The IDfy story

Well been quite a while since my last post.  I just realized that I practically have no time between my baby (the actual one) and my start-up IDfy.  For people who have never visited IDfy, www.idfy.com, is my latest start-up.

We started about a year and a half back, with a tall goal of solving the credibility problem in India.  So 40% of Indians lie on their resume, its sad but true.  Sometimes I feel that Indians are the only people in this world who have taken Einstien's theory of relativity to heart, "everything is relative even truth".  I joke, but this is not an Indian problem alone, its much much deeper.

SO we started IDfy with a vision that most people actually want to be honest but situation makes them lie, because the good things they do in their life cannot be showcased, and therefore that duration in their previous company is good enough small lie to get their next job.

IDfy is about looking at a person from a holistic perspective, his blog, tweets and personality are just as relevant as his duration at a company. 

So what can you do on IDfy?

1) Just pull your credentials from various sources, get some social validations for your claims.

2) pull links and data in from the web about you, yes linkedin, facebook, even links about you on a magazine even

3) create a survey about you, get people to take it, showcase what people think about it

and finally share this in all your interactions.

Your next job, dont just carry your resume, carry your IDfy identity, with your credible resume, surveys and your social identity.  Showcase it as a dossier of information about you.

Isnt that cool??? I would love to hear your thoughts.  check us out on www.idfy.com

also check out www.idfy.com/resume

10 tips to hold the govt ransom

10 tips to hold the Govt Ranson

1) Choose a leader who the public associates with Gandhi (doesnt matter if knows anything or not, but has to be clean and has to be respected)

2) Choose a platform which the public has some grievance towards (but doesn't know how to solve it)

3) Choose an un-implementable bill (if its implementable the govt might agree so beats the point of holding them ransom)

4) Talk a lot of hoopla - examples galore - go to IIT talk about how the CBI cannot do anything because of their reporting structure. Now keep in mind that all you have to say is that "we will do it better (reference: yeah lokpal will resolve this in 6 months or 1 year)" never talk about actual implementation methodologies cause that might show holes in your thought process.

5) Get the media involved - now this is a tricky one, you need the media to exaggerate the numbers, you will need them to make your "Gandhi" a messiah.

6) After all this is done you have done your ground work, now you need to maintain a stance of "my way or the highway (ref: bush - you are with us or against us)" this has to be carefully done cause you cant sound like a megalomaniac, so what you say is "I am open to changes as long as its better" now keep in mind that you have the ability to decide what is better. so you cover all your bases

7) put it up on your website, and use social media. Anything public almost makes it legit these days. Show that there have been 3000 suggestions and 14 amendments. (as long as you say it with conviction 14 amendments can sound really big, not to mention 3000).

8) Start a campaign which doesnt talk about the core stance - (ref: anna is india - india is anna). This is a master stroke, you have suddenly made this mainstream regardless of the number of people who are supporting you. Also this takes away from the core stance of the bill and now its the person you are following not the bill. This ensures that more uneducated (ie people who havent read the bill) will follow you.

9) Now comes innovation at its best - you need to ensure there are sleeper cells in every city that you can call upon. They will run around in the rain, stop traffic/trains etc. Ensure that people who are no part of this campaign get bugged enough. Motive is to stop status quo, delay daily work. So goes back to my way or the highway

10) the master stroke of all - hunger strike, Fast till death. This can only be done if you choose the right leader, a simple man. he cannot be grandiose. No one should be able to question his motive.

Now I look forward to more of this in the future....... Wonderful world that we live in.....

Thanks anna for "standing up" for me, when I never asked you for it!!!! thanks to the media exaggerated millions who have no idea what the bill stands for or how it would be implemented. only thing I have heard for implementing the bill has been "yeah we will try the guy in 1 year" WTF????

been 3 years since graduation

wow I cant believe its been 3 years since I graduated from ISB. I feel like I have lost quite a bit of my creativity in the last 3 years. Its a real struggle to start writing again. I keep wondering if this is a result of getting into the "real world" again. Work sucks ass and I cant believe that I am still doing this stuff. Office is filled with useless idiots who don't want to take ownership for anything, its a struggle to get people to own up to their responsibilities. And somehow, the most important thing at work is politics and stakeholder management. WTF?????

