Vijay Basrur

Keeping it Simple

I love explaining concepts using analogies. I think if you understand the concept very well, an analogy is a great way to explaining it to someone who doesn’t understand it.

I was talking the other day with a colleague about Internet advertising and he complained about the fact that some of the traffic it brings in, is undesirable. Is there a way to avoid it? Actually its very akin to window shoppers or casual shoppers who walk into a store but never buy anything. Would you stop them? At times more people in a store attracts even more people. Eventually only a few would buy. But as long as you have the correct merchandising, some interesting offers etc., the conversion rates would be comfortable. Its very similar online as well. The rules pretty much stay the same.

Explaining things in plain English always helps the other person to understand the concept very well. This way I think the ability to retain that information is also quite high. A VC has started a nice series called MBA Mondays which explains concepts in lucid English. Check this article to know a bit about Compound Interest

Another gem I came across was sent by email by my friend MJ was a video explanation of how differential gears work. Check the video here. I had a tough time understanding this concept in college but the video tutorial makes it sound so easy.

As the adage goes, just KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)

The more I learn, the less I know

That could pretty much be the mantra for the year gone by.

Parenting: Bringing up Mansi has been the highlight of the year gone by. Snehal and me can’t imagine living a single day (for Snehal its probably a hour) without Mansi. Kids can be so selfless and stubborn at the same time. While each day we learn a bit more about parenting, we realize that there is so little we know about it. And that keeps us going and makes the journey very memorable

Startups: I am onto my 3rd startup, the second time around in the Internet space. Life in a startup is always very unpredictable but usually there is always a method in the madness. We’ve been doing pretty well at Quikr and hopefully the next year will be even better. Its a crucial year for us. Having spent nearly 90% of my career in startups, I continue to be amazed by the vibrancy of small companies. There is so little I know and so much to learn.

Technology: The tech industry keeps redefining the rules every 15 days (probably even faster) and it takes a herculean effort to keep pace. But thanks to the Internet its become a bit easier. Some blogs like Techcrunch have become the mecca of information. Email for example has undergone a huge transformation. I remember setting up the mail server at my 2nd job. It took us 5 months to get a domain and get things started with an archaic text only interface. The 2nd time around, 5 years later, we went with setting up MS exchange and burnt a huge hole in our IT Budget. The third time around, 2 years later, we partnered with Netcore to get things kicked off. We were up and running in 3-4 days. The fourth time around, 7 years later, we signed up for Google Apps. We were ready to go in 6 hours flat.

Reading: I can never get to an empty Google reader screen. I have 148 subscriptions and very little time to go through them. The more I add subscriptions, the less I am able to read. But I have my A List which I swear by and not a working day passes by before I have read the A list

Music: When I took a look at the Last.FM Best of 2009 List, I realized that the music industry has moved far ahead from where I left it at. Inspite of my 35 gig collection on my iPod, there is so much music still be experienced

Travel: The more we travel, the more we want to travel. There is so much of the world to see. This year we took a mini break to Kamshet, near Lonavala and did nothing. Nothing! No sight seeing, no reading nothing. We just played with our daughter, drank and ate good food. It was bliss.

Food/Drink: The more cuisines we experience, the more experiments we make with food. 2009 has been the year we, as a couple, discovered the joy of salads. The more single malts and beers I taste, I realize that there are so many single malts and beers left to taste.

On that note, 2009 has been a great year, here’s to hoping that 2010 brings with it more joy

Cheers!

Music and me

Music has been central to my being ever since I discovered Billie Jean on a cassette which had FM recordings sent by my aunt in the US. This was 1988. College is where I discovered rock, mostly Def Leppard. Grad college is where I got exposed to various types of music, thanks to living in a hostel for 4 years. Music varied from A to Z, A-Ha to Beatles to Yes to ZZ Top. One band I got exposed to which really changed my love for music was 10,000 Maniacs. I eventually ended up owning all their music and all of Natalie Merchant’s music after she moved away from the Maniacs.

Once I started earning, which was also the first time I bought my first CD, Eagles - Hell Freezes Over, is when I started buying some alternate music like INXS (they were not so popular until Hutchence killed himself).

My idea of exploring music was to pick movie soundtracks or borrow music from friends and then pick a CD of an artist which I liked. I discovered gems like Sarah Mclachlan, Alisson Krauss this way. The financial muscle gave me the liberty to experiment with artists (since buying albums was a big risk - what if all songs didn’t turn out to be good?). And thus began my experimentation while also stocking up on all the rock classics like U2, Floyd, Led Zep and such like.

15 years hence and my urge to experiment has dwindled. Call it old fashioned or anything but somehow I just like the old music barring some pursuits in Jazz (mostly instrumental). Guys like Dave Brubeck make an evening very memorable, more so if you are nursing a nice single malt. I have tried a few interesting artists like Andrea Bocelli, Micheal Buble but the list is very small. Its funny. These days I have much more spare money to buy music but I guess I’ve lost the ability to borrow/buy music which I can explore and then build on.

