Mania’s Jet Age

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Human mind wants to fly high in the sky. Inspired by this desire, on December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright, mostly known as the Wright brothers made the first successful experiment in which a machine (aka airplane) carrying a man rose by its own power, flew naturally and at even speed, and landed  without damage. This was the first aircraft of human history.


In 1909, Wright brothers received their first contract to build a plan for military, establishing the foundation of commercial aviation industry.  After World War 2, USSR's Aeroflot became the first commercial airline in the world to operate sustained regular jet services on September 15, 1956. With Boeing 707 in 1958, commercial aviation has introduced new levels of comfort, safety and passenger expectations and age of mass commercial air travel, namely Jet Age begun. (from Wikipedia)

On 2003 when Captain G. R. Gopinath founded Air Deccan and doors of commercial airlines started opening for India’s middle class.  Air Deccan’s cheap airfare and growing income levels, have given aspiration to Indian middle class that they can also afford to fly and experience the Jet Age.

Mania, as lower middle class man (hanging between BPL(below poverty line)  and APL) could not afford to be part of Jet age yet, even with cheap-no meals airlines. For Mania, Railway’s reserved sleeper class ticket is the most, he can have. He watched airplanes flying above his head and disappearing deep into the sky.. and his eyes were wondering what is happening, inside this huge metal body.... !! 

Poverty enforces limitations. Limitations in space, sources and dreams.. Mania has never dreamt about travelling in aircraft.. It was outside his vision and mental framework.. Travelling in aircraft is thing of big people, rich people, car people,,,,, not him.. He was totally engrossed in his work and finding satisfaction in whatever life has offered to him. He has no time for dreaming.

Mania was working for Abdulla seth, a plastic merchant. Mania’s job was to take samples to various clients and seek orders from them.

Yesterday night, Abdullah received a call from his cousin in Chennai about a possible client who is looking for plastic manufacturer, who can supply material for his upcoming factory. Client has arranged a meeting for all possible vendors at Chennai. It was very essential for Abdullah to be present at the meeting. But unfortunately, due to his ill health, he could not attend. His cousin assured him that he will manage, provided he has good samples to show. Sensing the opportunity and urgency,  Abdullah decided to send Mania to Chennai with samples by flight !!!!!

For Mania, who has never travelled in AC coaches of train, travelling by flight was a shocking news !! Truly breaking news for him !!

That night Mania could not sleep. Mania was content with his life and never dreamt to enter into the den of rich men. Thinking about airport, aircraft was bothering him. Thoughts as” What would happen to me !! What will I do !! How will I behave !! I don’t know English, how i will communicate !! what will happen to me in the air !! “ etc.. he cursed his Abdullah seth for his decision.... This Flight-travel had disturbed in tranquillity and simplicity of his life....

Next day, as told, Mania reached to Chatapati Shivaji Airport at sharp 7.00 AM, wearing the best cloths he had. With mixture of nervousness, Inferiority complex, Unknown fear, he entered into the airport premise. He has been told to go to Jet Airways counter. He went to a counter and presented his e-ticket. That lady told him in English that “ Sir, this is Kingfisher counter, you suppose to go to Jet Airways”.. Mania could not understand and kept staring at that lady. Lady repeated the same thing in Hindi. Now Mania understood and searched Jet counter.   

He found Jet Airways counter and presented his ticket. While airline personnel was busy in making boarding pass, Mania observed conveyor belt, moving luggage,  the weight indicator, a rich lady augmenting with airline staff..etc.

As first time traveller compares system of visiting country to his own country or newly-wed girl compares in-laws culture, with her own culture, Mania started comparing Airport system with his known transportation system: Indian Railway.

Looking at conveyor belt and luggage-trolleys, he remember of loads of baggage, passenger carry at railway stations.. “Rich people don’t’ want to carry, “ he assumed “ Bade log badi bateein(big people big talk). He thought “ If this kind of system established in our Railway station, Karim ki to vaat lag jegegi (Karim will be bankrupted) !!!Karim was his friend working as coolie at Mumbai central station.

