How it all began...

The birth of this blog is kind of rare, a post giving birth to a blog!
This is how it happened -

Abhi blogs:
"Where you are, it doesnt matter. All that matters is whether, you are contributing either directly or indirectly to the growth of India to the maximum possible extent. Here I would vehemently avow that it is not a sin on one's part to cross the seas and settle there. It becomes
a cardinal sin, if one forgets to even contemplate over one's home country's state."

I comment:
"I disagree... This is wat i construed the movie as : I'll start with an analogy. Consider your family, your mom, dad and bro. What would they best like from you? Is it the money you earn, the comforts you can buy? Or is it your contribution to the family staying elsewhere in whatever way it is? I think its none of these... its your presence that matters most, ... The time you spend with them (There may be things like getting yourself a good name etc, which can be achieved anywhere). I don't say you have to stay back while studying.. No, in this time, anyone's aim must be to get the best education possible. So, you may have to stay away from your family. But, I think when it comes 2 staying away when not studying and contributing to your family, there's a big void you've left... The same applies to your motherland. I think you can do more by staying here and doing your part than doing your best from elsewhere... It doesn't work out..."

Abhi:
"First of all great to listen to a new perspective. Makes a lot of sense to me. But I am in partial agreement with it. I am in total agreement with your analogy. But, I am of the opinion that it would be hegemony on our part to tell the youth "Dont you ever go to any other country and work......work in India" and in a sense it is illogical too. What if I have a startup based in B'lore and I plan to expand to California where I can beat the bigwigs at their own game. Then I go to Cal to run my biz. Is that bad? What if I am a big gun in the American/European Biz market....big enough to influence political decisions and I use my ccontacts for the betterment of India? What if I go to Canada, setup a chain of Indian restaraunts with Indian ambience and change the perception of Canadians about India, thus increasing no. of Canadian tourists to India? Am I not helping in the progress of India? Some might say that I would be better off starting a meal service for destitute Indians....but then it is one's way of life. Each one of us have to be true to our own selves and work in our own ways for the betterment of India. Some might stay here and work towards it, some might not. But what is important is to do it. I may sound like I am catching the next flight to NY, no way!!!!!! I was just trying to justify my statement..."

Me:
"OK, I misinterpreted you in a way/ you misinterpreted me... Let me explain. First of all, when I said you must stay here, I had none of the start-ups you are talking in mind - Since it was Swades I had in mind, I thought you are saying that there's no problem if someone goes abroad and works there for some company unrelated to India (like SRK @ nasa in Swades). If this is the case, I'm sure he/she won't be able to do any big thing for India. But, if you say 'An ocean arises from droplets of water', I'll say, "I know YOU don't want to contribute just 1 drop of water!" If you are talking about starting up here and branching out, I back it. That's great! But, at the same time, I would persuade people to startup here and expand later, i.e. a Narayan Murthy is better than a Vinod Khosla/Gururaj Deshpande coz. your investment and employment generation is more important here and now's the time for it. You can always expand... I'm kind of against starting up abroad and expandin into India at a later stage. (But again, that depends on your biz... ) OK, I also would persuade one to stay here even if his/her biz has expanded abroad. You can stay there for some time, but make sure you are always an Indian citizen. I believe that its only if you stay here, that you'll be able to identify the problems in the society and help in a big way. Again, this is coz. I believe that an entrepreneur now has a bigger role than just being one who ensures smooth running of his biz... He must better the society... I'll cite an obvious eg to justify my stand: Infy : Narayan Murthy's biz is definitely better than Vinod Khosla's biz from India's perspective. I don't know about the present contribution to GDP, but it was Infy which catapulted India as an IT giant and not Sun (I agree that it was a collective effort, but, Infy led the way in India). Again, Infy (through Infy fiundation -http://www.infosys.com/infosys_foundation/about.html) has played a better role than Sun in view of betterment of society. I think this was primarily coz. Sudha Murty stayed here. She could identify the problems. I feel it wouldn't be as effective as it is if she was doing the same from abroad..."

Abhi :
"Ialso agree with you, that an entrepreneur should startup in India and then expand abroad, coz it makes much more sense this way to put in some value-addition to the society. Man, after being part of a soceity I feel, it is a moral obligation on everyone to give back something concrete and worthwile back to it. That's what we've got to tell people. To rise above the ordinary. And Infy has done much more good than Sun etc coz it has given India what it needed desperately in that time - thoda sa lift. Hey! Have got this great idea !! How about both of us co-authoring a blog on "Entrepreneurs & India". It would be cool ! What say ?"

Me:
So, we agree about everything! great! I got pissed off when a senior in my hostel said that he's not going to return to India... Man, he's a real ****** *******!
Yup! Blogs a great idea!

Abhi :
Cool! Let's start a Blog.... Suggest a title

And so began this blog...
We met on Yahoo a couple of days after this discussion and decided on the title...