15 Jul 2011

Today was supposed to be a busy day. And it turned out to be exhausting! Was supposed to meet multiple vendors, to get our staff uniforms in place, while simultaneously building consensus on the equipment list, and doing interviews with key nurses and a doctor. EXHAUSTING!

There was one fun part - meeting this vendor who makes freebies for companies. She kept trying to convince us to give away these doctor dolls, which come with stethescopes, and was emphatic about us having our email address across the doll's waist! Phew!

Just not feeling too well either... so was very tired by the time I got home. But a superly productive day, all said and done. Hopefully we have some great nurses and doctors joining us, and have finalised our list. Once and for all. May do my first business trip, to Indore on Monday - haha! Who would have thought!

I have worked every Sat since I got here, except when I travelled out of Mumbai. And it gets to me some times. But somehow, it seems some work can always be done only on Saturdays!

Hopefully, I will go figure out dance classes tomorrow, before work begins. Have to admit, the evenings are a little lonely, cos working at a start-up doesnt make you feel like chilling out after work is part of the routine. I am going to have to figure out how to do this!

14 Jul 2011

It is the morning after the blasts. We have cancelled our morning meetings, because we're not quite sure what the roads are going to look like. I cannot help but notice I am back in work mode, and already thinking about the several things we need to do. But this is not resilience - this is the first time I have been in Mumbai during a series of blasts, and I can tell you now - it's never been about resilience. It's about helplessness. Majboori, as Anupam Kher rightly said. You cannot survive in Mumbai if you don't earn every day. And that is the sad truth.
And you cannot possibly fight terrorism by sitting home and watching insane TV anyways.

Moving on, on a positive note, we saw the first renders of how our clinics could look from the inside, today. And it was exciting. It's all coming alive now - and that is so exciting! Puts an extra wind beneath the wings to trudge along. Yay!

The rest of the evening is about editing brochures and preparing collateral. We'll get there... slowly but surely!

14 Jun 2011

The day started with me continuing to write polite emails to people inviting them to interview later this week with us (oh, the logistics, and back and forth of it all!). Soon I was off to go brainstorm our product suite with the Docs and M&S... so fun!

So much heated discussion at Coffee Bean (which I can guarantee is never going to let us in after today) over how to structure our products, what is the proposition for each type of customer, segment, etc... really felt like marketing class! For example, why would you do a health check-up with us over someone else? Why does it make sense for a school tie up with us? What is the right pre-marriage checkup? Well, all in all think we ended with a decent structure. But of course, the proof of the pudding is in our first encounters with schools, corporate HR and such...

We of course then moved on to the kind of equipment we should put together at the centers. I insisted we should share stethescopes, and weighing machines, and little such things, much to the docs chagrin! Of course, it was all in zest.

On a side note, it was lovely to see so many important business meetings go on at the Coffee Bean today. Right at the next table, this super confident HR lady was conducting interview after interview, meeting poor nervous souls, walking in in the middle of a business week, and being told they were "not ready" for strategy yet, or that they had "too much execution experience". What does that mean?! Amusing!

Day 9: 16 May 2011

It's Monday again! After an early start, I am in the Mumbai airport at 1030, with time to kill, till I meet Dr R to check out the Bandra catchment, and work on some job specs. Contemplating going to a coffee joint to work (we don't have an office yet, remember, so any place with A/C will do), when I realise the airport works well. So right there just before the exit, I sit down, open my laptop and start to work away. True start-up bliss (or not!) :D

Till the good doctor picks me up with his friend, a cardiac surgeon (note: I am in complete awe of all cardiac surgeons. It's a childhood thing - they're my intellectual Tom Cruises), and we drive around Bandra, understanding key locations, and catchments and how they work.

We drop off at the famous Band stand cafe coffee day, where we hang around (quite uncoolly, relative to the crowd I have to say) for the next 5 hours - Dr R, me and my aristocrat suitcase, chalking out flow charts and jobs at the various centers.

At the end of all this, I am dropped off at andheri, from where I take the taxi home. Long day, busy day. I love how S&P have made me feel like their home is mine - I feel most guilty to be intruding on their privacy so much. Deeply grateful.

Weekend : 14 and 15 May 2011

Weekend is bliss! Sleep most of it out... and then meet several random people coming in and out of amma and appa's home... fight a little... love a little... and force everyone out of the house for a drive, and to dinner at Roti-Shoti.

Sunday is almost a repeat act -till amma cribs about never having seen Golconda. That's it - off we are to the lights and sounds show in the evening, and a chill time outside. We drive forever, before we are back.

Leaving tomorrow morning. Sigh.

PS: What happened to all those plans to work on the workplan and such! Iyyyooo!

Day 6: 13 May 2011

Yaaaayyy! It's Friday, and am going home!

