NASSCOM McKinsey say 75% engineering graduates are unemployable. You come across Computer Science graduates who wouldn’t be able to name more than one operating system. You have engineering graduates armed with advanced diplomas in C++ unable to write a half decent program. Not just that, the management, principals, directors and faculty members of several engineering colleges prophetically proclaim, “aadhe bachchon ka to bhagwan bhi bhala nahin kar sakta”.

It’s not that the powers that be do not realize the problem. You have a plethora of experts proclaiming unemployability to be a bigger problem than unemployment. You have the Central government rolling out a massive skill development program. The irony of it all is that the engineering and management colleges supposed to churn out professionals are actually getting reduced to degree vending machines producing largely good for nothing engineers.

The malaise is deep rooted. The government having pulled out of higher education, the doors are wide ajar for private players. Too many people having too little to do with education are now owners of engineering and management colleges. You have brick kiln owners, thekedars, zamindars, netas and all and sundry owning professional colleges. Not that I have anything against vernacular businessmen and strongmen, bahubalis, owning colleges – just that the dedication to academic pursuits falls by the wayside when the only obsession is to recover the investments made and create a cash generating machine for generations to come.

The quality of faculty, the quality of management get superseded by the considerations of how can the AICTE requirements be met at minimum cost.

The arrangement works for everybody. People in power understand the trend that BTech is going to be the next BA/BSc. Only the guys who absolutely cannot afford to pay the fee of technical universities even through loans or stretching their finances will be the ones settling for less than a BTech. The demand is going to explode. All you need is a couple of colleges and the financial security of your kin is secured for the next 100 years.

Unless something gives or unless something earth shattering happens, we are staring at no less than a crisis where we churn out maximum number of engineers and managers who could only be employed as glorified clerks.

The problem of unemployability is far more severe than we currently assume. The only hope is for the customers, the students and parents, to wake up to this reality and start demanding more usable curriculum and opportunities for professional development. The closer we inch towards total capitalism, the more active, we’ll need the customer to be.

I have a gripe with the way entrepreneurship is generally talked about or even taught.

Most of the aura associated with entrepreneurship kind of suggests that it is the ultimate professional nirvana and the path which everyone worth his salt must tread.

The truth couldn’t be farther.

Entrepreneurship is not for everybody despite what numerous B-school professors or entrepreneurship experts might have to say and this is irrespective of the eventual outcome of the “entrepreneurs born or made?” debate.

The truth is its like any other professional choice you make. It requires different kinds of skills and attitude and temperament, is exciting like hell for some and can be equally depressing for others. Bungee jumping may be exciting, sexy and adventurous but is not so for all. Now, even if the bungee jump example is over-glorification of entrepreneurship, not liking bungee jumping doesn’t make one a “lesser man”. I, for one, am too scared to bungee jump.

A more pertinent question may be, if it is for me. Again, no decision tree algorithm exists which can help you figure that out. For most of the entrepreneurs, it is some mysterious voice in their stomachs which keeps telling them, “You HAVE to do it”. This is distinctly different from the moments of frustration and anger with your boss or your company which may happen to most of us some time or the other. Deciding to be an entrepreneur becaue your job/boss/company sucks is bad decision making.

This voice of the gut is so persistent, it gradually starts consuming you with drums beating all around your head. This persistent crescendo from within you brings you to a situation when you tell yourself that even if you were all alone, stripped of all the good things you cherish, you’d still do it. In this somehwhat metaphysical sense, entrepreneurship no longer remains a choice.

What all these entrepreneurship courses/trainers/professors could do then is to encourage students to listen to their inner voices and know themselves more. What makes them happy, what gets them excited, what gets them depressed. Self discovery should probably be the first chapter in any book which wants to tell the truth about entrepreneurship.

The steps, structure, financing, strategy, marketing – are the details. Once the inner game is set right, all else follows (yes, that’s the truth no matter how philosophical it may sound; entrepreneurship, in that sense, can have highly philosophical overtones).

And this is where I agree the most with Sunil Handa’s Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation (LeM) course at IIM Ahmedabad. He doesn’t talk about financing, strategy, recruitment, the works. He tries to get the inner game right.

