Category: Personal

Chilled out for the day & a day of co-incidence


I’ve decided to take some break form my normal work and do something interesting. That is when I got a message in FaceBook from a person whom I befriended last week in the bus. He was telling me that he wanted to become an entrepreneur and wanted to spend sometime with me to understand / get some of my thoughts on Entrepreneurship. I though that would be the best thing to take a break.

Before getting ready I got another message in FaceBook from a Student. He was asking my thoughts on MBA. This guy has just completed his Under Graduation and wants to pursue his MBA immediately. He said he has not attended any campus interview to continue his studies and also his parents wants him to have a Post Graduation before he going to Job. I recommended him to work for 2 – 3 years before doing a MBA. I’ve shared as must as example as possible. But it is upto the boy to take my point and to convince his parents.

Then I was going through the success story of Mr.Ganapathy of Dosa Plaza which raised my energy. Please go through this link to read about his story “Once penniless in Mumbai, now a crorepati!”

Only then I remembered about the Success Story of another person whom I read a month back and contacted him immediately. I was glad to get a polite response form him and most probably I’d be meeting him tomorrow.

Then I picked my bus mate and spent good time with him. We were sharing our thoughts, plans and ideas. It was mutual learning and infact he had good network of friends who would be of good help for me in my business. So, it was worth the time to spend with him.

Finally when I was about to close the day I got a SMS from a new visitor to my blog;

I have come across your blog by accident. im a sri lankan tamil living in uk.keep da inspiring work sir.god bless .raj ramanan

and immediately he called me. That was very motivating and I was happy that people recognize the small success I’ve made and not it is time to work hard to sustain the success.

A nice meeting & a new friend


Today I had to give an appointment to Deutsche Bank folks because I was chased by their pre-sales caller from Mumbai for almost a week. Then as usual I was late for the meeting because my previous meeting got stretched.

I allowed this guy to talk for couple of minutes where he lists his clientele, products etc. After listening to everything I asked him;

What will they do if they get a proposal from a Startup with an idea?

He said he (the Bank) cant help them. Then I said that is where I’m positioning myself and I wanted to help those people by Seed funding them since they are denied a chance with Biggies.

Then we because close on a personal note and he was talking about his entrepreneur wife who runs a chain of Pre-Schools. I’ve never seen an husband talking that high about his wife. In fact I wanted to meet her and have an interview of her in my blog.

Then we We discussed a lot about other business models, ideas etc. Finally what started as a Business Meet ended as a Friendship Meet and would be glad to meet such energetic guys.

What if I Failed?


When I blogged about completing 10 years as an entrepreneur. After going thru it I though what if I had given up in-between. Frankly I don’t have a perfect answer. On different stages I’d have taken a different call. But I’m thankful to god for making me stay. But I’ve a lot other wishes which were not full-filled because of being an entrepreneur.

  • Wanted to be a monk for 5-6 months.
  • Stay inside a forest or some place where there is not much people.
  • Wanted to start a theatre.
  • Learn some musical instrument.
  • Wanted to be a Single Parent (Inspired by Raveena Tandon & Sushmita Sen)

Probably I’d have pursued something listed above.

10 years of Entrepreneurship & 2 Years for Cogzidel


September has become a special month in my Life as it is during this month that I started my career and that too as an entrepreneur. I still remember it was during September 2000 I started my first company in a Ganesh Temple in Besant Nagar during Ganesh Chadurthi. Then I didn’t know I’d have crossed soo many hurdles & would be blogging about it today.

Also my second venture Cogzidel was started during september 2 years back and again I cant believe it has been 2 years. I can still remember both the days afresh.

It was a wonderful journey which was a mix of;

  • Excitement
  • Learning
  • Experience
  • Betraying
  • Managing Cruelty
  • Criticism
  • Appreciation
  • Recougnization

It took me 10 years in life to understand only half what entrepreneurship is and I’m still learning. Now I’ve a past to show people about my performance. But time to redraw my future & this is how I want my future to be positioned or I want to be or I want to do;

  • Become an Angel Investor
  • Become a Business Mentor
  • Become a professor on Entrepreneurship
  • Experiment / Research on Entrepreneurship like
    • Social Entrepreneurship
    • Holding and scaling an Entity
    • Forming a Company with Crowd Funding
    • Run a Public Limited Company

Just understood where my heart is and slowly moving towards the direction of my passion. Finally on this day I’d like to thank all my friends, relatives & my associates who have helped me reach where I’m today.

I wish 2020 will have a lot more to Share than now.

Life has come a Circle


Thirteen years back when I was in college my neighbors & relatives who were elder to me by 7 – 10 years use to take me for movies. I’d be waiting for weekends and I was not sure then why they were taking all the pains to take me by spending on tickets and snacks for me.

Then after completion of my graduation and after starting to earn I use to goto movies every weekend along with my friends. Problem then was there were different sets of friends (School, College, Neighbor) use to call me at a same time. It was hard to take a choice but i managed by shuffling teams every week.

Then after a time I started approaching my juniors to accompany me for a movie. Yesterday I was in a situation where I wanted to go for a movie. When I approached my juniors whom I took for granted until sometime back CHANGED. When I approached then I started getting reasons my friends use to tell me or Vice-Versa.

