CNBC Discussion : Nagpur an IT Destination

Unfortunately I am not able to embed the Video on this blog; so I am just adding the url here

http://www.moneycontrol.com/video/special-videos/mihannagpur-the-ideal-business-hub-_439261.html

I liked the candid argument made by Mr. Kulkarni of Persistent Systems for why young talent from Nagpur takes a flight to other 'cooler' or metropolitan destinations.

Sachin Pilot spoke pretty well and he looks like a minister who can fit into his father's dynamic legacy.

Mr. Asim Gupta should be congratulated for promoting Nagpur so well.

Overall I liked the CNBC snippet.

Thanks to Mr. Vikram Bobade for passing on this link to the Nagpur First Group.

Nagpur International Marathon 2010

Since last year, January 30, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi is an increasingly special day for all the Nagpuris as around that day the annual Nagpur International Marathon is organized in support of the principles of Peace and Non-violence. This time it was organized on last Sunday, January 31, 2010. It was the second year of the marathon with hundreds of thousands of people participating right from children to people in their eighties, and from bureaucrats to businessmen to politicians and even military organizations.

Nagpur First was honored last year as Mr. Sharad Bhagwatkar, 68 years young father of Vivek Bhagwatkar, one of the founders of NF, represented us in the last year’s run by running the full marathon! I also tried participating in the event last year but chose not to after reaching at the venue to find chaos when nobody seemed to know what was going on there. This year the event looked much better organized starting with proper arrangements for parking of vehicles to signs marking starting and ending points for various races and the roadmap for full and half marathons clearly displayed at various prominent places along the route. Almost all major businesses and organizations in the city supported the event with sponsorships. People were also seemed much better prepared for the event this time and I feel it shall go on becoming more interesting and grand event with each passing year.

Nagpur-First participated this year too with 8 of us (see photo) running the Ahinsa Daud (non-violence run) of 3 KMs from the Kasturchand Park to Yeshwant Stadium via Akashvani square, Institute of Science, RTM Nagpur University, Variety square, Munje Square, Zansi Rani Sqaure, Panchsheel square and finally Yeshwant stadium. For the first time I climbed on the ‘steps’ for the audience to sit inside the Yeshwant stadium, to watch the participants completing the marathon arriving with huge applause from the crowd. There was also a band playing at the center of the stadium and a music program by upcoming singers.

I personally felt much better connected with our beloved city, its people and its culture while running with the crowd. It was a wonderful experience and I look forward to running a longer distance next year with a larger group.

We at Nagpur-First are also planning to organize a 10 KM Heritage walk from the Kasturchand Park to Futala Talao and back, sometime around Oct-Nov this year. Ajit Kulkarni proposed the idea and he may champion the initiative with support from other members of Nagpur-First. Looking at the success of the International Marathon, I am encouraged. Let’s gear up to make the heritage run a grand success in its first year.

IDCA

Dinesh and I were lucky to be invited to an IDCA meet this Saturday at Oak Brook near Chicago. IDCA stands for 'India Development Coalition of America'. It's a forum (or a coalition as they like to call) of different groups/organisations that are helping India's development directly or indirectly.

Dinesh Jain, our founder, was invited as one of the speakers this week. And goes without saying, he gave a sterling performance. (And may be I am biased, but judging by audience response, I could say his presentation was the best amongst the lot)

I particularly liked his notion of 'Self Interest'; something that really connected well with the gathering. Dinesh said - "For anything to work there has to be a self interest involved. It's how you define 'self' that matters. Self can include only me, or me and my family, or me and my family and my community, or me, my family, my community, my city, my country and so on'

The point was well made. That without self interest, you cannot be motivated enough to make a difference.

During the Q&A session, after Nagpur First presentation, there were a few in the audience who talked enthusiastically of their indirect association with Nagpur and had some positive things to say about our beloved city. One such Gentleman who was not really from Nagpur but had worked in NEERI for a few years said : "The People of Nagpur are honest and simple. And it's a great city to be in"

That really warmed the cockles of my heart. The anchor of the session Mr. Thatte also mentioned his association with Nagpur and said there are more well wishers for Nagpur than we can think.

Amongst the other presenters, I particularly like Dr. Rajaram's take on Solid Waste Management. During the course of presentation the speaker mentioned about one Mr.Srinivasan, who's done some amazing work in Vellore in Tamil Nadu. Srinivasan has used common sense solution for a major problem in India which is Waste Management. Currently Delhi Municipal Corporation is dealing with a huge problem with this and the High Court has already ordered Delhi not to use any more land for waste dump.

Mr. Srinivasan's common sense solutions can help them in true sense. And so can it help Nagpur. I spoke to one Mr. Bhaskar who was representing another organisation called 'AID' and asked him if we can get in touch with Srinivasan. His team has a sustainable economic model for Waste Management. In fact their model generates lot of employment apart from cleaning up the city. For example, for a community of 300 people, this model can generate an employment of 6 persons and can generate an income of 20,000 p.m in India. Do the math for a larger community like Nagpur.

I also got to know that, Mr. Srinivasan is a simple person who is helping his community. He does not have a fancy website or a degree in management or anything, nor does he charge consulting fees etc. He is simple Indian, living in a small town and helping his community. (These,IMHO, are real heroes of India and not the one's who color your TV screens with glamor, like in the new Mile Sur..ad)

Waste Management, I feel, can be a pre-cursor for Nag-Pure, or the purification of Nag river. By isolating Organic waste, we can generate clean energy that can be recycled into the local economy. Although this was always known, we now have a sustainable model to deal with this. And the model is only maturing.

