Falling Up January 31, 2010
Posted by amrut in I Love Readin'.4 comments
I tripped on my shoelace and I fell up. (Shel Silverstein)
Its been almost 4 months since I quit HUL and more than 1 month since ilovereadin went live. And I FINALLY(!) have the time to share some interesting stuff –
1. People have been super super helpful! Its like, they are also starting up (a bit) through me. Thank you guys so much.
2. E-cells are the coolest concept on Earth. Especially C-TIDES. In LSG’s words, “We give startups space and then leave them alone and don’t disturb them at all.” Much grateful. Very much grateful.
3. One of my competitors thinks that “I stole her idea and ran away with it”. Nevermind that she and her friends started in 2009 and Netflix started in 1997. Ah well. I am sure she meant it well — she probably hadn’t heard of Netflix. However, we admit it — we are copying the Netflix model. ilovereadin is netflix-for-books-in-Chennai.
Much amusement to having run away with stolen idea. Reminds me of a Shel Silverstein poem where ‘The Nap Taker’ was in court for taking a nap (and beating his eggs, whipping his cream, punching a clock, killing an hour or two, shooting a basketball and stealing second base) and got sentenced to ninety million years of nap-time to serve as an example for other children not to take naps. You — Amrutash — you stole idea and ran with it. We — the court of ideas — sentence you to keep running for the next fifty million years to serve as example for other people to not run away with ideas.
4. Buying books feels good. Buying books that I don’t have the time to read sucks. Its a sinking feeling. Goes like this — “OOOOH, this book is so cool! Such a nice cover. Such pretty pictures. OH, nice opening.” (silence) (check which member to deliver books to) (pack book) (despatch) (feel bad) (sink) (repeat)
5. Roald Dahl. I discovered Roald Dahl too late in my life. I’ve discovered that there are tons of awesome children’s books, that I’ve never read. Makes me want to be 10 again. Reminds me of that song from 3 Idiots — Give me another chance, I wanna grow up once again.
6. Setting up a new kitchen is much easier when there is time to actually cook. Making eggs is not really cooking. Although, I must admit, I have become very good at frying eggs. And I make absolutely gorgeous bread omelettes, with potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and onions, and cabbage, and cheese.
7. Some really cool management books were bought last week. Saw them and felt bad to have kicked the corporate ladder so early. Can never become a maverick employee, rise too fast and then write a book about how to be a maverick corporate rapid ladder climber, which is a bit of a tongue twister.
8. Sleep has been sacrificed. Much blood has flown. Much more will flow as more sleep will be sacrificed. Luckily, at the Indian Institute of Technology, they taught us to sleep only on national holidays. (Quote attributed to Asok (Dilbert, Scott Adams) — lest they accuse me of running away with the quote.)
So, so, tell, tell January 7, 2010
Posted by amrut in General.15 comments
What did you guys think of the site? Tell tell…
http://iloveread.in
An announcement December 19, 2009
Posted by amrut in I Love Readin'.7 comments
In Jan 2009, Suchitra Sastri sent a message saying, and I paraphrase, “Don’t you think there are too few libraries in Chennai? Let’s start one.” And it started with that. From then on, her, me and a couple of others have been working round the clock to start a simple Netflix style library in Chennai that is accessible and convenient and also profitable enough to survive on its own. On Oct 1, I quit my high-paying Hindustan Lever job to work on this project full time. The weeks since then have been extremely hectic and tiring, to say the least. But two things are working well for us. a) I’ve an excellent team who are working their asses off for the cause. b) We have amazingly supportive and understanding family and friends (thank you reel later in the page).
The point.
Is that.
—
—
—
Coming Wednesday, 23rd December ‘09, we are launching a new Netflix-style library of books in Chennai. Its called ilovereadin and it is housed at http://www.iloveread.in. Join. Tell everyone you know!
—
—
—
Thank you reel:
Special thanks to the following people for being there when we needed you the most (in no particular order):
1. My parents
2. Sahil’s parents
3. Suchi’s parents, Vani
4. All the parents of the people who’ve worked for us
5. Sahil’s close group of friends (you know who you are)
6. Ramna (and Niket)
7. Ayush, Tool, Vamsi, Babloo, other hostel junta, Ravikanth, other CFI junta, Bhawana
8. Prof. L S Ganesh and Prof. Nagarajan
9. Prof. Idichandy
10. Karthika and Aparajita
11. Amrit Vatsa
12. Twosome and Sooper. Sonali and Gitanjali.
13. Tavleen, Mudgal and other ex-colleagues from Levers
14. Anshumani Ruddra (You are awesome inspiration.)
15. Mrs. Jean Isaacs
16. Everybody at PS Senior Secondary School
17. All our close friends who’ve believed in us and have supported us.
18. Pinkus, Sankarakutti
19. Manu
Without you guys, it would have been impossible to even imagine pulling this off. We owe you all one.
My awesome team:
1. IT team X
2. Suchitra Sastri
3. Dalal
4. Interns Hareesh and Varsha and Sudarshan (?)
5. Designer: Aparajita Bose
Update:
IT team X = Sahil + Rajesh + Aneesh. With a lot of advice from Manu.
