A Saturday Open House, where I reached 15 minutes late and missed Alok’s welcome speech, thanks to the Mumbai traffic after the very first rains. Well, my loss! However, the rest of the three hours went by in a jiffy in seeing and listening to the ideas and experiences of people presenting their thoughts.
[This is a 15 seconder to give you an idea what an Open House looks like…!]
For those who missed the First Open House held on a Saturday, here goes the excerpts – sans Alok’s welcome words.
5X5X5
Jhadu-Pochha Bai Turns Techno
Ever seen the “Jhadu-Pochha bai” turn techno? Sushrut Munje and his team at Hammer & Mop are trying to make it so. Sushrut plans to make the service of premium cleanups for high-end premises into a product. How so was an interesting discussion! I missed the presentation though…
Har Electronic Item Theek Kar Do
Hardik Shah creates a one-stop repair destination for electronic home appliances at Theek Kar Do. He has made an online destination for repairing them with a warranty of 90 days that is yet unheard of. Apart from the work, he conveyed through the presentation that understanding a girl when you don’t have a girlfriend is difficult (on which dear Akansha happened to take offence – but I personally agree to it), as his partner in the venture is a lady.
Separate Suffering From Sufferer
Separate suffering from sufferer is a belief shared by Divyesh Panchal from Just Unjunk. He believes spirituality to be a habit, which leads to sorting a lot of issues in real life rather than merely cribbing about the same. To deal with pain, Divyesh meditates and his presentation was named after a spiritual success in real-life, Steve Jobs – iMediate. I wish the habit would kick in for me too.
Celebrating Pain by the Achievers Who Faced it Real-Time
“Khate Raho-Dil Lagate Raho”
A statement he ended his conversation with and I start mine. Saransh Goila – a firm believer of “Don’t give me wings, hammer me with nails, and I will still fly”. Saransh is India’s youngest celebrity chef and is currently hosting Roti Rasta aur India on Food Food Channel. For him, it all started in the 6th grade, when his first dish and first play, both came in the highlight. From there until becoming a TV Chef, the journey didn’t come easy.
The son of a hand-pump manufacturer, he wanted to be an actor but his interest in cooking did make him a chef. But the acting bug still alive made the college topper Saransh leave his job at Leela’s to enter an acting course. He combined culinary skills with an awesome on-screen presence and good looks to attain his heart’s desire. The struggle was a long lasting and tedious one, and there is more to achieve for him, but right now he’s happy with how things have shaped for him.
He says that “happiness can only be real if it is shared”.
Kanchan Says
Kanchan Kumar, Executive Director at TiE Mumbai and a very active Rodinhooder, shared his bit of experience with people present in the OH. He simply told us that we should serve our passion without thinking if the world will understand us or not. It’s likely that we will be either misunderstood or never understood, so in spite of making everyone know of our plans, we should go ahead with our purpose in life.
One someone’s statement of “I want to be an entrepreneur because I want to be my own boss”, he said that we are never our own boss as an entrepreneur. In a corporate environment, we have only one or two boss, but as an entrepreneur we serve our customers, employees and everyone associated with the business.
So, think before you make a leap as it’s very tempting to give up rather than get up.
From Working for Money to Working for Many
Anubha Sharma is a believer of 1’s energy to benefit 1000’s. To elaborate this further, she runs an NGO Angel Xpress Foundation that deals with teaching slum children. Anubha realized her calling after 20 years of working in the corporate dominion that she had to take the path of serving humanity rather than working for money. Her journey through pain of having no teachers, no donors, no place to teach and sometimes no students – took shape to become a full-fledged movement. And, now after these exasperating experiences (which are not yet over) she has started to get help and support from BMC, other NGOs and reputable institutions to help her noble cause.
Here in the OH, Rushikesh from Social Karma (could not find his social details) suggested Anubha to incentivize the NGO program so that more and more people would be interested in teaching. An idea of R&R in NGO forum came up. So, magic happens here – truly…
So, if any of you is interested in teaching children, please feel free to connect with Anubha.
From Selling Sunday Express to Receiving Google Hall of Fame Awards
A presentation that started with thanking the three A’s (Alok, Asha and Akancha) and went through to tell us a perfect story of “rags to riches”. Hailing from a not so well-to-do family, Ritesh A Sarvaiya started his career with selling Sunday Express to people for 6 months. He told us about the difficulties he faced during his newspaper selling days and his struggle while creating a 180 people web development company (Rikhav Infotech). However, he grew up to create a White Hat Cloud Security company Defencely, where he boasts of 100% internet security and 0 day vulnerability using his product. His company has already got honored by the Google Hall of Fame Awards and other accolades.
Alok’s Word on Celebrating Pain
- Like a diamond that has its own shine even before it is cut and polished, we should find our own shine and not ask for it.
- We need to appreciate the nuts and bolts of the bridge of life so that they don’t fall apart while we tread on them.
- Step out of your comfort zone and burst the fairy-tale bubble before anyone else does it for you. The real it gets, the better it is.
- Learn to de-expect, from people and circumstances.
Image Caption: Biggest Rodinhoods Open House Ever! Power-Packed Auditorium And High Energy Atmosphere!
In the end, I got to know that George Walton Lucas, Jr. was highly influenced by Eastern myths and Yoga. Hence, while naming his favorite Star Wars character Yoda, he replaced the “G” of Yoga with a “D” and created Yoda. Well, it’s just to connect you with spirituality 🙂
Hope the next Open House in Mumbai is all the more power-packed…
Richa Vani