My tryst began after meeting Pradeep (read ‘The Tour Director’ and ‘My Good Pal’), Ravi (the Doer and Cycle Champ), Sharath (the Model, the Marketing-Whizz, Cycle Lover) and Arun (brand lover, perfectionist, the boss). As they poured out their plan for the tour and the ideas behind it, I was left wide-eyed with the sheer passion that exhilarated from these gentlemen. One could feel their love for cycling, and clearly see that they were out to do something BIG.

And as I was listening to them, the old school days came tumbling down the less-trodden memory lane. Those long cycle rides were the most memorable moments of my life till date. While cycling, you realize how connected one can stay to the place, people and all the beauty around. You think you could care to stop on a bike than to lower your car window every time you wanted to experience something?

Now that I knew about their plan, which was called ‘Tour of Nilgiris’ (TFN from here on), I think I was more than fortunate to design the brand (posters, website, badges etc), including one of my best works: The TFN logo.

And trust me, I haven’t stop talking about these guys ever since!

What is TFN?

Imagine yourself away from the hustle-bustle of the jam-packed roads, away from the daily routine, away from the world of Internet, cell-phones or anything that keeps you connected with that materialistic part of your life that keeps you ‘busy’ and far far far away from the deadlines and the worries.

And, now imagine yourself on an 8-day breakout for once-in-a-lifetime experience amidst the forest ranges and the small pathways, traveling through the tiny villages breathing the fresh air, pushing your limits without the need to fuel your saddle. To add to the adventure you won’t be alone, you will be accompanied by 80 odd new people who wish to cherish all this beauty along with you in crudest and purest form possible.

Just imagine the HIGH! Experiencing it is twice as much as said.

So much will happen over these 8 days and at the end of it possibilities of new human beings are created. Why do I say so? Because participants go Eco-friendly, a new sense of comradeship emerges, self-confidence multiplies and of course you get to beat your own cycling record with the feeling of triumph!

So what does it really take to do a TFN? Money?  A kick-ass bike?  Prior experience? Nah.

It takes a heart and the will to do so. Last year I saw Dattatreye Patil ride bare foot on a cycle no better than a hero hawk, I saw people take on cycling for such long distances for the first time, I saw young women challenge the men on the track, I saw 12 year old Sukhdev cycle all the way up to Mysore. One thing was common; each one had the passion…the zest. They hardly cared about the world around or the reasons not to do it. They had the two wheels, a saddle and a journey calling them…

And if TFN08 was such an experience, you can well guess what TFN09 could be. If you haven’t done TFN, you haven’t done much yet.

Now this boils down to why I posted this write-up almost 10 months after the tour. Simply to relive the magic moments in the virtual world and look forward to a bigger, better, exciting TFN09. Well this also happens to be my chance of being the official blogger for TFN09. I want to capture the Nilgiris, the ranges, the green & wild with it, the trail, the people, the sweat and blood behind (literally), the local food, the spirit of sharing and spirit of  ‘2 wheels and a saddle.’

Are you game to experience the spirit of cycling? I AM!

TFN09 -  “LETS RIDE AND SHINE.”

It’s a maze of self contentment vs quantifiable parameters.

In startups? In Exams? In Jobs? In Relationships? In Business?

What do you do then? Look back and feel good you traveled.  Ask yourself why you doing this? Or set some new things for your self. The more I look deeper the more I’m lost. As humans we are just  not going to stop.

Dhirubhai started at a petrol pump, sold polyester, then manufactured, then exported.. and on and on. As a kid you want toys, then you want a cycle, then you want to be a fav of a special teacher, then you want friends, then you grow up a bit and start liking girls, then you fall in love, then you want bike, then you want to crack IIT/CET/XYZ, then you want good job, years later then you say boss let me startup/study again, then you marry, then you have kids, then you have … .. cycle again.

The spark never stops. The quest never ends. Beauty or a curse? Purpose or an endless game of games.

Am I the only one feeling so.

Can I break some rules here? Visit mars? Create families in 9 planets, Go back to jungle, Reverse the internet, why do we exist? Why do we “want”. Why do we “think!”

As humans that’s what we are gifted with I think. Ripples, quest and questions that can keep popping out of no where. You then create answers not because someone else wants answers but because YOU questioned!

Makes any sense?

