By Kashyap Deorah

Recession is a great time to be an entrepreneur. Why, the only time to be a true entrepreneur. Some of the best businesses have been built during a slowdown. The last big slowdown after Bubble1.0 saw companies like Google and Facebook enter the mainstream. It is sometimes too easy to forget that while start-ups were folding and fair-weather entrepreneurs were moving on to risk-free green pastures, these companies were still figuring out their business model with not much money left in the bank to pay half-decent salaries. Here are the top 4 reasons why it is a great time for you to build a company.

Customers will fund you, not Investors

College graduates like to come up with ideas that are fund-able, not sell-able. Although it helps to have financial backing that lets you look a little farther ahead than paying for your meals this week; in 2007 & 2008, the pendulum swung a little too far in the other direction. Entrepreneurs spent more time trying to answer what idea an investor likes, rather than what a customer likes, or worse still, who is their customer?! Given the nascent state of “organized” angel investing and VC funding in India, it was a risky proposition to bet your business on the investors’ judgment. Now, with investors taking flight from early stage investments, entrepreneurs are forced to ask who the customer is and why the customer will pay them – the two most relevant questions you should ask yourself everyday you wake up in the morning as an entrepreneur.

You will get Pigs, not Chicken

In an American breakfast (eggs and bacon), the chicken is interested, but the pig is committed. In happy times, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, for all the wrong reasons. Every entrepreneur has a story to tell about the resident consultant in her start-up who loves to talk the talk but never walks the walk. The chicken who puts her eggs in many baskets, but never puts her skin in the game. There used to be people who joined startups for, wait a minute, high salaries! Fortunately, those days are gone and so are those people. Your team would be committed and on deck for all the right reasons. A lot of good talent would be readily available, and with the right expectations. The hardest thing to do in any start up is to build a team. So do pick people carefully, even if it takes some more time. The recession will help you make careful and better decisions.

You will solve big Problems, not Trinkets

In a recession, the business world moves in slow motion. Use that to your advantage. Nice-to-have problems would vanish, and must-solve problems would be the only kind of problems worth solving. Problems that are critical to survival, critical to income, critical to cash-flow and critical to steady growth of your customers. If you can understand these problems and solve them during tough times, not only will you get a chance to do so for more and larger customers who would otherwise not care about a start-up; when things pick up, you will find yourself solving a basic problem that customers cannot live without solving. All of a sudden, you will find yourself in a spot where you are golden and people around you will wonder how they ever missed out on something so obvious. Some of the best ideas leave you with that feeling, don’t they? Truth is, it was always simple. You were the one who chose to stick it out and do it.

You will find it Cheap, not Pricey

Chances are that whatever it is you need to build your business would now be readily available for you and at affordable prices. Rents, media, service providers, travel, etc. etc. When liquidity is frozen for everyone, the appetite to offer capital expenditure things as operational expenditure becomes high. For example, a shutdown factory would let you use its machinery without any fixed cost if you generate enough cash to pay the bills. A distributor will let you earn commission on liquidating inventory without you taking the risk of holding any of it, as long as you help mobilize it. Your uncle would let you use his office space that he is not able to rent out, and is happy that you are using the place and keeping it bird-free. Service providers that wanted long term contracts and up-front payments would now chase you to try first and then pay after you use.

We live in a country of entrepreneurs. Look around you, and you will find an entrepreneur in every street corner, in every taxi and rickshaw, in every fish market, and in every technician who visits your home. In a country where the majority earners are entrepreneurs, albeit forced, stop looking for the safety and security of a cushy life in an air conditioned room overlooking water. Live a little. Solve a problem worth solving. Have lots of fun while you are at it. The good life is always one decision away.

Kashyap Deorah is the founder and CEO of Chaupaati Bazaar, Mumbai’s phone classifieds. If you are looking for good deals on computers, electronics, mobiles, automobiles and rentals, call 922-222-1947 and talk to a friendly call center representative. These deals are advertised by thousands of households and local entrepreneurs. You can advertise on Chaupaati too. Just call 922-222-1947.

Kashyap also maintains a travel blog where he logs his travels and tribulations.

Picture by David Monniaux under Creative Commons license

To the first generation Indian American, wearing a uniform to school is so ingrained in the consciousness that it is actually a moment of dissonance when you realize you will have to figure out what your child is going to wear every day. When my older child moved from a uniform-requiring private school to the local elementary, clothes shopping for the school year was yet another chore that clogged up an already busy life.

