I met a 24 year old who not only had a killer idea, but did something about it and he sat opposite us as the CEO of Innoz technologies, the creators of SMS Gyan and 55444.in, what will be India’s biggest App store based on SMS. We were there to discuss the creation of the SMS app store, which we are currently in the process of creating, and left mighty impressed with what they had managed to achieve thus far.

A couple of days later, I got a call asking if I would be interested in working with them as an evangelist for the SMS app store – 55444.in. Now I had heard and read quite extensively about the role of an ‘evangelist’ and there was a point in my life, when all I wanted to be was an evangelist. So when this came along, it was hard to turn it down. I went and met Deepak again, and Hisam his partner at Innoz as well, and I guess they did not have to try too hard to convince me to get on board!

I am totally in love with the idea of what 55444.in can do and become for the average cellphone user in this country and I am already working to make it happen. So it is with great pride and joy that I start my work as an evangelist for the idea that I love already!

You will hear me talking a lot more about this very soon, but for now, go ahead and try SMS Gyan – send your question as an SMS to 55444 and lets see where it takes you!

I am in the UK as part of my band, The Raghu Dixit Project‘s UK Tour and when here, I got myself a local SIM. After consulting with various people, I went for the ‘Talk Mobile’ Pay as you Go SIM that was offered by the ‘Carphone Warehouse’ which gave me the best combination of unlimited (restricted to 25MB a day) Internet and International calling (10p a minute to India).

The settings that came with the SIM directly to my phone were all wrong and I just couldn’t get 3G working at all! Infact, it got worse because the “technical team” (that solves any tech issue one has with products bought from Carphone Warehouse) had no idea what to do! and without using the Internet to search, I couldn’t tell how to activate Internet access on my phone! – A perfect Catch 22 situation.

After much snooping around, I found the settings hidden in the Talk Mobile UK site under phone settings – 3 pages in!

If you want to skip all that and just go ahead, here is what you need to do -

Head to your Nexus One’s settings, then click ‘Wireless & Networks“, then select ‘Mobile Networks‘ and then select ‘Access Point Names‘. There will, in all probability, be settings for the Vodafone network type that will certainly not work with a Nexus One.

Delete the access point and add a new access point with these details

Access Point Name – Talkmob PayG Int

APN Address – payg.talkmobile.co.uk

Thats it! you’re done! – Please refer to this page for details

Hope this helps someone!

The Call for Speakers was met with a Huge response and we have over 150 submissions to choose from and that list is going to be out soon. The delegate registration starts in a couple of days and this time we will have online payment as an option as well, so things are going to get a lot easier!

So mark your calendars, and keep those dates free, the next big Open Source conference is in a town near you! (or me atleast )

One thing that stands out is becoming a TED Fellow, a dream I have cherished from the first time I heard and read about TED a couple of years back!  I have always dreamt of speaking like those people on stage at TED, or atleast, sitting down and listening to them first hand and it seemed so unreachable until TED decided to hold a conference in Mysore in November!

I had a whole plan of getting in by hook or crook, my last resort was to try and convince the sound guys at TED to take me on as part of the crew! Which could have well worked :p – but becoming a TED Fellow seemed a much better way to do it!

I applied on a whim, not expecting to get in at all, but the selection was a dream come true and with a week to go for the conference, I couldn’t be more excited

Kiruba Shankar started the TED Fellows project trying to get all TED fellows profiled and Rohit Awasthi interviewed me a couple of days back as part of this project. Here are my answers to his questions originally posted on his blog at – http://www.rohitz.com/2009/10/keeping-the-groove-with-gaurav-vaz-ted-india-fellow/

1. How did Raghu Dixit Project help you in getting more perspectives about music and expectations of people?

The Raghu Dixit Project completely changed my perception about how the music scene in India can work. At a time when bands are complaining about the lack of gigs and various things that are “wrong” with the scene, we’ve played almost a gig a week last year!

When I joined the Raghu Dixit Project, I came from a much smaller band (my college band Phenom) and had a very constricted view of how things worked and about the type of music that I listened to and played. Infact, before I started playing with Raghu, I had never played a Kannada song on stage EVER! All that changed and how! Over the past 4 years that I have been actively involved in the project, we’ve toured 7 countries and played over a 100 shows and have taken our own original brand of music to places very few Indian bands have. The learning for me has been immense.

The Raghu Dixit Project is a testament to the fact that regional music works in India and also, the importance of being original with what you do. A decade back, a bunch of South Indians singing in Hindi and Kannada would have been brushed aside as a bad idea, but what we have managed to achieve in the last 2 years after releasing our debut album is quite extraordinary.

But frankly, that has been the easy part, these were songs we’ve played over a long time, and with them, have set the expectations of a LOT of people. Exceeding those expectations with the next album (due in the first half of next year) and giving the audience a whole new experience live is where we are focussing our energies and I am quite confident we won’t let people down there!

Q.2 What did the IT Industry (un)teach you?

When I was in Engineering College, I was told that I would not use most of what I studied there. I do was skeptical about that statement, but now I can completely vouch for it

Yet, it’s not that I didn’t learn much from the IT Industry. In reality, I learnt a lot from my first job at NetScaler; a dream-company, now called as Citrix. One of the most important things I learnt was that there is a LOT of money out there to be and it can be earned if you do things the right way.

