Pakistan: The War of Drones A great article by Pervez Hoodbhoy, but i do have a minor quibble. I think pervez accepts the suicide bomber jumping off the rock story too uncritically. I suspect that some video editing was involved. First some suicide bomber was filmed climbing up the rock. then some other unfortunate victim was filmed dead and was buried. The description of the randomly picked victim matches a famous description of Hassan Sabah's supposed disciples. Such stories were also circulated about Allama Mashriqi...and about other fascist leaders in history. Its a common meme: the unquestioning obedience of the robotic followers

The Young Philosopher dear dionysius, i can see the glimmer of a point in your letter...though harshly put...but the punjab of waris shah had already picked up a good bit of ghalib and mir by the turn of the century..the real ``nail in the coffin`` was probably the partition on the basis of religion....do you think we can put humpty dumpty together again?..the idea of punjab (as opposed to the idea of islamic urdu speaking pakistan or even more so, the idea of MTV and america) is barely alive....or am i just indulging in expat hand wringing and its all going to be well?

omar

Protest against Kalabagh Dam dear talpur, as you know, general musharraf has recently made some noises indicating that he favours the dam...i am curious to hear your opinion on why he did so.....i am not a dam supporter or a musharaf supporter..just genuinely curious about the mechanics of this sympathy:

1.is it based on sincere belief that this is a good idea? if so, where does he get that information and why is he not swayed by contrary claims?

2. does he (or some friends) have a monetary interest in the thing?

3. is he influenced by other generals who have hidden interests of their own?

and finally, why hasnt his own cabinet member omar asghar khan (who has previously been opposed to the dam) told him this is a bad idea?

Vignettes from a Short Trip to India slick and informative....but why should the two muslims who wrote to the newspaper be considered representitive of all muslims?....BTW i had the vague impression that muslims in the south maybe doing better in education than those in UP/bihar...it seems this is not true...or is it?

Indians and Pakistanis Must Start Anew some excellent stuff from sameer and pardesi...has anyone noticed that this issue has attracted more mail than any other current posting on chowk?....i think the current boundaries of india and pakistan are unlikely to change in the near future....what can (and should) change is the hardness of this border...eventually we should be like most west european countries....where you can just get out of bed and hop on a train to go across the almost irrelevant border.....this sounds overly optimistic at this time...but if we have ten years of peace and economic development, its bound to happen.....of course, we may not have ten years like that and mad mullahs and their mirror image hindu fanatics could take north india to ruin....one hopes south india will still survive ...with nuclear bombs one cannot be too sure....here meanwhile is a piece from the latimes today...

South Asian Entrepreneurs and Mentors Form a Tie That Binds

Start-ups: High-tech business leaders from India region have united to help ambitious immigrants succeed in the U.S.

By DAVID KESMODEL, Times Staff Writer

Safi Qureshey is helping mentor South Asian high-tech entrepreneurs.

RICHARD HARTOG / Los Angeles Times



When Sandeep Walia and his partners presented their sweeping plan for an Internet start-up to investor Navneet Chugh last year, Chugh was underwhelmed, to put it kindly.

``Navneet said, `Shut up, guys. You can`t do all that,` `` said the 26-year-old Walia, an electronics engineer whose idea for a worldwide e-tailer of ethnic handicrafts occurred to him at a party.

A swift wake-up call was not all that the fledgling company, BuyBuzz Inc., received from Chugh, a member of a closely knit group of established businesspeople from India and neighboring countries called the IndUS Entrepreneurs, or TiE. Seeing potential in the team, the Cerritos attorney and CPA helped streamline its concept to match its strengths. He also injected seed capital in the business, provided free legal and accounting services, and enticed Walia to locate in Cerritos--instead of Silicon Valley--with free space in his law offices. What`s more, he has handed off BuyBuzz`s business plan to other investors.

After revamping his original idea, India-born Walia instead developed a software application that will enable e-tailers and auction sites to syndicate their offerings. BuyBuzz is now poised to launch its product in August.

Chugh`s blend of critical advice and robust support is emblematic of the mentoring acts of TiE, a group whose influence on the high-tech sector has extended from Mountain View to Mumbai, India, leaving its largest imprint on Silicon Valley.

The buzz surrounding TiE`s 440-member Southern California chapter, of which Chugh is a founding member, has grown rapidly since launching in 1997--organizers had to turn away 100 people from its annual conference in October. Yet investments haven`t followed at the same torrid pace, keeping the chapter in the shadows of its Northern California cousins, who spawned the likes of Exodus Communications Inc., Hotmail Corp. and Junglee Corp.

But there are signs the tide is turning. The number of new companies that TiE Southern California members have cultivated has risen in the last year. Today, about two dozen start-ups here are led or backed by TiE members.

``What we need in Southern California is one or two success stories,`` said Chugh, who stresses that the chapter is still in its gestation period. ``Once that happens, it will be a great morale booster.``

Safi Qureshey, the president of TiE Southern California and its most noteworthy ambassador, is the principal figure behind the recent surge in investments. A Pakistani, Qureshey achieved prominence in the 1980s as co-founder and chief executive of Irvine-based personal computer maker AST Research Inc.

