Karan Verma's Blog

Why India doesn’t have a Microsoft or Google of its own??

As proud as I’m of the fact that Indians today are heading tech giants and are also warming the senate benches and foreign treasuries, I must also stick my neck out and say that it’s actually a tribute to the American System ( and not ours) which values meritocracy more than anything else

Ya right, meritocracy , a word thumped across by HR heads and talent scouts, a word which mostly connotes either of the following in India :

Have the right connect at the right place and time.
Push in your CV through a solid reference.
Have the relevant work experience (even though what you did previously sucked and you still ain’t no good )

If  you ain’t close to filling these criteria, chances are you’ll be short on merit and you’re likely to receive a standard  ‘We’ll get back to you’.

If you do crack the code via any of the 3 above, you can come outside and gloat over how meritorious you were for the role and how you made it despite all odds.

Even for those who’ve made it big and are high up in the corporate ladder, their endeavour generally isn’t creating some great stuff. Hell no, who has the time for that.. Their endeavour is to somehow stick to their position and get their next move right, eyeing the next promotion round the year.

So well guarded are their corporate echelons that a new idea or thought dare not breach their territory. And God forbid, if ever a path-breaking idea dared to sneak past their cushiony ivory towers and create a palpable buzz then their whole- sole mission in life would be to somehow clutch onto it and claim it as their own.  They’ll run helter skelter  shouting ‘Eureka..Eureka..’. Some clad , some semi clad and some totally stripped of moral propriety.  We are replete with a bunch of wannabe Archimedes’ outshouting each other ‘Eureka…Eureka..Eureka..’

The only similarity here they have with the yesteryear exuberant Archimedes is that they’re both naked. One literally and the other symbolically..The buck keeps passing and people would never really know who was that one smarty-pants coming up with new ideas and thoughts.(assuming there was one)

If anyone ever came to know, their immediate senior would try to gauge 2 things :

Can I piggy bank on him and keep getting credit for new thoughts
Will I be able to control him or will he be a threat and surpass me

There is also a rare 3rd case which says ‘I’ll nurture and mentor him to grow’  and when that happens, the result is a Dr APJ ABDUL KALAM, who was nurtured by the great Vikram Sarabhai. Unfortunately it is a rarity in today’s cut throat Roman like corporate colloseum where employees are like sitting prey ready to be fed to their beast incarnate masters at the top.

Mr Narayan Murthy made a point that India hasn’t come up with an earth shattering innovation in the last 60 years. Well, fact is most of India is indeed grappling for basic necessities, leave aside platonic phenomenon like innovation. But Mr Murthy must throw some light on how many path breaking software has Infosys come up with in the last 2 decades. The answer ain’t earth-shattering either.

And this ain’t confined just to a job, it’s the same everywhere from setting up your own business to getting a venture capitalist for your idea. Fact is,  you can still make it if you’re a little less on the talent and capability quotient but in all probability you can’t make it without the right link or contact irrespective of the dollops of talents that you possess….unless..unless lady luck decides to smile on you.

So as a silver lining India can look towards lady luck and wish there was some tough son of a gun born somewhere  across the length and breadth of our expanse  who’ll withstand all of the bullshit hurdles and mechanisms set up by our own system..He’ll crawl and claw through it all, be lucky to survive countless bouts of anxieties and helplessness and finally invent or innovate something like a Google or Facebook..

And then we’ll gloat over how a son of the soil made it this big but amidst the noise and hoopla,  the whispering truth would be- He made it not because he’s a son of the soil, he made it  despite being a son of the soil..

Wish this reality changes!!

Happy B’day Mom & Dad!!

Somewhere in the dust and heat outside or the cosy confines of our rooms, offices , classrooms wherever we are sitting right now, we know for sure that no matter how tough the going gets, no matter what shit we end up doing, we have someone behind us who’ll be there unconditionally. That someone is… our Parents!!

In my case, on a lighter note, I’m privileged and blessed to know that not only are they standing rock solid behind me but also if need be they’ll stare off the devil or barter with God himself 



As little kids we all grow up respecting and revering our parents, however in some corner we also very silently cast doubts on how they could’ve done things differently etc etc…However it is only at the stroke of adulthood, when we ourselves grapple with a lot of pressing realities, that we start sinking in their efforts.

I still wonder how middle class Indian parents in the pre-liberalised 80’s and 90’s managed to look after their own parents, run the house, bring up kids to the best of their ability and also manage some valuable savings which would strengthen the family in the long run. Not just that, they would always pull that off with a smile.

It is not easy to start off with limited means and pull together a family, sacrificing little things for the kids. I doubt any of us have such a sacrificing or compromising instinct left and I doubt we even hold a candle in front of our parents in this regard.

Yes they didn’t have the FBs and Whats Apps to vent out their feelings or give their opinions on global warming and world poverty, but still they were a lot saner and probably more satisfied despite limited means. Amidst all the flux and changing times, I guess the biggest challenge for them was to always ensure that their child’s growth was also dynamic and he/she had the right exposure in sync with the times.

In this regard, I’ve been privileged to have parents who’ve always pushed the envelope for me.

They were the ones who told that little kid in class 1, to go and recite the ‘Ant and Grasshopper’ poem on stage in front of the audience. They were the ones who told me ‘It’s Ok to make some mistakes on stage but you have to show up’…Hell they were the ones who told that kid, ‘Write your own essays, even if you get lesser marks.. Do it on your own’

Well, today that kid is not just writing essays, he’s written a National Best Seller and surely he isn’t reciting ‘Ant and Grasshopper’ anymore, he’s giving talks on Leadership and Entrepreneurship 

And today on the eve of their birthday ( Yes both Mom and Dad have their birthday on the same day  ) all I can say is, all the good things that happen in my life are because of you and if ever I goof-up in life, it’s because of my judgmental error

Happy birthday and God bless!!