I wish I was back into that intellectual crowd, working on value adding activities and responsible people who arent just putting road blocks because they have something stuck up their ass. The corporate world is very different and feels like a prison sometimes. it seems like everyday I try to move 3 steps ahead and end up moving couple of steps back. What a life?

4 teas down, many more to go

FIrst it was the one year roller coaster at ISB, then it was placement week jitters, after which the all india tours and a long time warming the couch at home. While waiting for my visas to come through I had a bright idea : the idea was I am getting terribly bored at home and why not work at ISB? So here I am at ISB for the enxt 2 months working on an amazing project, the fear however is that I might like it too much, and with my affection for start up experiences I might stay back. Well gonna try very hard not to succumb to the temptation. Right now I have had about 4 teas today, and life is wonderful.

Back in ISB

Here I am sitting in a cubicle in WCED, I am working with WCED on a bplan for a technology venture here at ISB. I will be here for the next 2 months, and the job seems to be exciting. I am looking forward to an incredible 2 months here. ISB seems a lot different now than last year, now that I am looking at it from the alumni angle. I get this big brother type feeling where I feel the need to impart the little knowledge that I might have to the new batch. SO I have been boring some of the students to death with my diarrhea of advice and gyan.... hope these guys dont shoot me before I leave campus...

My Thoughts on Reservations

Well I thought it is time that I spent some of my energy onto the ongoing debate about reservations. So I think reservations are a great way to equalize the inequality, afterall in this day and age this is the only way to ensure that every one regardless of the intellectual caliber can become a doctor, or engineer, or scientist. It is unfair that we have to be treated by great doctors, it is in fact unfair that we have bridges that dont break at the pressure of a birds droppings. It is in fact unfair that we be taught by professors who actually know their stuff. So my suggestions are as follows.

1) The IITs, the IIMs and the ISBs of India, should ensure that the best jobs get distributed on a quota basis to the students at these institutions. 27% reservation for the OBCs shoudl be maintained during placements, 22% should be given to the SCSTs. and the rest should be distributed amongst the "meritorious" crowd.

2) The professors of these institutions shoudl be hired on the basis of caste and creed, ensuring a 27% reservation for the OBC and 22% for SCSTs. SO that we can ensure that our educational system also maintains equal representation. God forbid if we are taught by the most talented professors this country might actually improve. We cant let that happen.

3) We must ensure that US immediately implements 27% reservation and 22% for OBC and SCST respectively, for visa and h1 applications. We must ensure that there is equal representation of caste in other countries as well. We cannot allow just the meritorious to escape the torture of our educational system.

4) The prime ministers post should be donned by an SCST/OBC individual effective immediately. WE must ensure that our top political post is also maintained with no regard to merit. As we have had our share of non SCST/OBC primeministers, we shoudl ensure that it is finally equally represented.

5) We must ensure that every family has a representation of SCST/OBC members so that we can ensure that families too are not based on merit. Effective immediately the goivernment should move children from one family to another so that 22/27% representation in maintained. if families have only 2 members, members of the family should be increased so that the merit category is not reduced (as per the instructions of the honorable prime minister of India Sonia Gandhi oooops or is it Manmohan Singh, I get confused at times)

6) effective immediately India shoudl ensure that all religions are eqully represented, therefore there shall be forced conversions so that this representation can be maintained.

Please the readers of this blog (if there are any) ensure that these points are followed through so that we can become a more inept country. PLEASE..... Let the arjun singh and the manmohan singhs of this world rise up the political ladder so that such actions can be immediately taken


Thanks to the Indian political system that we are able to dream of such possibilities
-Ashok

Nostalgia

I was going over some pics from my time at ISB, and a lone tear rolled down my eyes. Remembered that this time last year we celebrated Bhishms bday at my quad (we used to call it the common room, since everyone used to be there. Remembered his comment about how we stuffed his oraface with cake... Remembered the times I spent with a special someone who cant be mentioned :). The visits to SV2. God I miss those days. SO got me thinking about the present batch, and how they are doing. I searched through some of the blogs, and its funny how people are feeling the same things I felt last year. And seems like this batch is a lot more gung-ho about ISB than ours. Anyway its a good thing, and I hope the legacy continues.

So what am I doing these days???? hmmm... well nothing really I am warming the couch and bugging mom, trying to loose weight by operating the remote control, I thin kits working actually :) I am gonna file my visa papers for UK tomorrow, and am prolly gonna hit Bombay this week and meet some ISBians...... Wish I could go through the whole year again