In that sense, the guys who did the course were lucky. It helped identify the inner voices and convinced a lot of us that following the gut was in no way less scientific or more superstitious than following an enormously involved decision making algorithm.

The directive for the curious, then, should be that if you do not hear that crescendo in your head day in and day out, the pesky little voice screaming, “Why the hell did you not get started already?”, either the time is not right or you’d be happier not doing it.

For a first generation, first timer, the reasons have to be all internal. Unless and until internal reasons gather enough steam to become unbearable, don’t do it.

OK, let me admit. I am not sure if you can call anything a fringe benefit of being an entrepreneur, simply because entrepreneurship is so very different from the destination-after-a-long-journey model that you cannot classify the benefits as principal and fringe.

I, however, would persist with the word to signify that this set of benefits is distinct from what we typically imagine as the benefits of entrepreneurship to the entrepreneur.

Also, some of what follows might talk about stereotypes. This, in no way implies that all Chopra Jis or all government officials are what the stereotypes describe.

Now, getting down to the business:

a) Every now and then, you get to pamper the geek in you:

Whenever you have to explore a new technology to customize it to bring maximum benefit to your customers at minimum effort on their part, you have to delve deep into it. One week you are racking your brains hard over PHP-MySql code snippets while the other, you might be sweating over new VoIP tools or rich media technology.

Not that that’s a requirement, not that you don’t have a team to do that – just that you have a hardcore nerd somewhere in you who doesn’t want to let go of the opportunity to deal with something tech; hands-on, yes but if that energizes you and helps enhance the value to the customer, so be it.

b) Negotiating with Chopra Ji for reduction in the advance for his for-rent office premises

Chopra Ji is a generic name. He could be any of the Kalra Jis, Malhotra Jis or Kaul Sahibs. Bottomline is, he is a hardnosed business man who earned his spurs either in real estate deals or with government officials over a government building electrification tender or Karol Bagh traders. He would typically be noisy though sweet talking and loves the sight of cash more than anything. Not one to give any quarters, its a thrill to get him to agree for a less than the norm upfront security amount.

c) Dealing with the government Sahibs

Yes. He would be an official in a government agency to promote entrepreneurship in IT/ITeS or a Director with a government backed finance corporation. With all the trappings of a something-important-happens-here office, what with the AC (instead of the ubiquitous noisy cooler you would associate with a government department), the visitor tag and three layers of solemn looking security guards to be satisfied before you get to see the god once, the ambience of serious business is right there.

The god would be a gutkha chewing middle aged man with a huge drawl and a somnolent demeanor. He is authorized to judge the merits of your business projections not because he is an expert in technology business, or an experienced hat but because some 10 years back, the government decided it had to promote entrepreneurship in IT/ITes so there had to be a department and a slew of officials and by some twist of events, he happens to be sitting on the chair which is somehow believed to bestow the power of discernment and the authority of decision making on to its occupant.

Typically however, they are well meaning people and as long as they believe they are getting the respect they deserve by the virtue of being a government babu, they will not create serious hindrances and may even facilitate a couple things for you. Nevertheless, its a pleasure you know only when you experience it.

d) Playing Big Brother to your team

This could range from developing their career plans with them, helping out in a personal crisis to playing angry young Amitabh Bachchan to get the critically ailing new born of your office staff member admitted to the only speciality government hospital with the equipment necessary to treat him. Of course, the real payout in the last example is when the kid returns from the hospital hail and hearty. All smiles.

e) Thinking like a navigator

Here is the map and here is where we want to go. We will take this route, reach the hills there, cross the jungle to the left, swim across the river and reach the destination. Strategic thinking, if you will.

Only, in entrepreneurship, the hills, jungles, rivers, brooks and planes keep changing their locations as well as their forms. So, if you plan for a river, followed by a hill followed by a tunnel and then, let go of the sight of the map, you might realize that the river has actually become a jungle by the time you reached there. Therefore, you need to keep refreshing the map continuously.

