insulated as the physical ones, including countries.

Orkut is hardly known in The Netherlands (except for Dutch folk with Brazilian friends). Most people I know there live in hyves or hi. And, if I meet folks from the Yank land, they seem to have passports from countries like Myspace, Facebook etc.

Today the average young and yuppy ‘yo’ Indian would raise his/her brows if you aren’t on Orrrrrrkut, despite it being one of the world’s buggiest, feature starved, piece o’shit service. Then again in a country where Skoda is considered a premium brand, any pig can fly :).

Anyways, coming to the map in question, I chanced upon it through Bruno Giussani’s blog, Lunch over IP.