Parents of school-going children in the US have always been resistant to uniforms. There is even an organization called Asserting Parental Rights — It’s Our Duty that actively opposes school uniforms, on the grounds that “the policies trample students’ right of expression and parents’ right to raise children without government interference.”

About one in four public elementary schools and one in eight public middle and high schools in the USA have policies dictating what a student wears to school – but school guidelines mostly restrict themselves to enforcing dress codes that emphasize neatness and adequate cover. Few mandate a specific kind of “common dress”, which is the euphemism that educators and uniform supporters use to make the idea more palatable.

In Fremont, two schools attempted to incorporate uniforms into school policy – one succeeded and one failed.

The first attempt was made at Forest Park Elementary, one of the higher performing schools in North Fremont. The effort was spearheaded by parents prominent among whom was Sridevi Ganti.

“I have old school views,” says Sridevi, trying to find words to explain her interest in promoting a uniform dress code. “When my older son went from Thornton Middle School to American High, I was shocked to see the way kids were dressed.”

“Kids should be focused on their education rather than the clothes they wear,” she adds. Her younger son was still in elementary school and she decided to focus her efforts on implementing uniforms there to begin with.

Sridevi was active as a volunteer at the school and on several committees and she approached the school administrators to get their opinion on the idea. There was institutional support, though Sridevi was warned that it would be a long process. One of the key requirements was a parent survey that required about 80% participation by all parents affected by the new policy and two-thirds assent from those polled.

Before putting out the survey, Sridevi decided to float the idea among parents through the local yahoogroups. Here the entire process broke down. Vociferous and militant opposition to the idea of uniforms from a small group of parents drowned out the low key support the idea had. “This is not India,” said one email, “here kids have a choice.”

The tone of the emails got so rancorous that the principal of Forest Park Elementary had to step in and walk back the school’s desire to move to uniforms. Parents who were generally supportive of the process decided to stay out of the discussion and did not turn in their surveys. Ultimately the plan fizzled due to lack of support.

This September, however, school children in another school in Fremont, Oliveira Elementary, will show up in common dress. This successful initiative is the result of the efforts of their dynamic Principal Roxanne J-Liu.

Roxanne worked as a teacher for several years in a school in Fresno where the students wore uniforms. “My experience there was fabulous,” she says. “Kids came to school focused on learning.”

When she took over as Principal of Oliveira Elementary, she discovered that the school had a similar demographic. She started planting seeds of the uniform idea among parents and teachers during conferences. There were murmurs of dissent, not just from the parents but also from the teachers who were concerned about the additional work it would take to put the policy through. She kept at it for a few years, emphasizing the positives of having the common dress till she felt there was adequate support. She invited dissenters to discussions where they could air their opinions and worked at convincing them for the need for uniforms. “When you wear a suit to work, you take your work more seriously,” is her argument. “A common dress establishes a purpose – that kids come to school to be educated.”

Roxanne then drafted the parent survey and asked the teachers to administer it to the parents during parent-teacher conferences. This ensured a high response rate and locked down the support of parents who were not averse to the idea. Once the adequate level of support was in place, the school threw the discussion open to forums.

“The parents had the usual complaints – that the uniforms would take away the child’s individuality, that the clothes would cost too much,” remembers Roxanne. The school therefore has an opt-out policy though she believes that with the high number of parents supporting the common dress code the opt-outs are likely to conform in time.

Starting September 2nd, the kids of Oliveira Elementary in Fremont will show up at school dressed in some variation of solid colored shirts and pants. There is a range of colors that the school finds acceptable and lots of rewards for the children for compliance.

Roxanne is well aware that this is an experiment. She is actively helping low-income parents to find reasonably priced clothes so it doesn’t impact their pocketbook in already poor economic times and is looking for vouchers that parents can take to consignment stores to find appropriate clothes. The school will ask for feedback in the spring.

Still, the whole process at Oliveira took less than a year while the failed experiment at Forest Park dragged on for several school cycles. Maybe the success at Oliveira can be attributed to the fact that the school has traditionally been low-performing and parents are hungry for any new idea that can give their children an edge and keep them free from distraction. Maybe it was the dynamism and involvement of the principal, as opposed to parental pressure at Forest Park. Whatever the reason, we can be sure that if academic scores at Oliveira show a significant uptick on the heels of the new policy, there will be a  lot of other schools in the neighborhood clamoring to do the same..