Now, wouldn’t being an explorer in a land which keeps changing every so often that you just cannot “plan and forget” be great fun?

f) Thinking like a mechanic

Lets switch the analogy now. Instead of crossing rivers and jungles, lets now be sailors in the high seas. Also lets assume being a Captain, you are doing a good job of navigating the ship and keeping track of the changing map.

However, you need to make sure that all engines, levers, hulls even the nuts and bolts are working fine. So, while you need to keep an eye on the map and the road (err, water) ahead, you also need to keep your ears open to any unnatural humming which may indicate your machinery is not working as it should.

g) Picking yourself and rebuilding piece by piece

Some days would be frustrating. Things might take longer to happen, a big customer would take longer to close or it would just be one of those blue-days. No worries, just grit your teeth, clench your fists and plough on.

Rock on. That’s the mantra.

It gives me great pleasure to share that eTutelage has been nominated in TATA NEN Hottest Startups Awards, link here, but more than that, the support of our friends and well wishers has been overwhelming.

We are getting good wishes and congratulatory messages from far off friends, peers, old classmates, friends of friends, eTutelage team mates, site visitors and customers. It is an overwhelming feeling and we are savoring every moment of it – more so because entrepreneurship can be painfully lonely at times.

Thanks everyone for your support. It means a lot to us all and it gives us the strength and conviction to plough along when the going gets tough.

For those of you who haven’t already voted, voting is on, you can either go online and vote or send HOT 374 to 56767 through your mobile phones.

A different nature of post but it’s tough to continue remaining silent.

Another round of serial blasts in Delhi – human blood and flesh on the streets, severed limbs, wailing women. Strong condemnation from the PM and the powers that be. “It’s a dastardly act”, yeah, so insightful. “The perpetrators will not be spared”, yeah right. Can we ask Mr Prime Minister which jail are the perpetrators of the earlier bomb blasts being punished in.

The pattern is so predictable, it’s sickening. People die, PM whimpers a condemnation and then everything goes back to normal. Till we have another set of serial blasts.

And then, to add insult to the injury, they talk about the “Spirit of Delhi (or Mumbai or Ahmedabad or Bangalore or Jaipur)”. The truth of the spirit is that people have no choice but to resume their normal activities to earn their livelihood, get by and complete their share of their personal and professional obligations, duties and responsibilities. They have no other option. If I have a business meeting in Cannaught Place, I have to go there, knowing fully well that if the terrorists have decided it to be the day of mayhem, I could be one of the casualties. It’s not spirit, it’s helplessness.

Whether you like Bush’s policies or not, whether you like America or not, you have to agree that the cavemen have not been able to do anything on American soil ever since 9/11. More than a couple lessons to be learnt on how to tackle homeland security.

Compare this with India, we are probably the only country which does not have an anti terror law despite being one of the top most victims of terrorism. Not just that, the government fiercely opposes any proposal to bring in any such laws – the center’s refusal to ok Gujarat anti terror law a very recent example.

Several prominent members of the PM’s cabinet actively support the organization everybody knows to be behind these acts of terror, “It’s a cultural organization”. Correct. Now will you, Mr Minister, care enough to explain what kind of culture espouses exploding bombs in crowded places? I guess not because people who get killed and will get killed in the blasts to come will never be of your kin.

The nuclear deal is done. The surging economy, the India miracle, superpower by 2020 – a whole lot of you-know-what. No one is going to respect us as a country if we cannot protect our people, if we continue being a corpse collector whether it is the embassy in Kabul or markets in Delhi or temples in Jaipur. We can never be a a super power as long as it is so ridiculously easy to kill us.

Another word often bandied about whenever these blasts happen is “the people’s resilience”. Resilience, my friend, is to get up when hit and reply in the same coin. Resilience is not getting hit again and again and wiping the blood only to be bloodied again. Resilience is not picking one tooth from the road only to have another one punched out.

Platitudes don’t help Mr Singh, action does. Tough action.

Real people are dying here. Families are being destroyed. Kids’ futures are being ruined. Are you going to wait till eternity to do something apart from throwing banalities? Or is it that our worst fears are true, these deaths don’t matter to you, these people don’t count?