PS: Excuse me for this useless post. Just too many questions I know

As a responsible citizen I walk upto the vote booth NMKRV college, Jayanagar, Bangalore South Constituency. To my utter dismay I find name there but says “Deleted” in front of it!!

‘ How come? ‘ – I ask the officers in the room. They say either you were not there when they came for verification, or you changed your residence or you are dead. These are the likely cases. On further inquiry I found out all my family members names are  intact. Weirdly I’m the one DELETED.

1. I have voted last time around. So there cannot be any confusion

2. If 4 of my family members are there and verified why was I not there?

3. I did get my “small” piece of paper before the elections with my name and constituency and where I should vote details.

There leaves no scope for confusion/change/editing at all. I have not shifted, moved, renamed myself or even died. I have been SIMPLY denied my right to VOTE.

Yes I’am being emotional here. Is’nt this my country? Can I not make a difference?

I then ask few officers whom do I talk to. They point me to the Returning Officers (Mr Hiremath) room. I walk in and tell the RO and his deputy (I guess) my problem. They are not surprised at the problem at all. The deputy (dont really know his name) then asks me to sit down calmly next to him on a bench. I was surprised by the hospitality. Only later I realize he has done this many a times through the day.

He calmly mentions that there has been a mistake from the printers/vendors who give out the list. He then adds that there have been many such cases and they can’t do anything much time around. I was completely shocked. Mistake? How many?? 10%? 20%?  God only knows!!

He then says I can vote in the August council elections by filling form 6 later on. WOW! They are doing me a favour ?? My name should have been there in the first place, I had already voted last time from the same place..

I then ask them for a written statement that there has been a mistake and they will rectify. They simply refuse to do this. The deputy then suggests I give him a written complaint which they will ack the same. In a way he was helpful and said he will try to do something about it.

But obviously no one willing to accept that something has gone wrong!!

I write the complaint, then go out to get two copies for the record. I submit the complaint to this deputy and then he asks his junior to sign the ‘photo copy’ of it. Nobody has read the complaint.

The poor junior comes and signs it blindly without even reading it.  I take the signed photo copy of it and walk out.I don’t really know if the ’submitted’ copy will go somewhere or even make a difference.

I recollect 2-3 such people having the similar problem but just walking away thinking its just another holiday.

Who cares right?

Find below the complaint I submitted. I really still want to vote!

1. Super Heroes take charge, so do entrepreneurs.

If you notice the movies of all the super heroes they have shown time and again how super heroes take charge of situations and win no matter what comes across. Super heroes are super heroes because they believe they can do it. They believe that no situation can come in the way of their good intentions. Entrepreneurs in real life face every possible hurdle. Just think of it. There are times when the whole family turns him down, there are times when the whole world thinks that his product is crap, there are times when his friends don’t have faith in him…. financial crisis, social dump, relationship crisis.. come what may he stands. He stands by his dream because he believes it will work and will do whatever it takes!

2. Superheroes have powers. Entrepreneurs have dreams.

A superhero is gifted with power. A power that surpasses other normal beings. Each entrepreneur has a dream. A dream that’s so inspiring, that keeps him awake at odd hours. The drive is to see that dream turn into reality. He might have no finances, no resources, no skills, no support structure but he continues to thread the path. He has the power to move ahead no matter what comes by. And we always thought only super heroes have power?

3. Superheroes let go things for a bigger cause. Entrepreneurs do that and call it part of journey..

Heroes make sacrifices at times, let go off their ego, let go off their love, let go a lot many things just to ensure the bigger vision is fulfilled. Entrepreneurs too have to sacrifice so many things. They are like super humans… they have missed n number of outings with friends, those priceless moments they could have spent with the loved ones, that well paid job, that extra respect in society, those movies they missed, those small little things that they saved money on, those cellar offices, those shared connections, those endless list of wish lists that didn’t see the light of the day.. an entrepreneur lets them all go by to make sure his dream comes alive.. I seriously admire these tons of great people I have met for they never complain about it.. they have a smile which says ‘I let it go, so what.. See what I’m doing now!’

4. Superheroes Sequel. Entrepreneurs keep making a difference!

All our super hit superhero stories have a sequel, prequel and what not.. Our entrepreneurs have so much more than that. We always just see their super hit movie. Look at how many times they failed before making it to the top. Entrepreneurs by virtue don’t give up even after reaching heights. If the idea fails, they try again. Else they take up a new approach altogether. If it takes off, then he wants to have it take off once more. Even after all this, he will not sit back… he wants a new problem to solve; he wants to make a bigger difference. His journey continues..ups and downs filled with contagious enthusiasm and zeal that spreads like a fire, continuing to make a difference to the live he touches.