By Geeta Padmanabhan

Image by Danny Birchall and used under Creative Commons license

You thought you had seen them all – candidates with criminal records, bucks-and-biryani for votes, pre-and-post-poll alliances, seasoned party leapers, horse trading, disappearing legislators, MPs winning while in prison, legislators who never enter assemblies through the term of office. The 15th Lok Sabha poll, however, is now “raising the bar” on the surprise quotient.

No one knows who the next PM of this great country will be. It is like watching a mystery play and still waiting for the “whodunit” after the curtain has come down.

The BJP, at the beginning of the campaign a couple of months ago, projected LK Advani as its prime-ministerial candidate. They expected to have the first mover advantage to show that their internal differences had been sorted out and the party stood behind Advaniji.

Just as you looked the other way, some zealots added: Narendra Bhai has the qualities to be a PM. No, clarified the Parivar, “he is PM of the future.”  Modi said he was not in the race. Now Nitish Kumar in Bihar (alliance partner) has said, “It’s Advani or none.” If BJP got the majority, of course.

After catcalls of “Manmohan is a weak PM” from outfits across the nation, the Sardar pulled out his sword to prove that he “would continue to pursue the policies of the Congress.” That’s when Priyanka decided to do her sister act. “Rahul Gandhi has all the makings of a PM,” she said. Voices joined in and when this threatened to get out of hand, the young Gandhi “clarified” that he was not yet ready to be PM. Sonia and sundry supporters chorused that Manmohan Singh was indeed their first man.

Laloo Prasad wasn’t going to let this pronouncement go un-commented upon. “One day I will be PM,” he asserted and promptly formed an alliance with Ram Vilas Paswan and Mulayam Singh. He then allotted 3 seats out of the 40-odd in Bihar to the Congress unilaterally. He said, “I’m with the Congress but the PM will be decided only after the poll results are announced.”

Meantime, the grand Third Front [read earlier report] had been formed. This is a truly democratic set-up. Every party chief here believes he/she can be PM. They just need the right numbers. The Dravida parties of Tamil Nadu are the only ones who’ve not talked about PM ambitions.

Mayavathi is in a league of her own. Yesterday she reminded her audiences how confident she is about her ability to lead the country. “If Manmohanji can become PM through the backdoor Rajya Sabha), why can’t I?” she thundered.

In the middle of all this entertainment, Rahul Gandhi called a major press conference a few hours ago. Inspired by Obama’s consensus politics, he said “all options are open” adding that there were many able politicians Congress could talk to post-poll. He then mentioned Nitish Kumar, Navin Patnaik and – hold your breath – Jayalalithaa.

Result? Soniaji cancelled her scheduled campaign program in Chennai today citing Karunanidhi’s illness – don’t you visit people who are hospitalized?

Who will be PM? NDTV has announced a guessing contest. The prize is a Skoda. Another channel has put up pictures of 10 candidates on the website and has asked people to “guess who”.

Eggheads have now termed the elections “the semi-final”. So you can’t say Indians don’t “engage” in civic duties.

Update: Readers might be miffed that Sharad Pawar has been left out of the main list. This Maratha is definitely in the playing eleven. His supporters say it’s time a Maratha Manush sat in the PM’s gaddhi.

By Priya Das

Margazhi Raagam, the “concert in cinema”, is many things packaged as a movie…It’s a kutcheri/ concert featuring two very popular artistes Bombay Jayashri and T. M. Krishna. It’s a film on digital steroids, with uncompressed six-track sound, audiographed by H. Sridhar, and captured on Red 4K cameras, cinematographed by P.C. Sreeram.  It’s a dream of director Jayendra Panchapakesan come to life- of bringing an evocative, mass appeal to Carnatik music.

Margazhi Raagam is a concert on film, even though an actual concert was not filmed. Seven cameras were used as silent conspirators to capture every nuance as the music was acted out, so to speak. Every expression on the faces of the two main artistes is visible, making the viewing of the movie an intimate dialog between the audience and the musicians. The acoustics are brilliant; all the subtle cadences in T.M. Krishna’s rich voice are brought out in its full glory. Hearing Bombay Jayashri sing is like listening to the breaking of dawn.

