Till Jan 2009, I was only peripherally interested in politics, just like many other educated Indians. I was an entrepreneur first and a citizen of India later. I would read newspapers, watch TV news once in a while, discuss politics and politicians in drawing room conversations, and move on with life. My view of Indian history was filled with the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the rest of them. Names like Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo were only of passing interest.
I have had a privileged education – being one of the few to get into IIT-Bombay. Then, I went to Columbia University. I had promised my father that I would do what he did in the 1960s. After 4 years in the US, I was among the handful to return to India in 1992. Working in India for another company was out of the question as the only path I wanted to follow was that of an entrepreneur.
After many failed efforts, I finally made it big with the launch of India’s first Internet portals. The hard work paid off when IndiaWorld was bought by Sify in one of the biggest Internet deals in Asia. I was then all of 32 years. After much thought, I went back to being an entrepreneur trying to create things that hadn’t been done before. The path since then was been a mix of a few ups and a lot of downs. But the important thing is I chose that path.
Continued tomorrow.