This post is to just give each entrepreneur out there a pat on their back for their efforts, a small way to acknowledge the great inspiration that they are. For they have taken a path less trodden and gone beyond means of being just comfortable. You folks are live examples of super-heroes. Some get to showcase a movie some remain as reels, some make it to the comics & books and some continue to script the pages… Nevertheless each of you have a great dream, a power that can cut through the greatest force.

Keep it lighted. It’s your DREAM. Come what may we are sure you are going to make it!

Heroes believe ‘With great power comes great responsibility!’ & as entrepreneurs we believe ‘With great dreams come greater visions!’

update: Another interesting article my friend Deepa found it here

The most exciting day of my life. As my mom celebrates her birthday today she gets to press the ‘upload’ button on the ftp to catapault NetBramha Studios  into existence!

NetBramha will focus on three cores areas – branding, web solutions and viral marketing. Of course we are still small and nimble but surely have huge plans like any other.  I believe as always the journey is far enthralling than the destination itself. It gives me immense pleasure to invite you all to be partners of this wonderful ride ahead.

I’am looking for a place to settle, people that live & breathe design, a team full of joy & abundance.

Drop me a note at : aashish@netbramha.com

Cheers

I recently wrote an article on Top 10 Design Blunders for Web 2008 

This was published in AlooTechie here, as a guest post. Re-posting it below.

1.       Crappy form designs.

One of the biggest turn offs for any user is forms! Cut down on extra fields; let the user fill them later in his profile if he wishes to not right in the first go! Highlight clearly the optional and required fields. Also mention the privacy policy you follow. This builds up user trust and experience.

A very good article you must see here.

Read a very good pdf here.

2.       Overdone layouts. Confusion while choosing b/w fluid and fixed.

Simplicity is the key to gaining pleasant user experience. Do not complicate simple tasks such as contact, navigation, products/services, and login. Choose the right experience – flash / static pages / dynamic or a CMS?

Also another very important aspect usually neglected is choosing b/w fluid vs fixed layout. Usually a content rich site is fluid and a personal/corporate site goes well with a fixed layout. Judge carefully what YOU can pull off!

CSS Layouts – http://layouts.ironmyers.com/

3.       Inconsistent color schema, color palette undefined.

Uneven use of colors gives a disturbed user experience. A website should reflect an integrated environment and different sections of the site should belong to the same family. Keep your logo as the most important standpoint of your site and follow a strict color palette.

Life can be simple using www.colorlovers.com , www.kuler.adobe.com

4.       Unreadable and cluttered text.

Brilliant content, great design but cluttered typography! Typography can make or break your entire site. Select carefully the font and their sizes for various headings, tags, paragraph text. Font size should never go below 9px-10px. This is the effective threshold for human readability. Use white spaces around text for better readability and composure.

Fall in love with TEXT @ www.ilovetypography.com

5.       Separating SEO from Design and Development.

A lot of times design, dev and SEO are seen as three different phases all together. I believe that SEO has to begin right with the design and development. For eg: Using appropriate Image names, Use of <h1> tags effectively so on and so forth. Give due importance to it while laying out your project plan.

Loads to learn @ www.forums.digitalpoint.com

6.       No browser and resolutions compatibility.

This is the biggest pain that a designer or a developer has to go through. Call it the ‘Labour pain of Web –Design!’

IE inherently does not support a lot of CSS and JavaScript’s hacks making our lives complicated. With no good parallel for ‘firebug’ extension on other browsers consistency goes for a toss. Also make sure to test the site in wide screen monitors. During development make sure you have the site tested on top 4 browsers and top 6 resolutions. Avoid ignoring sets of users based on your clever understanding of site analytics!

Try using IE developer toolbox.

7.       Trying hard to be web 2.0 and user generated content.

I really wonder if we all need so much of so called user generated content at every other place. Be very clear why UGC on your portal / site is required. Never succumb to it just because everybody else is doing it. Also certain ‘web 2.0ish’ fundas don’t really go well with what you want to communicate at times!