I fell in conversation with T. M. Krishna at a press meet recently-

Didn’t the retakes kill the spontaneity of the performances?
T.M.K.: The entire shooting for the film was done in 2 days. Almost every performance was shot uninterrupted, except for one of mine, which we had to shoot in 2 parts because the lights went out! We wound up shooting till 2am that first day.

Have Bombay Jayashri and you performed together before?
T.M.K.:Certainly not for a full-fledged kutcheri. How we first sang together is an interesting story. Jayashri and I were collaborating on a coffee-table book on Carnatic music. We approached the then President of India, Abdul Kalam Azad for the unveiling. He agreed, on the condition that we sing together. It was then that we realized that we hadn’t ever sung together before! So we performed together for an invited audience at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. (The book is called Voices Within, published by Matrka, founded by TM Krishna and Bombay Jayashri, “to create a new platform to present Carnatic music.”)

How did the two of you prepare for Margazhi Raagam?
We didn’t prepare together as such. Jayashri and I have been friends for many years now, and are comfortable in giving each other the space required. We have only 2 duets, incidentally, one of them is without any music, just the two of us singing. Jayendra wanted the music to sound fresh, and gave us a free hand when it came to improvisation. In any case, preparation doesn’t work for me. I like to give in to the mood of the moment and raaga. Jayashri is more organized, on the other hand, and makes for a very appealing contrast in the movie.

Was it difficult to not have an audience during the shoot?
T.M.K.:Singing for Margazhi Raagam was like jamming with friends at home. We did have an audience about a 100, that’s the crew. The set was readied for us beforehand, and then there was a pindrop silence. It was a very intimate setting, very conducive to singing.

How was it to see yourself on film?
T.M.K.:Scary!! (laughs) When Jayashri and I saw the rough cut, I looked at her, nonplussed. I had never before seen myself sing, and this is in close-up! I wasn’t sure how the audience would like it.

And how did the audience like it- how has it been received in India?
T.M.K.:It has been received well. Of course there have been comments all over the spectrum, but I remember one particular incident. I was in Trichy. On a whim, I decided to see Margazhi Raagam in a theater there. When the owner heard that I was in the audience, he called me aside and said to me, “I am in my 70s. I would’ve died never having known the beauty in Carnatic music were it not for this movie, thanks for making it!”

Sarvamangala Mangalye and Jagadodhara are fairly accessible songs- Who selected the content?
T.M.K.:Jayendra, Jayashri and I unanimously selected the songs. Jayendra wanted this to be a common man’s music-movie. So the songs were selected first based on popular appeal, then on composition. We also wanted to choose different composers for each. The choice of the last song was particularly difficult- we felt it needed to hit the right resonance with the common man…our violinist came up with that one- Bharthiyar’s Vande Mataram. You can make the most commonplace song sound exotic and vice versa. It also depends on the rasika and the mood s/he is in- the same music can be enjoyed at 25 different levels.

Is this movie like a much-awaited democratization of Carnatica?
T.M.K.:I think so. I believe that for many centuries, music in South India belonged to the masses. It was during the British Raj that it got closeted into an auditorium, and ticketed, leaving out the common man. In Kerala during the temple season, right to this day, music is sung among the people, in temples, and anybody can come close and ask for requests. I remember a few years ago, there was this drunk rickshaw driver sitting right up front, smoking a beedi. I thought he was in a stupor, and had dismissed him as a serious rasika. Suddenly he gets up and says, “Saami, Todi padangey”! So you see, there is a rasika in every common man.

Margazhi Raagam is set to be released in the US in April and May this year. It was first released in India during the month of Margazhi or the winter month in the Hindu calendar, the time between Dec 15 and Jan 15. Margazhi is the time the Chennai music season is held every year, a time when tens of Carnatic concerts run concurrently, and every concert receives a critique by veteran rasikas and the layman masses. That the movie is named after this season and released first during this time is a gentle nudge to all rasikas to sit up and take notice of this new medium on the block.

Bay Area Dates –

Friday, April 24th at 7 pm, Dolby Labs Theater, 100 Potrero Avenue, San Francisco.  Tickets are $25 and $40.

Sunday, May 31st at 3 pm, IMC6, The Alameda, San Jose.  Tickets are $12 each or $10 if purchased in groups of 4 or more.  For tickets and info contact Aruna Peri : 408.718.5261 | aruna.peri@gmail.com

The trailer can be seen at marghaziraagam.com