Just Another Day November 28, 2009
Posted by amrut in Writing.2 comments
New story up: Just Another Day.
As usual, comments here, not there.
The Negative Emotion and Good Writing November 15, 2009
Posted by amrut in Writing.6 comments
I am from the school of thought which says that the best writing comes from writers who have been through a lot of pain. I personally think I write better when I am depressed. Which is annoying, because I am not depressed now, and I can’t think of anything nice to write. BUT, I wrote this today, and I like it, and I am happy about it. I am thinking of re-evaluating the effect of a negative emotion on my writing.
I was waiting for you today at the traffic light. So we could stand next to each other and wait for green together. So that I could be a red-light-boy and you could be a red-right-girl and I could say, ‘Hi, do you want to be red-light-friends?’ We could meet at the traffic lights everyday and chat up in 45 seconds. Everyday could start with your traffic light smile. And I could be annoyed and have a bad day when you don’t turn up. And then many red lights later, perhaps, we could meet elsewhere, someplace quiet.
Rural over! September 25, 2009
Posted by amrut in Writing.add a comment
My rural stint is over.
I wanted to write a tiny post on WHY I blogged it. I want to say its pure shameless self-promotion. But a lot of things can be blogged for pure shameless self-promotion. Why this?
Because I thought it made a good story. Really, that’s all there is to it.
Oh, and apologies to post them as pages, I know they didn’t show up nicely on RSS feeds — I should’ve done this better. But now its done!
I am going rural! August 24, 2009
Posted by amrut in Writing.2 comments
Finally the rural stint is here. I shall blog it. And in honour of the great rural stint, I have added a new tab on the top that directly takes you to the story of my rural adventure.
Wish me luck.
Oh, and please comment on why you read books in the previous post. Please please please. Pretty please.
Why do you read? August 22, 2009
Posted by amrut in Book reading survey.22 comments
This is the question:
Why do you read (books)?
(leave answers on the comments section)
Pace! July 31, 2009
Posted by amrut in Writing.comments closed
Tee-twenty-two,
this-is-for-you.
New story up — link here.
Context — I wanted to write something for folks back at insti for a long time, having completed a year out of it. Since Sooper asked me to do exactly that, I said, ok, done! And yet, preaching doesn’t go well with insti junta and I think I sound really bad when preaching (Maybe BoFi will remember my attendance preach!). So I wanted to knit it into a story. I am not sure if I did a good job and I am not sure if they are picking it up, but, its written and I am happy with the outcome. Thanks to Prats for edits.
As usual, comment there, not here.
Oh. And three years.
The Black Kitten June 4, 2009
Posted by amrut in Writing.2 comments
THE BLACK KITTEN
– Gatsby, Smoke, Chops and the Poetess
The Gatsby proposed the story
The Holy Smoke gave it wind
The Carry Chops gave it colour
The Poetess gave it a sine
Together, they spoke in rhyme
Hear, hear :
Bert and Ron, in the middle of the road,
Sat down to rest their weary soles;
Ere Bert was asleep, Ron gave a holler:
“How long afore you think, that jeep’ll run us over?”
“10 meters!”, reported the engineer bright,
Ron, meanwhile, is all ready for flight.
As Fate would have, brakes couldn’t avoid the hittin,
But them it didn’t; it hit a luckless black kitten!
Kitten being dead, the Soul prepared to leave,
All ready to rise, and Heavens to receive.
The pull but came, from below, so it fell
“Black Black Kitten Soul! You belong in Hell!”
“Apartheid! My Lord! So truly unfair!”
“Just one way out…that if you dare
To scratch a Human and set Soul free.”
Failure alas! For Metaphysical Misery!
No longer substance, the Soul couldn’t touch;
Leave alone scratch, or for that matter clutch!
Smart Soul then, had an idea bright,
Thought no more, but entered right
Into the body of Bert not Ron,
Cause Bert had more muscle and brawn.
Though ready to scratch, the Soul but fails,
For Alas! Bert had not the long-sharp-NAILS!
“No matter! no matter! we’ll sit and wait,
For nails to grow, for thats our Fate.”
And they sat 3 years, like roadside beggars;
Incidentally, the driver was Arnold Schwarzenegger.
As the three years drew to an end,
The Soul had nails no man could defend.
All ready to scratch and liberate itself,
But lo! a Spaceship, and out came an elf;
Elf-like Aliens rather, with multiple heads,
Armed with nail cutters and so they said:
“We come to rid the world of the muck
Who grow their nails and never cut!”
“Start with the First Man! Let there be drama!”
And they flew to inspect Barrack Obama.
The Oval Office, they found him in,
All wan and pale, with fingers thin,
And nails so long, bade the aliens utter:
“Give us all your Nail Cutters!”
Obama grabbed a cutter and ran,
To simultaneously cut, was his plan.
But footnails he couldn’t, while he was running,
A fierce chase then followed, with constant gunning.
A cave he ran into, breathless with fear
But aliens at the door, the end is now near.
But to his surprise, Kitten Soul appeared:
“I started, I’ll end; Dont be afeard!”
With a puppy face, “MEOW!” he’d spoken,
And lo! The Aliens were all Nail-broken!