 Lady gave a new ticket, with seat no(boarding pass). She told Mania to proceed for security check. Mania had no clue about it.. She repeated the instructions which confused Mania even more. Looking at Mania’s ignorance some people chuckled, some frustrated and some has simply ignored. A luggage helper understood Mania’s confusion and he took Mania aside. He explained in Bombaiyaa Hindi that, Mania should go for security check and then go to Gate A14 to board the aircraft. Mania found a friend in him. He asked about happenings at security check.. Helper gave him guru mantra “ Follow the others”... Mania got it.. “ Only thing i have to do is follow other passengers.. My God,, why i could not thought it earlier...”  Mania was bit relaxed now.

At Security Check, Mania experienced luggage scanning by X-Ray machines, metal detector’s beeps and boops.. and finally STAMP on Boarding pass.. Everything was happening coherently and wordlessly......  

Mania reached to Gate A14 and took his seat. He saw giant bodies of aircrafts parked side by side... He was impressed by the cleanliness, serenity and interior of airport compared to railway station where passengers are often seen in stress, running with baggage, announcements in cracking noise, which nobody understands, raucousness to get a seat.. etc.. Comparatively Airport is serene and silent.. Bade log badi bateein(big people big talk).

At departure time, a young Jet attendant, announced something and everybody stood up. Mania sensed that now it’s time to board. Mania followed others and finally entered into the aircraft. A beautiful air hostess greeted Mania “Welcome SIR”... Nobody has called him “Sir” before... Mania delighted by the honour... “Sir” was soooo sweat,, but “Seth (sir in his language) would have been better. He found his seat and settled.

His fellow passenger helped him to fasten the seat belt. Mania felt that interior of aircraft is more like AC luxury bus, he has travelled few times. Problem with those buses is that water leakage from AC outlets. He assumed that he will not face leakage problems in this aircraft.

Aircraft started moving faster and faster and finally lifted.. Mania felt tickling in his stomach, as flight ascended. ... He saw aerial view of Bandra sea beach, tiny moving cars, buildings as arranged paper boxes, flyovers... City appeared as big toy-land..... Suddenly aircraft leaned towards sea.. For moment, Mania got scared... heart started beating hard. When he saw his neighbour in panic, who was relaxingly reading news paper, He decided to keep calm.. “follow the others”.

Aircraft reached to his height and Mania got majestic view of shining clouds.. Mania struggled to find a word to describe the visual.. He felt “ This is like big piles of Cotton”..Child in him awaken..”  I want to go outside an play with these cotton ... and  i want to seat on one of the cloud and see whole world beneath me.. sun above me.. and horizon in front of me.. .”  His imaginations, lost in monotony of his life, has enlivened and he enjoyed every part of it.. He thanked Adbullah seth for giving him such change. Bade log badi bateein(big people big talk).

Air hostess started serving meals. She asked Mania on what kind of breakfast, he wants, South Indian, non Veg, Punjabi... Mania could understand that she asking for choice of food... he innocently replied “ a VadaPao” A Vada Pao amidst clouds is wonderful treat... Now Air hostess could not understood the demand... Fellow passenger stepped in and asked Mania” They don’t have vada pao.. Do you want Idly-sambhar or Allo Parotha”..Mania was happy with Idly Sambar.. He slowly followed his neighbour and gulped down the food with caution. He was extremely careful not to drop piece of food. Once he finished, he felt relaxing and thanked God for not doing any stupidity...

Chennai arrived and Mania left the aircraft. He reached to the destination and delivered samples. His job was over. He called Adbulla seth about return journey. Seth replied “Take the train..” ..

Now once flight-travelled Mania lamented “  uff...same old general class travellllll. “

Now he is looking for another opportunity to travel by Wright brother’s innovation...He has become part of Jet Age. Now he knows what is Bade log badi bateein(big people big talk).

Regds

vadan

IT happens only in India !!!

When I was in Norway as a student, I used to visit city library (Deichmanske-bibliotek). While searching a book, I saw a pictorial book on India. The first sentence of that book was.. India is most interesting country in the world.