Ooooh! It's also Friday, the 13th!

We meet at Cuffe Parade in the morning for a quick team meeting - discuss a few key leases we are hoping to sign, and the boss is off in the afternoon to Delhi for a break. He drops me off in Bandra, where I continue to hunt for a few more houses, before running off to Hyd for some chilling.

Unsuccessful, I have decided I will wait it out till the 1st of June.

Home sweet home - 7 pm in the evening, and I am there, with amma and appa, eating great food, and chilllling. Yay to coming back to India.

Day 5: 12 May 2011

Today is quieter, as I try to start working on some of the pieces - looking for website developers, healthcare software providers, consultants to structure salaries, figuring out where we should post our ads for recruitment, talking to random vendors... the works. Wow, suddenly I know a whole new set of people I have never met / interacted with before!

Quick Q - what did people do before google!

Day 4: 11 May 2011

Ah! Finally a productive day at work! I go over to the boss' house, and we sit down and detail out many floating ideas and pieces of work, and I promise to tie them all together into a neat work-plan. This is the one thing I can claim I know well!

He also walks me through some of the Math, and some more of the detail on how things will work or are expected to, and it is super exciting for me, because this is really my first insight into the business model and vision.

I trust my boss immensely, and signed up without knowing too much, but I am itching to get into the details.

Everything is beginning to make sense a lot more - and my trust in the idea and its feasibility is growing. I walk away with a million things to do long list.

Day 3: 10 May 2011

Today is exciting, cos I am going to sign my house lease, and move into my house over the weekend. Yay! I have managed to find a pretty house in Bandra (yes, I do plan to sink ALL my salary into the eye-popping rental, and then just sit in it, and not do much else).

I meet the boss in the late morning at the Bom Gym, for a round of quick brain storming, on things to get done immediately (how quickly that list grows!), and am off by 430 or so, to sign my sparkling new lease.

The landlady has a surprise in store - there is a power of attorney issue, and the house will not be available till the 31st of May now, so she asks - would I still want the house? Or would I rather look for something else?

Is she serious?! I can't possibly be going through this once again - it's already happened to me! I have come close to signing up, and had to back out at the last minute, cos there was an owner dispute. And poor S&P - I can't possibly just keep staying with them forever!

I step out, saying I need time to think about it, and ask my not-so-cool-anymore broker dude to show me a few more places right away. I like nothing.

Really, do I really need this new issue! S&P are so nice about it - they insist I stay on for the next few weeks, and I feel so overwhelmed and deeply grateful.

Day 2 : 09 May 2011

I am awake reasonably early, and raring to go. It's my first Monday morning, on my new job! Only I am not sure where I should be going - for we don't have an office yet!

Speak to the boss, who suggests I join him in the afternoon to look at some properties - we are scouting commercial properties for our first few centers. I am very excited! So I join him in south Bombay, after what is a LONG first road journey in Mumbai, in a yellow top, at the corner of Napean Sea and Warden Road.

It's fun - meeting these eager-beaver brokers, and imagining what your center could look like in an empty room with bare cement walls, rubble on the floor, and crow sh** in many places. Empty spaces can look so sad, and yet offer much promise.

After a quick lunch at the Bom Gym with the boss, I am back home - a short day of work you would say? I feel a little awkward when I look back - have I 'worked' enough? It's my first day and I do just 6 hours?! Ah well... corporate hangover.

Day 1: 08 May 2011

The journey begins today. Having quit my banking job on the 21st of April, and enjoyed the loveliest times in Bali with Hari, and then in Hong Kong with lots of friends, I am now on the flight to Mumbai, India.

Hong Kong, I will miss you. So much! But there are things to be done, and new worlds to be explored. And yet, you will always be my most loved city yet.

D, I will miss you - a friend for life. I will always be there for you.

Hari Ba - we're going to make this work. I know we will.

Met this most interesting person on the flight - an Indian gentleman in his forties, returning home from Schengen, for his annual trip to visit the family. Is a sourcing manager for a large Indian ceramics company, and regaled me with stories of how the business works, supply issues, quality in China vs. India, etc. Who would have thought the tiles in my Hyderabad house bathroom could come from remote China? Note to self: really must explore business possibilities in Schengen-Mumbai - have been meaning to do this forever, and done NOTHING about it!

The kind man offers me a ride home to S' home in North Mumbai, which I resist as much as I can, and after a somewhat awkward meeting with his family at the airport (I could have died of guilt being in the same car as his wife and child, who are meeting the husband/father after a year!), we are on our way.

S&P are the loveliest, and I very quickly settle down at their house. A quick call to Hari Ba, and I am asleep. Tomorrow is an exciting new beginning.

PS: Happy Birthday Mommy!