On a lighter note, excellent example of effective site with no web 2.0 – www.indianrail.gov.in

8.       Design Imbalance due to uneven flow of layout.

Subtle yet important! A design has to be balanced and consistent. The icons, typography, navigation, interactions and all other elements need to ‘belong’. Simple things like use same Font Family, a same icon family, use of CSS based forms etc.

Try not to use extra icons and graphics just because they were offered free!

MindBlowing stuff @ www.smashingmagazine.com  &  www.cssbeauty.com

9.       Whitespaces hamper effective space utilization.

One of my favorite things in design is white spaces. The more of it the more focus on the things that you want to communicate to your target user!  Clarity is evident around white spaces.

A must thing to adopt in any design is space and minimalist approach.

10.    ‘Beta’ used as an excuse for bad user experience.

Don’t kill me for this. But give it a thought. Why is beta used so damn commonly used?? For a certain period of initial launch I completely agree but anything more than that becomes an excuse!

Eg: Google did that with GMAIL!

Avoid ‘Extended’ Beta tags to gain user trust is what I would say.

The above points do have exception at places but that definitely happens after getting few basic things right. Enjoy designing the user experience and allow your creativity to try new never before things!

Cheers.

Dear All,

I have been associated with web, design and starting up since the last couple of years. I’am glad that GOD let me chase my dreams right from my standard 10th.  I still remember the turning point of my life. It is etched so clear in my memory. It was a weekday and I was sitting in a cyber during my class X trying to build website on www.homestead.com. It was the year 2000 and the dot com was on a high. I was completely mesmerized by Internet by then! Whatever little money I got went straight to cyber cafes. As I sat in my chair fiddling with the options a gentleman next to me peered over to see, what was I doing curiously. He was MD of a startup called Together Technologies Pvt Ltd. He promptly asked what I was doing and will I be interested to come over to his office to discuss a few things!

My joys knew no bounds. A 14 year old me was called to discuss things … the gentleman was ‘Ashish Saraf’, funny thing is that he shared my name as well! So I landed up that Saturday at a house-turned-office which had about 6-7 member team. I was greeted by a warm lady Annapurna, who later became my first teacher-mentor. I was asked to draw few things and comprehend a paragraph in English. They were reasonably happy with my enthusiasm and unpolished art.

Ashish offered a proposition: I work for them during my 10th holidays and they train me on PhotoShop, Dreamweaver and Flash. Believe me I could not have asked for anything else! Man, I was on top of the world. 2 months from morning 9 to evening 6 I cycled to this wonderful house and lived my dream. Annapurna patiently gave me both skills and live projects! I remember Archana as well who was from ChitraKala Parishad guiding me during those crucial stages.They had sowed the seeds of design!

Of course at times I felt I could have enjoyed my holidays or gone on a vacation instead.. Thoughts like why am I doing this and what will I do with all this came up.. But nevertheless the passion for web remained.

If not for Ashish Saraf and Annapoorna I would not have been the way I’am. My heart felt gratitude to wherever you are & you were the most important mentors of my life.. I’am sure we will bump into each other again!!

Class 11 ( or I PUC ) is a time which most youngsters look forward to. As any other teenager too I was excited about my first college! Chirst College was a great place to be. As though things were planned something miraculous happened. On the very first day of the college I met ‘Sunny Shah’ who later went on to become my first partner and an even bigger mentor!

Sunny was from Gujrat and had come down for studies here. He had immense passion for computers and design. When we got to know about our common interests our joy had no bounds. We found our perfect entrepreneurial partners. It was very clear for both of us that we started something together. While Sunny had named his secret company as Genius Tech, I on the other hand had visioned to call my company Dream Technologies. Now that we clicked together we wanted a name that will inspire both of us. And we came up with ‘Genius Dreams Technologies’ and it stuck!!

At age of 16, Class 11 we both set off.  Our first client was a student who wanted to learn to build sites and animations. We got ourselves cards printed and showed them off as our prized possessions! We did a couple of sites, branding, computer assembling and what not! The happiest moment was when I got a call from Deccan Herald. They wanted to interview us!!  It was raining heavily in Bangalore, Sunny & myself didn’t have a snap together then. We rushed to the MG road office in that rain, got a photo clicked near by and spoke to the reporter. We felt we had conquered the world. I know you all must be thinking how ‘teenish’ we were or how ‘glamour’ crept in!