In deed, India is most interesting country in world, which is solely run by God. I have heard a monotonous joke many times, that one soviet diplomat was non believer but after visiting India, He started believing in God’s existence.  

In this regard, I want to share my true life experiences, which really make our country UNIQUE… These examples are categorized as Ugly, Bad and Good.

Water Vs Paper !!! (Ugly)

 I landed at newly build Asia’s largest new terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi Int. Airport from Chicago. It was amazing to see newly built beaming terminal 3 , with swanky interiors, working escalators and cleanliness matching to international standards. Me as middle class Indian, always feel happy when I see newly opened AC Mall, new fly-over bridge, in our case newly opened airport terminal. I feel boost to see my country’s infrastructure is catching up (slowly) with developed countries.  JJJJ

After initial inspection of shops and restaurant, I went to washroom, just to inquire cleanliness. It was crystal clean. J There was one onsite cleaner, with latest cleaning tools. I was happy to see that everything is in order. I went to one of toilets.  It was as clean as never used and I tempted to use it. After using, I found toilet paper box empty. 1^st heartbreak L As Indian, I know how to use mini shower for the purpose thus I managed.  

I wanted to fix that problem so I summoned that cleaner and told him to refill the toilet paper box. He emotionless-ly answered me that, he does not have the key. What Key ?? I found toilet paper box with a lock !!!! So I asked him who is having Key ? He replied “ the Supervisor”. I continued “ Call your supervisor and fill the box “. Reluctant as he was, he called his supervisor. His supervisor was at Terminal 2 and will take 30 mins to arrive. 2^nd heartbreak. L L I told him that if passengers who does not know how to use mini shower for the purpose, without toilet paper they will be in mess !!! He did not had any answer to my passionate query. I was visualizing a white man, who does not know the function of mini shower,  asking for toilet papers in emergency and gets reply to wait for 30 mins.. His face.. and his anger.. !!! I reconciled my imaginations that white man will surely learn the means of Mini shower !!

I don’t know who has designed such toilet-box-locking policy. This is an example of Trust Deficit between Airport Authorities(AAI) and Passengers, where AAI, assumes that passengers who are traveling by international airline,  will steal the toilet papers and control of such valuable items should lie with Supervisor than cleaner…

After coming out of washroom, impression caused by swankiness of Terminal 3 has evaporated. I understood that just by developing external swankiness, will not make us developed country. True strength lies in designing people-centric internal policies and processes.  

In limited world,  I have travelled, Toilet-box-locking-policy,  I have seen only at Indira Gandhi International Airport. It happens only in India.

New Addresses (Bad)

Shiv Shakti Hall, front of Geeta cinema, JP road, Andheri(W). That was the address of my distant friends’ marriage reception. As he has sent hardcopy of the marriage invitation, I had to go.. (I reciprocate eMail invitations by greeting back on email only, cost-time savings from both sides). I used Google map to locate the marriage hall, but confusingly there were 3 marriage halls with same name on JP road !! Thus I decided to call the hall admin, for the directions. He replied me and his reply amazed me “ Just take JP road, turn right from Geeta Cinema and in front of Metro Piller no 100, we are located. “.. Front of Metro Pillar no 100,,, that’s new landmark !!

I am familiar with Indian address-landmarks as above Kamal Chemicals, opposite Bhavani Provision store, next to Parle Galli(street), below Chotu Pannwala, but Metro Pillars..  I have heard for first time.. I know Metro line pillars are being constructed between Andheri(W) to Ghatkoper to build Mumbai’s first Metro line. Construction is going on since ages (Don’t’ know when it will be finished and Am I lucky enough to travel in Mumbai Metro in current life ?  ) . Nice to know that Metro Pillars are already being used for civic services, before actual Metro line !!!!

Numbering Metro pillars and using it as landmark was catchy and unique about my city … It shows that how we innovative we are in using our resources in resource-scarce country.... Now metro pillars is used as landmarks .. May be we will have addresses as “Vimal Mahata, Metro Pillar No 100, Adheri-Ghatkoper Line, Mumbai 40. “ short and sweet, as addresses in developed countries..  It happens only in India.