Qureshey has invested about $7 million in a dozen Southern California start-ups. He recently launched a $50-million business incubator, IrvineVentures, which works closely with UC Irvine and other local research institutions to hatch new companies.

He also helps entrepreneurs in another way by bringing prominent speakers to TiE Southern California`s monthly meetings through his many connections in the high-tech community. More than 200,000 people from the Indian subcontinent are estimated to live in Southern California.

About 200 people typically attend the events, held at the Sheraton Cerritos. Over dinner and cocktails, they listen to experts such as Mohan Sawhney, a top e-commerce authority who teaches at Northwestern`s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Yet speeches are only part of the draw. Before and after, members engage in a flurry of networking. Budding entrepreneurs can rub elbows with angel investors and get advice from seasoned executives. Members of the group liken the personal exchanges to the Indian tradition of passing wisdom from a guru, or teacher, to the chela, or student.

``One of the key things we`ve learned in entrepreneurship is that there`s nothing that encourages individuals more than getting to meet someone who has [become successful], and say, `If he did it, I can do it,` `` Qureshey said.

Added Chugh: ``What makes me come back year after year is pure business learning--the stuff they don`t teach you at Harvard Business School.``

The organization was founded at a 1992 luncheon in Silicon Valley by South Asian high-tech executives who had bumped up against various barriers during their rise to the top. With TiE, their goal is to help smooth the process for the new waves of ambitious immigrants. While the majority of TiE`s members are from the Indus region (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka), there are non-Asian members. Chapters exist in 10 U.S. cities and five in India.

It`s no secret that South Asians were a significant force in the U.S. technology sector long before the Internet boom and the emergence of TiE. For example, in the 1970s,Indian engineers became fixtures in the offices of IBM and Xerox. But they usually hit a ceiling blocking ascent into management.

Successful entrepreneurs such as Vinod Khosla, who co-founded Sun Microsystems Inc. in 1982, helped blaze a new trail. And the Internet boom, which offered a more level playing field for South Asians to strike out on their own, became a fast ticket to wealth.

``The dramatic shift we`ve seen is not so much a shift in cultural attitude but because the environment exists where a phenomenal idea can get funded,`` said Ahmed Ghouri, a 33-year-old anesthesiologist who co-founded San Diego-based CarPrices.com, a so-called reverse auction Web site chaired by Qureshey.

Another of Qureshey`s South Asian-founded start-ups, Irvine-based ConnectCom Microsystems, expects to close a round of venture capital funding of $15 million by September. ConnectCom is a semiconductor design firm that is developing high-speed silicon germanium optical transceivers for transmitting Internet data.

Gardena-based EntComm Inc., meanwhile, is believed to be the first organic TiE enterprise--all three founders met at a group function. Launched in September by Sundaresh Ramayya, Brij Mathur and Gopalakrishnan Satish, the business-to-business exchange integrates the supply chains of companies with their trading partners`. Clients include ConAgra and Universal Studios.

TiE also helps start-ups find technically skilled workers, a perpetual headache for technology firms, says 1StopMD Inc.`s founder, Venkat Yepuri. His Arcadia company, which enables physicians to buy medical and office products from a single source on the Web, has hired key technical consultants thanks to TiE connections.

The labor factor is one reason TiE`s Raghu Mendu is raising $125 million for a venture capital firm, Ventureast Capital, that will be based in both Los Angeles and Chennai, formerly known as Madras. The firm wants to help U.S. companies leverage the pool of highly skilled labor in India and help India-based companies take advantage of technology being developed in the U.S.

TiE`s local chapter is expanding its reach in other ways: It recently started holding angel forums in which start-ups can pitch their ideas to potential seed investors, and it is launching a chapter affiliate in San Diego.

Still, the process of brewing more South Asian-run technology companies in Southern California--and guiding them toward initial public stock offerings--will take more time to gather momentum, said Ravin Agrawal, a partner at EastWest Venture Group, a Los Angeles venture capital firm.

To help stoke the fire for more start-ups, Agrawal recently began holding gatherings of about 40 people every six weeks at the Westwood Brewing Co. The group, informally called the South Asian Venture Alliance, meets for networking purposes and to discuss ideas for new ventures. It works independently of TiE.

But whether young South Asian entrepreneurs turn to established networking groups to jump-start their ventures, the interaction with older, successful business owners is what matters most.

``These people give you the sense that anything is possible,`` said Vikas Bhushan, 33, founder of Santa Monica-based Medschool.com. ``If you achieve one-tenth of where they set their sights, then you could be very successful and proud.``

Without the guidance of TiE mentors, who have helped steer his company through several metamorphoses, BuyBuzz`s Walia said he doesn`t know where his company would be.