But trust me.. at that age it was fun. It was a sense of achievement and pride. I can never forget the smile on my mothers face and the glow in her eyes when she saw her son’s photo in Deccan Herald. God has been generous, very generous indeed!!

We continued to take up projects. Learnt to handle clients. Many a times the hard way. What we thought was professionalism was our innocence and weakness! Nevertheless we sometimes got underpaid or worked out too many designs for a commitment that was not formalized … so on and so forth.  But as said the journey is always important than the destination.

Sunny was a pillar of strength and a guiding force. He re-inforced my passion for computers and impressed me every time with his logic and creativity. He gave me the space to grow and showed the right doors at right times!

By this time we had moved to our engineering. This time around Sunny being in a different college. Genius Dreams chugged along smoothly. As I say, God planned another torchlight for me. I met Sridhar G at BNMIT (my engi college.)

Sridhar was 2 years senior to me and was an exceptional programmer and an uncommon thinker. He appreciated my design skills and even introduced me to ProInt Software where he worked part time during engineering days. My work at ProInt involved designing their corporate site, product collateral and a few other things. ProInt was a startup in the enterprise integration space.

The moment I met him I saw that the world has multitude of great people like Sri. The urge to make a bigger difference grew. While he went out to do his masters in London we would often discuss ideas, toss few thought processes that could change lives..  Finally Yulop happened. I have spoken earlier in detail about our Journey to Yulop.

I’am extremely humbled to say that in this 2 years of association with Yulop, it has taken its shape and form & grown beyond expectations. Yulop is today making inroads into Mobile and Location Based Services apart from being a ‘Local player’ on the web. I have gained immensely from this team and I think the story & growth of Yulop will be different from 6 to 8 months now on.

As a co-founder at Yulop, I saw what it takes to build something from ground zero. I experienced team being built, I experienced how we faltered. I experienced how to learn quickly from the flaws. I saw Sri taking on things head – on. Personally I grew leaps and bounds as well!! The kind of mentoring from MAK and the support from the team has been exceptional! I shall cherish these for the rest of my life!

Today I set to pursue my love for web and design. I’am heading off to design for people, startups and corporates as a designer. I believe in giving brands and user interfaces to different and varied sets of people which will let me sleep to my content in the night. My interest for design and online marketing has widened and strengthened! I would also explore another area which always interested me – Experience Design.

As I take this plunge a big hug and a thank you to all you folks for getting me this far!! You all ROCK!

More to come soon!

PS: www.netbramha.com

You can block tickets here  or buy them at the venue.

BarCamp Bangalore, which entered into its sixth edition over the weekend, was one of the best so far. It was different from the previous camps in one aspect—one could not just register for attendance, but had to register a topic to speak on, to ensure active participation of all present. Despite this precondition, more than 400 people turned up, talked and had a blast.

The sessions were broadly divided into four tracks— product demos, Internet, citizen talks, and mobile and gizmo talks.

In addition to these, the Corridor Sessions & Daris were also a great hit. These were essentially smaller, impromptu discussions initiated on the spot by the participants.

(pic credits: Swaroop CH)

Social networking site MySpace launched its developer program for India at the camp and had several well-attended sessions.

Another area that saw intense discussions was Rich Internet Apps (RIA). Some of the popular sessions included ‘Open social’, ‘Tweaks for high performance websites’, ‘Democracy and how to get your voters list’, ‘VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol)—some misconceptions in India’ and ‘Problems start-ups face’.

Social media gatherings such as the Bangalore Tweet-up (meet-up of users of microblogging service Twitter) and Blogathon meet-up for bloggers were also well attended. BarCamp even saw sessions on lighter topics such as ‘Dating tips’ and ‘Sun signs’.

The product demo sessions had several start-ups showcasing products they were working on. This included RangDe.org, a microlending start-up, CommonFloor.com, social networking for daily use, and Mantis, a GDS (global distribution system) for bus agents and operators.

There were also sessions from Kickstart (organizers of Headstart and Start-up Saturday) and incubation cells of Indian Institutes of Management, Bangalore and Ahmedabad.

This barcamp was distinctly ahead in terms of participation and confluence of multiple domains. What could have been better is campers taking up more hands on sessions and hack hours. All said and done I had a good dose of ideas & innovation.

This article can also be found on LIVEMINT