Moreover, I was never the someone who could be coupled to his desk-job. I pursued my music and other passions along with my first job. My bosses there were most co-operative of my other pursuits and allowed me to take time off work. They redefined the concept of “flexible work hours”, i.e. all’s well as long as you get the work done. This is something I will never forget!

That job made me a happy man as I had the flexibility to work without interruption; was very productive at work then. I had a point to prove and the folks at NetScaler let me prove it! I will carry that work ethic with me wherever I go.

Q.3 Has Radioverve become profitable? What are the future plans? Is there any update about MuckWork?

RadioVeRVe was never meant to become ‘monetarily profitable’. However, the profit that we have gained is that we have achieved what we set out to achieve, i.e, to provide a platform to the Indian Indie scene and make “Indian Indie” a recognizable genre. This is an achievement because we started RadioVeRVe at a time when there was no other platform like it. Today there are similar, well performing platforms and that in itself is brilliant because we too are working towards the same.

Although, RadioVeRVe has been lying low for a year now (as Shreyas and I are figuring out our careers, and that there have been recent developments in the Indie music scene), I am working with OML Digtal (Part of Only Much Louder, founded by Vijay Nair). OML is supposed to be an evolved form of RadioVeRVe. The project has been named as NH7; after the longest national highway in India and should be ready by the end of this year. With NH7, we will work on Indie music, all over India.

MuckWork is currently on the back burner. But will be up soon as it is a fantastic idea; as some brilliant people alongwith Derek Sivers (my idol) are involved.

Q.4 From Phenom to TED India Fellowship, what has been the most challenging phase of your life?

I’m not sure I can point to one phase of my life and say, there, that was the most challenging! My career has shaped in such a way, that I am jumping from one challenge to the next. Managing my IT career, creating and running an online radio station and at the same time playing in one of the biggest bands in the country was quite challenging, but it was nothing compared to quitting IT and with it, letting go of that financial security blanket to work with someone you have admired for years! And then to the next challenge, building a brand new start up, setting off on a very ambitious dream and hoping to make a difference with it while working on how to take the band to a whole new level with our music and the way we market it in a music industry that is in such a state of flux and a world where physical boundaries are inconsequential.

All of these phases have been critical in helping me become the person I am today and I am lucky to have gone through all these phases because they ground you! The perspective you get when you carry your own equipment, wait for your turn, perform the show of your life, pack up and then go sell CDs to people after your gig can never be substituted when you try to build a store that will sell music!

Gaurav in a concert

Q.5 You mentioned in one of your interviews, “Be true to yourself”. Easier said than done. Has there been any time when you have given or almost gave to the easy way out?

Many times! There is always the temptation to stick to the “formula”. But today, its much easier, you can actually categorize and hold a ‘job’ that pays the bills when you work on what you are passionate about and have a good working balance between the two until you are actually ready and confident to go one way or the other. I’ve had a lot of things fall into place for me and that has helped me be true to myself but things just got started!

Q.6 The independent music scene in India is quite fragmented and you have been part of taking some initiatives to bring it together. How do you see it shaping up in the few years to come?

The Independent scene in India is all set to explode. It just requires the right trigger and its all building up now. The gigs have increased, the clubs holding these gigs have increased, there are a lot more original bands, musicians and most importantly, music has finally started to become an actual career for musicians and that is a sure sign.

People have started realizing that there is music beyond Bollywood, and infact, Bollywood has started recognizing that there is music beyond Bollywood.

Bands need to support each other and get more serious about their music, release quickly and release often and get more professional about how they go about their careers. The tools for all this are being put together by various people in the scene and very soon I am sure it will all come together very soon.

Q.7 Lastly, does the ring on the finger now makes it difficult to play the guitar or it is easier than before?

Well, I’ve played half a dozen gigs now with the ring on the finger and they’ve gone well, so I guess the ring is staying :p

But seriously, Shilpa has been the most amazing thing to happen to me. She has finally gotten used to the musician / entrepreneur lifestyle and even pretends to like it sometimes! and at this point, I can use all the support I can get. Also, guitar playing is never easy, it takes a lot of hard work!

The new one has 2 things – the words, Yuuki – Meaning Courage and Yume – Meaning Dreams in the Kanji script. These are the names of the first pets I have ever had in my life! and they signify a lot at the current juncture in my life. It is on either side of the Koi Fish that is jumping out of water to signify adventure!

Below that is a barcode that is meant to read ’02 Jan 2010′ which is the date that Shilpa and I will get married. It is another HUGE step I am taking and it means a lot to me!

Little did she know what I was up to when I clicked this snap

This is a copy of one of the letters that Orlando pinned on every tree in the forest professing his love for Rosalind and I loved how they used the entire theatre, pinned stuff on the wooden poles and made entrances from among the crowd and everything else about it! I highly recommend the show if you are even remotely interested in Shakespeare’s work!

This photo was taken on our last night in Glasgow at my very dear friend Sruti’s house where the girls decided to show me who’s boss when it comes to playing pool and rightfully so, both of them beat me at it! It was unforgettable fun, the whole stay in the UK!