Working System (Good)

In Pre Internet era, where we had to stand in queue to book Railway tickets, I had booked a ticket for me (M 28) and my uncle (M 60) for Ahmedabad. Day before travel, my uncle had postponed the travel hence I need to cancel his name from the ticket.

I went to reservation counter at Dadar. Amidst mess and chaos, I submitted my cancellation form to the booking clerk. He cancelled and retuned the modified ticket. To my horror, he has cancelled my name, instead of my uncle’s !!! Before I protest, he closed the window and reservation time was over.. I was left in lurch…

After elaborate thinking, I decided to travel with same ticket and convince ticket checker (TC).  Next day I sat on my uncle’s seat and waited for TC to arrive. I was tensed. As I saw TC, butterfly started flying in my stomach.. I was rehearsing the lines; memorized for, newly born  TC Uncle.

My mind was imaging all kind of possibilities..  How if TC uncle could not be convinced!!  I imagined I am being thrown out of train couch and all passengers are staring me with disgust.. These hallucinations, fears were making my life for tensed and terrible..

Instead of being castigated in front of fellow passengers, I cornered TC uncle at door- passage. I explained my woeful experience at ticket counter and requested him to let me travel on my uncle’s ticket. After I finished my emotional appeal with mercy-seeking, almost crying facial expressions.. ( so that sympathy related emotions can be awaken in TC uncle), he professionally replied to me” Travelling on your uncle’s ticket, is considered as you are traveling without ticket. You should be fined: Double the charge of full ticket plus penalty of traveling without ticket. So it would be 3 times more than original ticket charge.” So I have paid Rs.800 for a ticket, now I have to pay Rs.2400 as penalty.

Thunderbolt hit me… I intensified my appeal with hope that he will able to read my tears.. But I failed and his professionalism was stone hard. Finally I gave up and changed my appeal into anger. I cursed railway department for harassing passengers. Bla bla.. He replied that if I have filled my forms correctly and it was mistake of booking clerk than I should complain with penalty receipt. Based on my complaint, investigation will happened and if I am correct, than money will be refunded. I did not believe him. Who in railway’s lousy administration, will conduct investigation for me !! I gave up and decided to pay the fine.

As soon I got my wallet out to pay the fine, Rs. 2400, TC uncle’s attitude changed. He whispered “ Your work can be done if you pay Rs.1000”… I understood, he was asking for the  bribe. It was tempting for me.. but I was so angry on TC Uncle that I did not want to make any deal with him, rather happy to pay Rs.2400. I declined the offer and he got disappointed… He tried to convince me that complaint will not help, and I will end up losing money. But I stood by my decision, paid the fine, got the receipt and went to my seat, angrily.

When I returned to Mumbai, I still had that receipt in my wallet. I decided to take a chance. I went to Western Railway Office at Churchgate and submitted my application, along with receipt and copy of pan card. I met a clerk, accepting the applications. He was buried under files and piles of papers.. Entire hall ( size of regular marriage hall) was filled by paper Towers.. huge paper files, stacked on each other to build towers.. It was an image of true Indian Office.. I asked the clerk, when will my application will be heard ? He replied all these paper are in waiting list, your application’s turn will come after we are done with them..”  pointing at paper towers..

I did not had any thing to say.. I left the office without single ray of hope of justice.

Next whole week, I lamented my railway sad story to my friends, office colleagues, relatives, cursing railway system and administration. Once my inner frustration vented out, I forgot the happening.

After six months or so, I have received a post. In times of courier services, it is surprising to receive a POST. It was from Railway department, informing me to collect my Rs.2400 from Dadar Reservation counter, within a month………… I was not happy.. (which I should be) , rather I was SHOCKED..    IS IT POSSIBLE ! Is it possible that my application, got heard in paper towers, without a single phone call or bribe !!! Is it possible that some gentlemen/women in railway, investigated my application, checked my cancellation form and reverted !!!! Given the paper Towers at Railway office and orthodox admin system, this looked wonder to me !!