Just realized that they have grown and they have become serious in their life. Only yesterday I got an answer “Why I was sponsored for movie by my Seniors”. Now I realize that I was doing a favor for them and they didn’t.

Life has come a full circle and now it is time to drill down and look for young Kids who can give me company.

Traffic Menace


Started the day by waking early in the morning & things started well;

  • Replied to all official emails.
  • Answered all personal emails.
  • Then took a Business Analyst friend of mine to give some advice to my new Business Analyst & also got good insights about Business Analyst practices.
  • Then met a Serial Entrepreneur friend of mine and it was nice interacting with her.
  • Then went to my favorite Aavin parlor in Adyar with my CFO & dropped him back.

It is from here my agony started. From GN Chetty road to reach my home it took 2 hours and I was really irritated. All the good progress in the day got overshadowed by the traffic and unruly drivers in the City. But the time I reached my home I got mentally tired.

Is being mean a mistake?


For 20 years in my life i’ve been an ordinary person by leading a life for my parents wishes. I was scared of criticism but thankfully I always had an opportunity to find compassion in someone. But it all changed the day I told my parents, relatives & friends that I wanted to become an entrepreneur I was criticized by everyone. That struck me really hard and I wanted to prove everyone wrong. From then on I had come across a lot of good and bad moments.

In the pursuit of my dreams I’m traveling in a place of uncertainties. I carry a lot of responsibility & commitment unlike a normal person. For all this the cost I’m paying is ignoring my responsibilities & commitment in my personal life.

  • Last weekend my mother was feeling bad that my contribution towards my sisters marriage preparation is zero.
  • I’ve been ignoring important ones in my life for my personal interest.

I don’t want to justify my acts but I’m forced to be mean as the situation demands it. Again I don’t have a better place to open my guilt other than my blog.

Folks I’m Guilty of Being Mean for my PERSONAL INTEREST…

Is beauty everything???


“An army officer comes shouting that they have killed the beast; for which the director tells The Beauty Killed the Beast” and there ends the movie KingKong. For those who have not seen the movie here is a small synopsis;

A movie crew goes to shoot a movie in a forest and the crew get lost and the heroine would be rescued by a Chimpanzee & eventually the beast falls in love with the beautiful heroine. Once the heroine comes back to the mainland the beast follows and eventually would be killed by the army fearing it would harm the people.

Likewise last Sunday went to have dinner with my friends & the entire restaurants eyeballs fell on this pretty women. She was accompanied by a guy who was simply UGLY. There was a spontaneous question from one of my friend;

Why aren’t we lucky like him Bro?

Then there was some reply from everyone of us for that question;

  • I said we didn’t take enough time to run behind girls as we were busy in our pursuit. We were unable to spare the quality time which they expect us to spend.
  • One said beautiful girls are arrogant & it was better we didn’t get such girls in our life.
  • One said if we need such a girl we must be rich to manage them.
  • One who put the question said we don’t have luck.

By this time the girl finished her dinner and left the joint and we all look at her with a deep breath & as usual we were back with our agenda.

What every the answer might be we are all attracted towards beauty.

My Perception of 3 Cities


Madas day is happening and I’m proud to be the son of a city which has a great History. But I’ve been thinking how did I feel when i went to 3 other cities and what was my first take about the city. Here goes my perception;

Bangalore: First i visited the city when i was 8 years old and that too for a day. I hardly remember much about that experience. But later I went to this city when i was 17 years old after completing my schooling. My father took me there for vacation. Right from the beginning i got excited;

  • I saw a very clean & planned city.
  • Saw pretty girls who were modernly dressed again unlike Chennai (then, now Chennai is much better than Bangalore :)).
  • Saw couples smooching on public places (Sadly this is controlled these days).
  • Lots of pubs unlike Chennai.
  • A enviable night life.
  • A pleasant climate.
  • Lot of hotels.

All the above were new for me then because Chennai was considered very conservative them. I even considered getting settled in Bangalore. But today Chennai has caught up with all the points i specified & Bangalore has fallen down. Also Bangalore has become a victim of mass urbanization and it has lost its charm. Anyways I consider Bangalore to be my second home town as I’ve a house there and Chennai – Bangalore being very proximate I don’t get the feel that it is a different city.

Madurai: There is nothing much to talk about this City. The day I entered the city it was dirty, unruly & zero entertainment. I felt very lonely for the first three months as I didn’t have any other place other than Cafe Coffee Day. I’ve never intended to stay there as that was not the place for me. But I owe a lot to this City as it helped me to come back from all the pains cause during 2008. Year 2010 has been more happening for this city and there are lots of joints and brands falling in this city & today it gives tough fight with Cities like Chennai or Bangalore. These days i enjoy visiting this city.

Coimbatore: My first visit to this city was 2 years back and I was really carried away. Like Bangalore i got a liking towards this city on first sight. Things excited me;

  • Posh houses & cosmopolitan lifestyle.
  • Pretty Girls but culture abiding.
  • Less traffic.
  • Good Climate.
  • Nice Business environment.

I want to get settled here if this place doesn’t become another Bangalore.