StartupDunia

Indian startups | India Web 2.0 | India Internet

Archive for the ‘Personal’


Back to some regular (hopefully) blogging

I know posting has been pretty darn erratic lately.  Probably I was suffering from the blogger’s burnout, because even when I had the time and opportunity to post, I kept avoiding it. For whatever reason, I just didnt feel like writing.  Blogging is stressful and I realized that I need to de-stress and rejuvenate myself.  Its been almost 6 months since I took a decent, relaxing vacation.

Finally, this last weekend, I was able to get a somewhat relaxing vacation and time away from work, blogging, and everything related to it.

Hopefully I was able to revitalize myself and recharge my batteries. Should be getting back to regular blogging shortly.

Joining the OpenWeb.Asia Workgroup

openweb.pngI am glad to announce that StartupDunia has been included as part of the OpenWeb.Asia workgroup. OpenWeb.Asia is a network of premium blogs focusing on the Asian Internet industry. Bloggers from China, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia are part of the workgroup.

The goal is to increase collaboration and inter-communication between these local Internet markets and make a unified representation of the rapidly developing and emerging Asian Internet industry. The initiative is spearheaded by Gang Lu who blogs here.

Back home

I’m back from my India vacation. Its been an amazing trip - personally got a chance to talk to several current and aspiring entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts.  Apologies to those who dropped in a note to meetup and I couldnt follow through - apart from keeping an insane schedule, I often had little to no Internet access.

Every India trip unfolds a new story - from new malls to retail chains to cars and traffic. As and when I get time, I shall share some of my experiences and observations - both from the tech world and the society in general.

For now, back to my battle with jet lag and fatigue - writing shall resume as soon as I get settled in.

Off to India on vacation

There will be little to no posting on the blog for the next 1 month since I’m going to India on vacation.

Besides Ahmedabad, I will be in Bangalore during the first week of February. If anyone is interested in meeting up, drop me in an email at contact {AT} startupdunia <DOT> com.

Stay safe and healthy !!

Apologies on the unannounced absence

First and foremost — I owe you guys an apology. For a long, extended and most importantly, unannounced absence from writing.  Some family health issues took precedence in my life over the last month and a half.  While things are fine now, i cant help but wonder — how life has its own way of prioritizing things for you.  Blogging, web 2.0, entrepreneurship et. al suddenly seemed insignificant. Well being of my loved ones was the one and only thing on my menu.

In hindsight, I should have probably written a short post announcing my absence, and henceforth, I’ll make sure I do that. With that said, a big thanks to all the concerned folks who dropped in an email to check if I was ok - it means a lot to me.

I’m going to be doing some housekeeping on the blog today (deleting spammy comments, inbox cleaning and such) and will probably be back to blogging later today or tomorrow.

Feels good to get back to normal :-)

Playing with Django

I know I’ve been silent the last several days. The reason - I’ve been busy reading and learning about Django - a Web framework for Python.  Yes…I wanted to take some time off and do some skills development of my own. I’ve worked with PHP and couple of PHP Web frameworks, but have never worked in Python.  Till now that is. And working on Django the last few days has got me wondering why I was a Python virgin so far. Python is an amazingly easy and powerful language for web development.  There are lots of development tools and frameworks out there. And did I mention, Python is very, very productive - I was able to write working code in very little time.

If you havent tried out Python yet, I’d definitely urge you to do so. If you’ve worked in both, PHP & Python, I’d like to hear which one you found better.

Ohh..and I’ll be back to writing shortly. For those who’ve evoked an interest in writing for StartupDunia, I’ll be getting in touch with you within the next 2-3 days. Sorry, have been swamped lately :-(

StartupDunia is one year old

It was exactly one year ago, this day, that StartupDunia was born. And what an year it has been !!

507 posts, 2-4 themes, several hundred subscribers and several thousand visitors later, I thought I’ll share some of my experiences over the last year and touch upon the topic of where things are headed.

When I started out, my goal was to focus on Web 2.0 and cool new startups in India. As time progressed, I realized that there are several other areas I’m interested in covering as part of my blog — broadband, VC, entrepreneurship, incubators etc.. So, over time, I’ve expanded the focus to include all these other topics that are of interest to me. Too many things going on, one may say. Well, thats exactly how the Indian startup and tech scene looks like.

So, any lessons learnt over the last year ?

Absolutely. The single biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that blogging regularly is a time consuming process and requires a lot of discipline. There have been several occasions over the last year, when the posting has been infrequent. I’ve tried to be as regular as I can, but believe me — juggling between a day job, personal & social life and blogging is not an easy thing. There have been moments when my wife has gone ballistic, thanks to the number of hours I spend on the laptop. Normally, I’m more interested in doing long, insightful posts - but time is a commodity thats difficult to come by. I’ve developed a new found respect and admiration for the bloggers who make the time to post every day.

Do I regret any of the posts I’ve done ?

I’d be lying if I said no. In fact, I think, any blogger would be lying if they answered no to the above question. Just like time and experience makes you a wiser person in regular life, time and experience makes you a better blogger (at least thats what I think). No, of course not…this doesnt mean that I’ll tell you what posts I’d redo if I got a second chance (did you think it would be this easy :-) ).

What have I gotten out of my blogging experience thus far ?

The single, biggest benefit of blogging has been the sheer number of people I’ve come to know by means of my blog. I’ve gotten a chance to interact with entrepreneurs, wannabe entrepreneurs, startup enthusiasts, PR folks, fellow bloggers, VC’s, marketers by means of my blog. People, who otherwise, I’d never have gotten a chance to interact with. And its been a fulfilling experience thus far - meeting people with varied backgrounds and learning about their perspective on things.

So, what’s in store for the future ?

Well, to begin with, I’m planning to get an additional person onboard to write for StartupDunia and make things a bit more manageable. Stay tuned, I’ll do a follow up post later this week.

In addition to this, I need your help in determining what type of content you’d be interested in reading more regularly on StartupDunia. What topic, what post length would make your reading experience more enjoyable ?

Simply put, I want to make StartupDunia worth your while and your time. Tell me what I can do to accomplish that. Drop me an email or leave a comment with any input you may have.

Finally, before I end this post, I want to take this opportunity and thank all of you for reading my blog. An extra note of thanks to those who took the time to vote on the polls or comment on the posts. It means a lot to me. Without all of you guys, StartupDunia wouldnt be where it is today.

The abrupt break from blogging

I’ve had a couple of personal issues come up over the last week which needed immediate attention. Things were chaotic to the point that I did not get a chance to update you that I’ll not be blogging for a week or so.

Anyways, things are all settled now (at least for now) and I shall be back to blogging by tomorrow.

Oh, and if you are awaiting a response to your email, expect that to happen some time this week. Sorry about the delay.

Some design overhaul

Ok..As part of my scheduled upgrade to the latest Wordpress version, I decided to give the blog design an uplift too.

Let me know what you think.

Time for a break

Its time to take a break and let off some steam. I’m off for the coming week for some well deserved vacation. No work and no blogging for a week — yaaayy !!

Stay safe and see ya in a week’s time.