 I happily went to Dadar and received my money. At that day I was happy Indian. Now whenever discussion on India’s lousy bureaucracy erupts, I never forgot to mention this case study…

After all It happens only in India J

Regds

vadan

Salute to Sabnam

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This imaginary short story is dedicated to Staff of Taj hotel, who had stayed back in the horrendous night of 26/11 and helped their guests, with sheer bravery and dedication. We salute them.

1. At 8.00 PM, Sabnam has ended her duty as house-keeping personnel. Today was the hard day for her. One weird guest had bothered her so much that she decided to leave the job. She got prepared for another suffering.. journey to home!! . She was staying at Vasai and commuting 2 hours in Mumbai local train was another pain, she has to endure.
2. While signing her exit register, she heard noisy fireworks, from Taj Restaurant. She turned back and saw people running from the restaurant. Amazed as she was, she headed towards the Restaurant.
3. At Restaurant, she saw pool of blood , shot human dead bodies, scattered around. She has never seen such horror.. For a moment, she got numb.. and suddenly a scream  “ Run.. Terrorist attack.. Run…”… 
4. She ran with others and hid in her cabin. She took long breath and realized that Taj is under terrorist attack. Like any other common man, she has never witnessed such bloody visuals. Her first reaction was to run away from the hotel soon as possible. She rushed off.
5. At reception, she saw people are gathered at main entrance. Everyone was in panic and wanted to get out soon as possible. Anxiety, Panic resulted in Chaos. She knew back-exit, meant only for housekeeping staff. She rushed to the back-exit.
6. Gate was controlled by Mumbai Police. She shown her ID card and police let her go. She came out of the premise with deep relief, as gentle breeze from Arabian sea caressed her cheek.
7. While crossing, the main entrance, she saw police commandoes are descending from their vehicle. Media, Police officers, mobile hospital vans, a hell of activities were happening. She stopped for a moment. Looking at all these activities, she felt deep pain for her hotel. Her hotel is attacked. Somebody is trying to hurt Taj’s dignity!! A thought just crossed her mind “What about the guests?”.. How will my colleges will manage this havoc?” As house keeper personal she can imagine the hardship of her fellow colleges while dealing with guests in such situation. “ I should stay back and help my colleges” she thought. “I should stay.. My Taj needs me now.. I must help...” She told to herself. She turned back into the premise.
8. She donned her housekeeping uniform and went to meet her manager. Manager Mr. Robin, was quite busy in planning the activities with commando chief. He saw Sabnam “Thank God Sabnam, you stayed. “, giving an appraising look. He continued “ All the guests have been told to remain in their room till their rescue operation is planned. We have to get all the guests out of their rooms safely. Since you know very well about operating master key, please ensure that each guest of 3^rd floor vacates the room and security staff will assist them to get out of the hotel. Safety of guests is prime concern. These commandos will be with you for the security..   ” Sabnam nodded her face.

Logic behind Sabnam to take lead in evacuation operation is that,  seeing Sabnam as Taj personnel, at their doorstep will help to win the trust of scared guests and she knew very well how to deal with various emotions of a guest.

9. There was total 70 rooms on 3^rd floor and few of them were vacant. Commando Chief told Sabnam to wait for sometime, till they organize themselves.
10. Sabnam got back to her cabin. She red her message updates about Terrorists attack at Oberoi and CST station. Suddenly her mobile rang. It was her father. Listening to her father’s voice, Sabnam could not stop herself from explaining the horror she has seen. Pool of blood, dead-bodies, panicky faces, anxiety, commandoes.. within few hours life has been so terrible and demanding for her..  She told her father about her resolute to stay back and help the guests.  Listening to her bold statement, her father had nothing to say rather than agreeing with his daughter.  Today he had recognized the shining maturity of his teen daughter.
11. After conversation, Sabnam decided to get out of her trauma and get ready to help commandos. She went through the list of guests and tried to remember each of them.
12. Suddenly a masked man, with wild fire burning behind emerged in front of her ..  Masked man yelled  “Leave…go back, or we will kill you…” and fired rain of bullets… She woke up and realized that it was nightmare. She found a commando, standing near to her. Commando gently told her” Madam, its time to go…”… She did not deterred by the nightmare and left to save her guests.
13. Sabnam took master key and prepared for the daunting task. She had to open each door and inform guests to vacate the room. Terrorists could have been hidden in one of the rooms thus it’s very important to be alert and careful.

