The Smart Worker - An Article about my wife in the local daily

Building a company is not like planting one giant tree. It is about creating an entire forest someday. You can see the entrepreneur within when Kavitha Venkatesh reads out one of her favourite lines from Subroto Bagchi’s 'The High Performance Entrepreneurs' or when she goes about doing her duties.
Kavitha’s story may not sound very different for the dime-a-dozen Internet entrepreneurs, but for me it is about seeing a simple, shy girl who never thought of working transform to manage a company. Tucked inside Madipakkam is Kavitha’s flat, with her home and office on the ground and second floor respectively, where she juggles between the two.

It all started one year after marriage when her husband, Venky, motivated her to do something. “Even if it is a failure, it is fine; I will be with you,” Kavitha repeats his words. After a little prodding, Kavitha was ready to take the plunge. Thanks also to the three others (her sister proficient in computers, a friend well-versed in human resources and a computer teacher) who guided her in floating the web maintenance and development firm.

Before that, the Commerce graduate made sure she enrolled in a computer class to learn the basics of what she would be handling. “Even now I only know the basics. I bag projects and the rest is handled by my team,” she says candidly about her company, Compunet Connection, (http://www.compunetconnections.com/) for which she is the sole proprietor. How did she bag her first project? “Through a common friend I got my first client, from the Caribbean, who later referred me to others. And the chain continued.”

Kavitha also keeps a social consciousness angle when she recruits. “All my appointees, six sets of eight to nine freshers who have worked, are from rural areas like Namakkal, Salem, Tiruveneli and other districts. They have BE/ MCA degree in hand, but lack communication skills, so they lose out on opportunities,” she explains.

She has no qualms about losing them after a year or two. “I am happy that they are going to a better place after getting the initial push,” she says, explaining how she conducts personality development programmes for them. “Being intelligent is not enough, but it is essential to be smart,” Kavitha concludes. True!

The above article was published in a supplement of 'The Hindu' - Ergo on 16th February 2009.

http://www.goergo.in/?p=3620

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12403885/Ergo-February-16 ( Page 5 )

I became a Pizza chef..... You can also be one...

It was a sluggish Sunday morning and after having a very tasty breakfast prepared by wife, I was lying on my bed aimlessly, just waiting for the time to go. Suddenly my daughter came to me and asked me if I am willing to do some activity and then she brought some art books which we started colouring.
As I was busy with my daughter, I realised that I was colouring a pizza portion and it stuck me, as to why I should not make a pizza. Just because everyone known to us has bought, we also bought a microwave oven and believe me, my wife uses that to store things, that she wants to keep it out of sight of my daughter and self.
Then I told this idea to my daughter and she also seemed like the same and we both went to my wife and shared her the idea. For a minute, she did not want to entrust a Sunday Afternoon Lunch to a person, who has always thought that the kitchen belongs to the next house. Then reluctantly she agreed. 'A Father is always a super hero for any child', my daughter is no different, she immediately called my parents and my sister, and informed them not to prepare anything for lunch. The plot is now set.
We went to the nearby Reliance Fresh in Ullagaram for buy the necessary ingredients for preparing a pizza. Unfortunately, the Pizza base was not available. My daughter felt very disappointed, though my wife felt relieved. But I did not want to give up, went to Food World in Nangallur, negative. Then finally we got the Pizza bases in Nilgiris Super Market in Nanganallur.
Then, I bought Eight Pizza bases of the size 6 inches. Then bought capsicums, onions, tomatoes, panneer, cheese, butter, frozen sweet corn, hot and sweet sauce, chat masala.
Having bought everything, arranged everything on the table in front of the Microwave Oven, tested if the Microwave oven works, it did. Then I asked my wife for a recipe book and she helped me with a book by 'Mallika Badrinath'. As I was reading that I realised that she had given the way it has to be prepared using using the tawa and induction stove, but not Microwave oven.
So, threw away the book and thought I will follow my instincts.

1) First and foremost, I sliced all the vegetables and collected everything in a shallow microwave bowl, then added a cup of frozen corn and then added a little water and boiled the same in the Microwave for 5 minutes.
2) I applied butter on the pizza bases and got it toasted in a normal tawa, so that it became a little crispy.
3) Took the panneer and got the same slightly heated that in the microwave for 2 minutes.
4) Also using a mixie, I made chilli flakes using dried red chillies.
5) Once I had all these ready, I took one of the base and grated cheese on top of that, so that it covered the top portion of the pizza base.
6) Then I kept it in the oven for 30 seconds, so that the cheese melted on the base.
7) I took the paneer pieces and arranged it on the base.
8) For those who need the pizzs to be a little spicy, this is a good time to put some chilli flakes on the pizza base.
9) Poured some sauce, made a plus design and a round on the pizza base.
10) Now, arranged the vegetables and corn we have already boiled as per the need.
11) Again grated some cheese on top of the toppings
12) Kept this in owen for 2 minutes in High temperature.

Pizza is ready to be served......

My daughter, without knowing the fact she was a guinea pig, claimed that she has to be served the first pizza and everyone agreed willingly. Once she had, the first comment that she told was," Appa you can start Venky Corner" ( Pizza Corner is her favorite pizza outlet in Chennai). This gave enough confidence for others to taste the pizza and improvised it with each and every pizza I made. Honestly, my family is waiting for me to try my next recipe and so am I.

Life is so beautiful...

This picture was taken in Kallanai near Trichy. This is a 329 metre dam built in the 2nd century and this dam is still in operational condition. Its an engineering marvel and this does make me proud to see how they have thought and conceived this dam.
But more than all those, we spent more than 2 hours in this dam and I would say that it has been the best moments of my life in the recent past. The smile on the faces would tell you how much we all enjoyed being there close to nature. As I was watching my wife and daughter playing happily in the water, I was just wondering how beautiful life is and setting aside all these, we are actually racing behind an artificial, lifeless world.
As usual, I decided that once I retire I would probably settle down in a place like this. then I smiled on my thought and said to myself, to live the life my heart wants to, I should wait till I become old... Why cannot I shun away the life, which I don't like and do I what I want to do, now itself.????