I first met him 3 years back, with a strong determination in my head of saying “NO” for I always disliked engineers and I had not liked his photograph. Little had I known that I would accept the proposal in just one meeting! I was totally convinced that we were poles apart as I was this bubbly, talkative, always smiling/laughing person and he was this serious, mature typical IT guy but I had a great tuning with him in the first go because our thoughts were quite similar and we bonded pretty quickly. He loved the fact that I was a dancer and said that I must continue it. We were on the same page of understanding life and its meaning! Agreeing to disagree on the same old typical social norms where woman is stuck with kitchen all day and only husband works! Rest is history!
He introduced me to TheRodinhoods! He asked me to start my own dance classes! He helps me make costumes for my dance competitions! He assists me with the household chores as much as he can! Even if that results in fights with his mother, he doesn’t back out! Because he is true to his ideologies and thoughts! Now that’s one ideal man I have! That’s Alkesh for you!
We have our share of fights and arguments and all that couple-y stuff! But we have stick to just one rule! No matter how huge the fight is, never leave the room and sleep outside or stop talking which ultimately helps us bounce back to normal quickly! That’s the key to our relationship!
We both had attended TRH OPEN HOUSE that took place in Mumbai in January! There was a cute girl explaining her journey of Blueberry trails, Bootstrapped and I’m Lovin It!, the very pretty Sudeepta Sanyal! While giving the presentation she mentioned that her co-founder was in the audience and because he is shy, she was doing all the talking! At that very moment, Alkesh turned to me and said, “We are going to be like them! You’ll do all the talking part and I’ll handle the technical part.”
So here I am standing behind him, supporting his very old dream of being an entrepreneur! We are starting our very own company in a month and half. I would request all of you to review the idea and let us know if it’s worth all the efforts and his resignation from a well-paying job! We are a start-up couple with a dream of making it BIG!!
We are Alkesh and Purvi, the doers!
It’s a product oriented company where the first thing we are developing is an application! This will be custom made for the candidates (who buy it from us) fighting for the local body election of Pune in February 2017.
‘A feedback (related to social problems, their political views and change in their views since last local elections etc.) will be collected from people, which after analysis, will give meaningful insights to politicians. These insights will be the only thing that will be shared with the politicians.’
They can use this data and the problems registered by people during their election campaigns and promotions which will make them have an upper hand over others and have a precise propaganda.
Now, this whole thing has 3 benefits!
- The first and most important, people will have their long pending issues (might get) resolved and will have a direct chance to reach to the politician!
- The candidate earns bonus points for connecting with the masses.
- Last but not the least, fetches us money and a gives us a sense of satisfaction of helping the society.
So, I have lots of doubts and questions that I would like to have answers to. Please help and be all muhfat. I’m married and have learnt to take criticism well..;-)
Questions:
- Something similar does exist but do you guys think this is different and achievable?
- Is gamification of the feedback (inspired from Alok’s blog on gamification) being collected from people, a good idea as people from all the backgrounds will take it and serious questions might put off many?
- How can we make more and more people to give us their feedback?
- Do you guys see any problem (social/political) or error arising in this whole thing?
- Alkesh’s friend (and ex-boss), a senior manager in a top services company for 11 years had expressed interest in starting the company together (being a co-founder). He has a service company mind-set (start slowly with services, work on core product only in free time or when revenues are sufficient) where he wants to develop some android/iOS apps, websites and software for others but is not keen on this idea (of creating a niche product). What should we do?
- Any other views, queries and suggestions that you can provide us with?
I am immensely thankful to Asha whom we met during the 24ADP conference in Pune and she asked us to write down this whole thing!
I hope I have not tested your patience because if you are reading this last line, you have read the whole thing which in itself is self-explanatory!
-Purvi Wanjara Thakkar
(@browsingmind)
A Rodinhooder | Creative Writer | Dancer
www.browsingminds.wordpress.com
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