Mostly in difficult times, Common Man of street, shows remarkable inner strength and maturity, hidden within him/her. Sabnam was in process of realizing her inner strength, which was forgotten in daily hardships.

14. Sabnam started knocking each room, if room is not opened than Subnam used master key to unlock the room. Her hands were trembling while opening but her resolve was firm. She was scared but did not  let her fear take over her commitment to the hotel.
15. She knocked the rooms. In her sweet voice, she informed to the guests, that she is from Taj house keeping.  Her smile was relaxing to frightened guests, as doctor’s assurance to the patients. Guests were waiting eagerly for rescue team and Sabnam seemed as Angel to them. Sabnam dealt with some weird guests also.
16. Sabnam opened room 311, and found lady sleeping heavily. She woke her up and Lady was shocked to see team of commandos. Lady appeared as wealthy NRI. This lady has taken sleeping pill at 8.00 PM and totally unaware of terrorist attack. After knowing about the attack, she took it very lightly and did not wanted to leave the room. Some people live in their own world. They are least worried about others and totally self obsessed as our Lady.

On insistence, she started scolding Sabnam and Taj Management for security lapse and threatened to sue Sabnam if she forcefully evacuated. Sabnam switched on the TV to explain the gravity of the situation. A picture is worth thousand words. Trick worked. Looking at carnage at CST station, Hotel Oberoi, Kasab, fire engulfing hotel Taj… she understood the gravity of situation. She was so scared that she left the room in her night dress, without taking her luggage also.

17. At Room 315, there was another sample. The French guy residing in that room wanted to be present and participate in capturing terrorists. For him it would be quite an adventurous and thrilling. Commandos explained him that without French government permission, he could not join. Dejected and angry, he left the room.
18. Sabnam knocked Room 320. There was no response and Sabnam opened the door with master key. She found a thin young man, standing in front of her.  One militarily trained, highly religious fanatic, weapon lad terrorist was facing a girl with fragile body and with no training of such grave situation. Still she was there to help her guests. She was braver than him.

Terrorist did not like the smile of Sabnam. He had assumed that Taj will succumb in fear but Taj in form of Sabnam standing in front of him with a coverage and commitment to serve its guests. It was his defeat. His guns could not tame the spirit of Sabnam. Terrorist revealed his gun and fired at Sabnam.. Sabnam ducked and bullet passed by her. Another shot.. and bullet hit Commando standing behind Sabnam. He collapsed. His AK 47 handle hits Sabnam on the head.  Rest of Commando fired back and terrorist collapsed. Sabnam was badly injured and taken to hospital.

19. Sabnam was taken to nearby mobile hospital, where she was given first medical aid. 
20. After 6 months, Taj hotel was reopened for the world, and at opening ceremony entire Taj staff who has shown incredible commitment and strength during terrorist attacks were facilitated by chairman of Tata group, Shri Ratan Tata. As proud member of house keeping, Sabnam went to the dice and shock hands with Ratan Tata. She looked at her hands. It was same hand which trembled while opening the doors at night of 26/11 and now thundering in appraisal.

On 26/11 Sabnam was house keeping personal. Today she is the same house keeping personal, serving Taj guests. It was pure commitment without any kind of  expectation.

Lets celebrate numerous Sabnams like common men and women, who demonstrate remarkable inner strength and coverage in difficult times, be it terrorist attack or natural calamity. Let’s be proud of them rather then mourning our messy politicians.

We salute them.

By

Vadan

“The Google Story” in my words

After listening “The Google story “( audio book about Google Inc), I tempted to write something about it. Here is the summary of Google Inc.