``A large portion of this is not making the bread but deciding what kind of bread you`re going to make,`` he said

Indians and Pakistanis Must Start Anew it is interesting that many pakistanis have taken it upon themselves to claim that NO pakistani would ever dream of such a reunification....WHY NOT? ...i know several pakistanis (including myself) who would have no objection to such a scheme...i cant figure out how we might get to such a civilized agreement peacefully...the current rulers on both sides are hardly in the mood for peace..and the so called ideology of pakistan that has become firmyly established in our educational system and in the ranks of our army and civil service seems an insurmountable obstactle at this time....on the other hand, times do change....i have seen very rabid india-haters and pakistani nationalists reverse themselves....so it cannot be ruled out...anyway, the confrontation does not exist with this intensity in the minds of sindhis, baluchis, even pathans...its mostly a punjabi (and semi-educated punjabi) phenomenon....so i would say to mr. uday kumar, keep on writing...who knows, eventually you may change enough minds!

Stairway To Heaven pakistan was created in the name of religious separatism and is only going in the direction mapped out by its founders (though mr. jinnah probably never paid too much attention to the long term consequences of his so called ``two nation theory``) but what exactly is the problem with india? one hears of bajrang dal activists training with firearms and planning to drive the christians away from india....small time thugs who lack even the simplistic morality of the jamaatias....ferozk, your advice to take a sup and sit back and wait for the coming disaster may apply to north india as much as to pakistan!....talebanism may not be restricted to muslims after all....still, i hope this fit of pessimism is proved wrong....i look forward to the opinions of indians on this site.

Men of the Millenium since everyone (including ali minai...hi Ali!) is playing, here are my choices:

1......most inappropriately (considering the increasingly warlike atmosphere prevailing in the sub continent, specially since paija launched kargil..) mahatma Gandhi…man of the millennium!….everything he preached has ended in failure in his own homeland (and his own practice was sometimes at variance with his preaching…but I am paying tribute to his ideas, not so much to his actual achievements in politics)….and it is quiet possible that age-old trends in history will not yield to any attempt at civilization….but if any society manages to use non-violence and love as workable tools, they will not forget the mahatma as they do so…..his influence can already be seen at work in the American civil rights movement, in south Africa, in every movement that tries to win over the enemy rather than crush them underfoot….most don’t succeed and none achieve such success that all doubters will be silenced….but almost everyone who even tries a little on these lines pays tribute to the mahatma…soI decided to do the same...may allah bless his soul...

2. Amir khusrao...for his reputed role in the synthesis of persian/islamic and indian culture...thus giving us north indian classical music and qawwali...both on the endangered species list, but probably worth more than penicillin

3. Nietzche. for announcing the obvious.

4.madhuri dixit/nene...after all, this is my list and i make the rules.

5.tyagraja..for sublime developments in south indian classical music....and since south india may survive the holocaust that north indian muslims and hindus are planning for each other, the genre may even survive the next millenium.

from the museum of lost causes.

omar

Pakistan: Rapprochement with India ‘unstoppable’ rapproachment with india is inevitable anyway because we are a part of indian civilization and culture and will remain so inspite of all efforts to turn pakistan into some kind of pseudo-arab country....but i doubt if that would suit the pak army...so i doubt if too much ``normalization`` can happen under army rule...after all, pj wont rule alone...he may be ``flexible and moderate`` but a lot of his uniformed constutuents are not...besides, who will pay them billions of dollars if no more tension with india? (i know there is a lobby in idnai itself which will oppose any normalization...but in general, they are more ready for it than we are).. best wishes.

He had no Choice! bilal, your dad seems determined, and good luck to him...but about democracy taking root...well, as we have seen before (and will see again, i am afraid) western/modern version of democracy is based on ideas that include a SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE and a secular polity (in principle, even if not in practice)...to say that paksitan is an ``islamic state`` and then write an essentially western constitution for it is a recipe for future contradictions and eventual failure...either we should take the bull by the horns and evolve a new kind of democracy, constitution and state (not to speak of a whole corpus of supporting literature, philosophy, culture etc..)...a task that i think is beyond our limited intellectual resources....or we should stop trying to reinvent the wheel, declare pakistan a secular state and go for a straightforward western model (with minor tweaking allowed, of course)....for which our population is not fully prepared and which will face opposition from many centuries worth of madrassa propaganda....but which will have the advantage of having a very large and easily accesible ``source literature``...and many working (even if not perfect) models to base it on.....in which case we will be able to get on the same road india is on....a culture and polity which is struggling to approach its secular ideals...still far away in practice, but atleast fairly clear about where they want to go (fairly clear being a loose and subjective term!)....in short...the indian constitution is workable ``in principle``..whether it works in practice is upto the indian people....the pakistani constitution is not workable in principle...you cannot have a western democracy in a medieval religious pholosophical framework and it is useless to pretend that iqbal or any other person managed to leave us a new and modern framework...the task may well be possible, but it certainly hasnt been done yet in any muslim country.

best wishes.

omar

New Chowk, Classic Chowk excellent...my sentiments exactly...though not likely to do much good..so what.

omar