Hopefully I’ll be able to find some interesting music in 2010. Any suggestions?

Animation institutes bullcrap

Animation Institute Bull Crap

Disney owns Pixar so they are technically one comapny.

And what does Disney & Pixar like animation companies mean? are there many of those? and in India?

These guys are kidding with the careers of the kids who sign up.

Birthdays

Birthdays are always so special, especially if its ours or at least someone who’s close in the family. But when you get invited for a birthday party its a different thing altogether.

When we were kids getting invited to a birthday party was a thrill with no expectations. The fare was pretty standard. A samosa, some chips, some games, cake, a drink and if you were lucky, something to take back home, balloons/pencil/eraser or something very simplistic.

These days birthdays tend to be events. There is an elaborate menu, professional decorators, sometimes professional venues like Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, professional entertainers and highly customized expensive return gifts. Somehow though the thrill still prevails for children, the expectations keep increasing.

We (both my wife & me) don’t like it. We would rather keep things simple. For our daughter’s first birthday we took her to an orphanage and donated necessary things on her behalf. Just the experience moves you to tears and makes you thankful to God for everything you have in life. In the evening we had a small gathering with close family. So far so good.

Now that vacations are over & school has reopened, all of Mansi’s friends (or fans) are back and demanded a party. Most of them are from our building and dote over Mansi every evening when she goes for her evening stroll. So we were faced with this task of hosting a birthday party for kids.

We wanted to do something different. While we picked up small gifts for everyone, Snehal did something really interesting. She managed to involve a few kids in the party planning. 2 kids helped out in making hand made cards. 2 of them were responsible for decoration (which is basically choosing what goes where, not the doing part). One of them suggested we add something sweet in the menu. We made veg/cheese sandwiches, corn/cheese balls, chips & custard/jelly.

The party was fun. The kids had a lot of fun dancing & playing games. Some even took home prizes. The food didn’t interest them that much but the all of them were very eager to get their return gift. The curiosity & the smiles on their faces are a pleasure to watch. So all in all it was a great albeit tiring evening.

While we are sure these parties will get bigger as Mansi grows older, there are a few things we are hoping to continue, on Mansi’s birthday, as time goes by

• Visit any Orphanage (we are hoping to do this twice every year). Try and inculcate the joy of sharing.
• We would urge her to give away something precious on her birthday so that she doesn’t get attached to materialistic things as she grows up.
• Relive the simplistic things in life, with her friends if required. Something like a picnic, a double decker bus ride (I hope they are still around), a visit to the beach (with bhelpuri) etc.
• Enjoy the day. Let her do whatever she wants to but make sure its safe

Amen!

One Year

Usually when you look back upon a year after any important event, you always try and recollect the year gone by in a compressed format with memories just whizzing past. At the end of it you can’t believe that its’ been a year since then!

This time it isn’t any different but the importance of it is significant.

Our daughter completed 1 year about 10 days back and looks like we graduated to the next phase of being parents. It has been wonderful too see her grow up and even though there have been tough times, somehow in the memories that come back, all of it is fun!

I think watching a child grow forces you to notice the small things in life. The first time she sits up, the first time she ate on her own, the first time she had ice cream and all such. This is a very important learning. The more you start enjoying the smaller pleasures of life, the more enjoyable life turns out to be.

Another huge learning has been experiencing selfless service to my daughter. She doesn’t expect you to change her nappy. You want to do it for her. But when she is not in a mood to change and you want her to, so that you can get on to the next task, you must realize that it is a lost battle. When it comes to my daughter, she is the BOSS (which is our paediatrician favourite punch line) If you have to change her nappy don’t always expect a co-operating daughter. Having no expectations really helps in being happy at whatever life throws at you.

I recently came across a wonderful article on parenting a daughter. Please do read it. The article is called What I have learned raising a daughter (Thus far)

We are sure in the times ahead, we will experience even more joy in our efforts of bringing up Mansi. We hope we can give it our best shot. Keep watching this space.

PS: We celebrated a few days back since we spotted Mansi’s first tooth

Passport Verification

We got lucky that we could complete the passport verification for Snehal yesterday. It saved me the trouble of taking half the day off. You pretty much need that half day since you need to make at least 2 to 3 visits before you can complete the task. When I went for the first time, I was asked to furnish copies of some of the documents which I had not carried along. The second time around I was asked to give a copy of Snehal’s old passport (of which there was no mention in the first meeting). So back I went & returned with the copy.

That was the final call and I though’t I’d be done with it. But heck no! There was the customary kharcha paani before I was assured that the task was done.

But I was relieved at the end of it and I am hoping the passports come in soon.