The birth of Jack & Master…(the craziest day of my life)

They say creativity is born out of peace and solititude..Well I beg to differ and trust me my Eureka moment happened on the craziest day of my life..

Ya right..the craziest day of my life..I remember it as if it was yesterday..I was in my final year Engineering at I.E.T Lucknow..The placement season was round the corner and the students looked as if they were on a mission to save Mother Earth.

The stuff doing the rounds amongst students was ‘Diff between C and C++, Java and operators, tell me something about yourself, what is your weakness, why TCS blah blah..’ Also what scared the bejesus out of me was the desperation amongst students to get that 1 coveted job.. Many were chanting religious hymns whereas others were watching Shiv Khera’s ‘You can WIN’… I, for one had some other ideas.. I was supposed to speak at a Rotary Club Debate the coming weekend.. Also I had to do a voiceover for a play performed by a local theatre troupe and topping it all, I had to meet some deadlines for a TV show at MTV..( I was freelancing for MTV)..Woah!! wasn’t that a cool line-up??

But hang on, here’s where the catch is.. I was thinking I’d do all this within a span of 2-3 days but Ahaaaa, I get a call from MTV that they want to see me in Mumbai ASAP…If that’s not enough, 10 mins later, we’re confirmed that TCS is also coming over the weekend…Now, usually I do multitask quite brilliantly but that day all hell broke loose!!

‘You’re crazy and you’re driving us crazy as well’ said Mom.. And what she said was so right..And then my sis said, “Karan, you’re trying to be a Jack of all trades.. that doesn’t help”

That rang a bell, but not too loudly, to be honest.. Things got worse when there was one of those family gatherings at home..Now you know how those family gatherings in North India are, right? Everyone believes ‘Maine Zindagi Dekhi hai’ and everyone while giving an opinion suddenly starts speaking exclusively in English… ‘Karan you are trying to be Jack of all, Master of none’ Woah, they all got their intellectual brownies when they came up with this English jargon.. As far as I’m concerned, that was the second or the third of the 19 times, I heard that jargon from some friend, teacher or family member over the next 2 days..

Nevertheless, the multi-tasker that I am, I somehow fixed up Mumbai for a day after the TCS interview which meant I had to catch my train the evening of my TCS interview.

The theatre play had to happen in the morning and I was keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that my call for the TCS interview would come between 11 :30 (time my play got over) and 7:30 pm( time for my train to Mumbai)..Now isn’t that a cool lineup!! But just when everything seemed in place, I get a call backstage from one of my friends that this time an aptitude test is going to happen before the interview and its going to start right away.. (It had completely slipped out of my mind)I literally stood frozen there backstage, waiting for my cue and I had to be on stage in 5…4…3….2…1..Boom..I was on stage and all I could think of was what conveyance is going to get me to my college fast..I fumbled for a sec, but somehow I finished my monologue and had a quick word with my director backstage..The creative jackhammer that he was, he improvised and got my remaining part obliterated. Huffing and puffing, I rushed out to the college as if my life depended on it, It was during this crazy journey that I made myself another crazy promise that I’m going to write about this some day..

I somehow reached college, though I was late by 15 mins.. I regrouped somehow and thank God, I just about cleared the test for the interview.. Phew..heaving a sigh of relief, I checked up and realized that the play also went well..Some of my friends were pretty mad at me for taking up so many things..but then that’s how I’ve been..I just can’t say ‘NO’ to an opportunity…But..but..but disaster was round the corner, the snail’s pace at which the interviews were happening, I wasn’t likely to get my chance till 7 PM..Gosh, I would miss my train..Interview after interview, it seemed my chances of making it in time were done…but then I wasn’t gonna give up that easily..Years of theatre and drama had to come in handy some day..I went to my Training and Placement Officer and told him that I can get Adobe to your campus for placements..His eyes lit up and so did the students’, who I made sure, over heard me.. I said, “Ya..I can, but the only thing is, I’ve got to meet the guy at Adobe today evening or else he’s going to Mumbai for some time”..

Woohoo..Well, then what.. You had all students, placement officers working around the scheduled lists just to ensure I’m through with my interview 1st The interview did happen..I did clear it (didn’t join though)..I travelled to Mumbai as well..PHEW, I PULLED IT OFF, I thought.. but just when the day was about to end, as I was sitting in my train berth, I suddenly realized that GOD DAMMIT! I just missed the Rotary English Debate…Craaap!! I’d won that last year and amidst all this, I just forgot I had to be there!! A minute or two of disappointment, but then I just smiled and thought to myself.. ‘Pheww..You did well..Come On, you can’t wear so many hats and think of being a Master…You’re a Jack probably’…

Well the next thing I remember, I penned down some random thoughts on a register, I generally carry when I’m travelling..And the 1st page were ‘Jack or Master’..Very soon it transformed into ‘Jack & Master’!!

So there at the back of the most chaotic day of my life, in that forgotten corner of the train berth, I penned down my 1st thoughts on ‘Jack & Master’…

I’ll always cherish that day for two reasons 1.) It’s the day when ‘Jack & Master’ was born for me and 2.) I realized, I’m quite a fighter!!

P.S : By the way, I also managed to get Adobe to my campus How?? Is another story…..