I think Nagpur should take advantage of this and should aim to become India's First Clean Energy Compliant City.

Quiz of the week

Without googling/wikipeding, name this great Nagpuri personality..

He is the only person who served on all of these three posts :

1] The Chief Justice of India,
2] The Vice President of India,
3] The President of India..

There's another big first to his name. But if I give that clue, it will make it simple.

O Paar!!

Yesterday at work, I had some trash talk with a co-worker. It was real fun.

This guy is originally from Gujarat. We both started bragging about our kite flying skills and the trash talking won't stop. We challenged each other for a pecha and I told him, I, a Nagpuri is going to kick his snooty Ahemdabadi ass. (They think their kite flying skills are the best)

Finally people around us asked us, "why don't you guyz have a showdown". On a side note why do 'goras' have this obsession with showdown I wonder? People even said they'll have a wager on us and nominated someone to be a bookie.

Ya right! A kite "pechaa" in Chicago winter. That will work just fine, no?

Anyhow, so that talk made me nostalgic a bit. I always thought Sankrant in Nagpur is different than other places. It has it's own charm.

While the boys of the house are up on the terrace all day, well late into the evening, the female members are busy with a Maharashtrian ritual - Haldi Kumkum.

The best thing about Nagpuri Sankrant of course is the Nagpuri Lingo associated with it.

For example, who names a kite - 'Khada Sabbal Muchcha Khada'. Sounds like a stud's name. Or 'Bhangdar Tokdar'!! Whoa, that's some thought put in a name.

But that's Nagpur for you. Pure and unadulterated and completely uninhibited.

In school we used to play Girgot. That was a T-20 version of Kite flying, without a kite of course. BTW, that also tells how intense we were for Kites during those days. If you can't fly kite, well let's make do with a Girgot during lunch break.

"O Paar" was Nagpur's official war cry during the kite flying days. It's intensity of course peaked on 14th Jan when you could hear this on a very high frequency at even higher decibel. The local neighborhood rivalries that got build up during the pre-Sankrant season reached it's summit on Sankrant day when the rival groups would prepare that deadly manja late into 13th evening to be all set for next day.

I still remember how each segment of my index finger would have bleeding cuts, because of the sharp thread, by the time 14th Jan came. But that was little or no hindrance to go up on the roof and get my favorite "cheel" to fly high. Such were the passions.

Anyhow, it was then. I think the Kite culture in Nagpur has taken a beating. I have not seen Nagpuri Sankrant for a very long time now. More than decade actually. So who knows.

But I would leave you all with some 'Made in Nagpuri' words for Sankranti...

- Laggi, Saddi, Luddi, Saitee, Relle, Dabbedar, Kanna, Suttar, Ragga...

{please feel free to add more to this list.. in comments..}

O Paar!!!

Treasure Hunt # 2

Clue of the week:

I am older than most institutes you can think of. I have a massive clock on the tower thats visible from foothills. And yes. From my premises you can get a Grand view of Nagpur city.

Branding Nagpur

Year ends / New years are great. People usually take off for a quick break/vacation and in most places its a great time to be outside. (Unless of course, you are stuck in Chicago snow blizzard)

We are already into 2010. Boy, what a decade this past one has been! Time magazine called it a "decade from Hell". After reading that article I sure thought it was.

We are into the 2 digits of the new century. That means we have 10 more years to achieve what we have set out to - making Nagpur a Global City.

Something struck me while I was reading an in flight magazine last week on my return flight back from the vacation. I saw that the small Arkansas town called 'Little Rock' had a brief paid advertising section in the flight magazine. It ran for about a couple of pages and I was intrigued by the information it had about this city.

For example, Little Rock has the 4Th best Economy in the US..(Did not see that coming). And it added 10,000 new jobs just last year. (By US standards, 10K is very high) Who would have thought that? Honestly before reading this, all I knew about Little Rock was that it was capital city of Arkansas; a state not on most people's radar.

I have a feeling the City Authorities of Little Rock are out there to brand it as a 'happening town'. And hence these paid ads. To make LR visible on the people's radar such branding activities are needed. The ad talked of, the great health care system that LR has, the great college culture it has, it talked of the new Clinton Library etc. Basically focusing on all positive aspects of that sleepy little town.

I liked the spirit of that article. It left me feeling positive about Little Rock.( And no, I am not packing my bags and going there. Chicago is just fine)

All those things that were said about LR, had me thinking, "how about our own little rock there in central India, huh?". How can we best BRAND Nagpur in coming years? I know it has similar positives. It has better than average Health Care system vis-a-vis other Indian cities. It has great college culture too. There may be few other similarities.

I think to make Nagpur visible in grand scheme of things, we'd have to brand it in a certain way. Something that should be appealing. For many people Nagpur may be a sleepy mid-tier city. But for many others that could actually be a plus. Slow, laid back, yet fun.

Should we form a team of people who can come up with ideas to Brand Nagpur? I think we should. Lets have a focus group to discuss how Nagpur can best be put on the Global Radar. Lets call it Branding Nagpur.

If you feel you have that zeal of a Marketing/Advertising genius, please come forward and add your vision for the same.

Lets make 2010 the year of 'Branding Nagpur'... and let's have a Nagpuri Buzz out there. What say you?