Larry Page, and Sergey Brin, sons of computers scientists met at Stanford University to pursue their PhD in 1995. They chose to work on internet search engine. Search engines at that time (Yahoo, MSN, Khoj, Altavista, etc) were primarily focussed on eMails other e-commerce activities than search. Search was not high on their priority list and considered as secondary, non-earning feature, and thus not much attention paid to betterment of search results. Search pages were cluttered with Advertisements banners, Pop-Ups and other non-relevant information, confusing the user.

Page and Brin, along with Stanford professor Rajeev Motvani developed PAGERANK algorithm to rate the pages. Due to PAGERANK technology, Google provided very accurate search results. Without going deep into the technology, with accurate search result, I mean that when you type CNN in Google search bar, first search result you suppose to get is CNN’s website. Google provided that accuracy by using PAGERANK technology, which other competitive search engines at that time, could not provide.

Second aspect of Google search was that it was totally dedicated to search and no other advertisement banners, news items cluttered the website. Clean white background, with colourful Google logo, with long search bar, attracted users world-wide and Google became instant success. Google duo understood the importance of human desire to search for more information very well and thus designed Google, dedicated for search only.

Page and Brin tried to sell their Pagerank technology to giants as Yahoo, eXcite but no one wanted to buy it since perception at that time was that Search is non-earning feature. Finally silicon valley investor Andy Balcholstim invested $100,000, before even Google Inc was officially born. Google’s increased customer base and popularity drew other valley investors and Google became world no 1 search engine. Google adopted unique way to earn advertisement revenue. No ads were put on home page of Google to keep serenity of home page intact. This was their biggest USP to win user loyalty. Ads were part of search results in similar looking format, in accordance with what user is searching for. F.eks one user types Airline of India, he will get initial results of Ads ( in very similar format), followed by actual search results.  By keeping it simple, Users never felt disrupted by advertisements.

Google is example is how innovation funded by capitalism and turned into commercial product by intelligent marketing strategies. Entire ecosystem is supplementing each other. Stanford University provided atmosphere and infrastructure required to innovate PAGERANK technology and in return got the patent right of the technology. Google has exclusive license rights on the patent from Stanford University. The university received 1.8 million shares of Google in exchange for use of the patent; the shares were sold in 2005 for $336 million. This $336 million will be used to promote further innovations and some of the innovation will eventually turned into commercial products as Google.  Thus this cycle of nurturing innovations will keep moving.

Innovation can’t work in isolation and it has to be fuelled by capital (money). The first funding for Google was from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Looking at Google technology, confidence and characters of their founders, Page & Brin, Andy Bechtolsheim has issued the cheque of $100000, before Google was even incorporated. With Andy’s funding, young innovators have turned into young entrepreneurs. In due course, other venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital have also invested $25 million in the company in 1998.

Google’s public IPO came in 2004.  For five years, Google has spent money to build brand and loyalty worldwide. Important thing is that its’ innovators Brin & Page, have always been in the control and decided the product and marketing strategies for Google. F.eks. Page and Brin had maintained Google homepage will be free of advertisement and till date it has remained so.  They kept innovation and vision of innovators at core and let commercial aspects surrounding it. This kind of confidence in innovation from capitalist world , triggers series of innovation. After launch of search engine, Google team had come with innovative products as  Google Earth, Google Apps, Android, Gmail, eBlogger etc, visualized by innovators and funded by capitalist world. Keeping faith in innovators, has paid back. Google is number one search engine with total revenue of $29 billion and profit of $8.5 billion(as per 2010 data). Google Inc has made everyone associated happy, from Stanford university, to venture capitalist firms, investors, engineers ( as shareholders), users worldwide and finally Page & Brin.

This marriage of innovation and capitalist world has given birth to IT revolutionary products from IBM mainframe servers, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google to latest social media Facebook. These products and their innovators have kept US as IT innovative super power of the world.

I wish that our country develops such ecosystem of innovators and entrepreneurs, so that we also have our own version of Larry Page and Sergey Brin.