Saturday 30 May 2015

Chetan Varma's TechChallenger: Yonder Opportunities, Students



2012

Mr. Chetan Varma had recently passed out from NYSS, Nagpur and unlike most of his batchmates, immediately started laying down plans to start his own company. And before year end, he successfully established Orange Snipers Infotech Pvt. Ltd., along with some of his like minded friends. Today, the company is still going strong and has even acquired a website which deals with online services.

A week back, I had the privilege to visit his office. It was refreshing to see his calm and composed behaviour while addressing his employees. I had a long talk with him about his plans regarding his company's future and his other ventures. What I could gather from that lengthy (but interesting to say the least) talk was that the guy had a clear vision and a genuine passion towards working to achieve his goals.

TechChallenger was his dream project since the day he became a graduate. It had to take a backseat to Orange Snipers and some of his other ventures that helped him establish his own identity in the confines of Nagpur's IT industry. Basically, TechChallenger is a forum which he has designed over the course of the past few months. The website is yet to be made public but it's only a matter of days as to when it'll happen.

Chetan's vision is to build India's largest online community of techies, ranging from students, teachers, IT professionals and anyone else who could benefit from such a forum. He wants to bring the students and faculties of Indian institutes on a single platform where they can post queries, share opinions and engage in constructive discussion with fellow students and faculties. Plus, students and faculties can create original blogs and share on the forums, ultimately benefiting students in more ways than one.

"It’ll mostly help the shy and introvert types, who are reluctant to approach the faculties or even colleauges when in doubt. Continuous interaction may help them overcome their shyness." This statement from him cleared all the remaining queries that I had in mind as to what he really wanted. It started becoming pretty clear that he was genuinely thinking about the students' welfare alongside building his own brand.

Currently, Chetan is looking to acquire a piece of land in MIHAN, to establish a setup which would act as a central system for handling TechChallenger's day to day operations. After conversing with him for over 2 straight hours, I'm pretty sure that he'll bag the much needed piece of land. And looking at the current state of things and the progress he's been making, the day doesn't seem far away when TechChallenger will take the Indian academic community by storm and become the one stop spot to give and gain knowledge, for students and teachers alike.

We wish him the very best!

Wednesday 13 May 2015

MIHAN- 80 years in the making


1936 
India was still 11 years shy of her much anticipated independence. The Britishers were facing the wrath of a hostile nation whose people couldn't bear being treated like animals in their own country by some foreign entity. But this entire scenario aside, the outsiders were drawing out several plans and ideas towards the development of India. One of those ideas was a fully functional and sophisticated Airport, meant for both civilian and Army aircrafts, which would also be a fully equipped service centre for these heavy duty planes. 

Then came World War 2. 
The plans had to be put in the back burner. 

The war lasted 6 long years, ending with a casualty list of 60 million, a whopping 3% of the total population of the Earth in 1939, which was estimated to be 2 billion. To make matters worse, the struggle for independence in India was getting the best of the authorities and it was becoming almost impossible to continue ruling the nation without facing backlash on a large scale. 

Thus, even though the Britishers were an integral part of the Allied forces who defeated Germany and ended World War 2, they were forced to leave India just 2 years later in 1947. Thus, "the plan" again took the back burner and this time for a better part of the 20th century! 

Nagpur, which was formed in 1703, and was the centre of the country, was the central hub of the mail delivery system for several years 
(1949 to 1973 to be precise). At exactly 12 midnight, 4 planes from Delhi, Madras, Bombay and Calcutta used to land at the airport, exchange mails, and head towards their respective cities. It used to be a sight to behold for the commoners of the city. 

During the early years of the 21st century, those long lost plans were taken out of the dark, dingy and dusty corners of rotting almirahs and thus the Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN) came into being. It was going to be a 2 part project- An International cargo hub and a vast residential area of 40.25 km square. It was financed by several Indian banks with a loan amount of 3000 million Rupees. The project was expected to add 12 million to the population of the city by direct and indirect employment. But factors like the recession, problems in acquisition of land, and a bunch of scams by some private parties put a brake on the project and a decade has passed since then. 

But now, as the new CM Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari have made MIHAN the priority of the government, there's a ray of hope building and if this promise by these two renowned men comes to fruition, this will be a breakthrough event in the rich history of our nation and will determine and define its future. It'll reduce employment in central india to a respectable level and with the recent inclusion of institutes like IIM and AIIMS, it won't be long before Nagpur gets to enjoy a strong presence alongside the NYs and Delhis and Tokyos of the world.

Monday 11 May 2015

Reduced Logic and Increased Prices: The present state of Indian Comics


After reading some Sarvnayak Vistaar reviews, I can't help but think that RC is insulting their fans' intelligence on a whole new level. I mean 10 kharabs?? Really?? Also the fact that the writers don't think even a bit before massacring logic while penning down points like an AC in a convict's cell, explains a lot about what they assume is the level of intelligence of us fans.

I'm a fan since 1998, and am currently 24 years old. I'm pretty sure that when this Sarvnayak series ends completely  ( Still leaving a whole lot of questions unanswered- We're looking at you NAGAYAN) , many of us will have been married and some will even have little kids, who'll someday ask us to give them "those picture stories" that we read. Then you'll give them this series ( Come on you won't give them the new series of Bankelal without Bedi, which can kill the logic building cells of a growing and healthy child in an instant) , and they will read it for some 20 minutes.
Game over!
Daddy! I want a PS 5 ( Or whatever the hell XBOX comes up with) !! Please don't  make me read these things....

When I was a kid, my parents bought 2 Chacha Chaudhary comics (16/- ) for me and thus started the fandom and I never looked back. But I really feel for the next generation as they'll have to buy a complete hardcover set of both Sarvnayak and the Vistaar series for 2500/- with some free stickers thrown in to appease them, otherwise they won't be able to understand what the hell is going on in the story.
Gone are the days when a single 32 page comic used to present a complete and entertaining story without making us fans scratch our heads like we do today after reading a 40/- Bankelal story or a 60/- Vistaar story which is just a tiny part of a legendary saga which seems to have no end and whose each comic, instead of clearing previous doubts, leaves us with a dozen more questions left unanswered.

Comics were never meant to leave us in doubts. What are our college books for?