Dot Com Parents

A look at parental reactions to a generation that is risking all to follow their hearts.

For the last four years my husband has been “working from home”. 

Working from home – a comforting euphemism created for the infinite number of people caught by the current entrepreneurial bug who have set up their own ventures, including hubby dearest. About four and a half years ago bitten by the dot com boom created entrepreneurship bug, my husband and his three colleagues left their comfortable, 11 - 9 moneymaking jobs to start their own business. Or venture or startup or whatever is the politically correct terminology now. 

Our parents both of who are upstanding government servants, like all true employees of the Central Government of India look with extreme suspicion at “business” as a means of support. They were extremely puzzled and perplexed at the sudden desire of their son in law to start his own business. In their lexicon of ‘things to do to earn a living and support your family’, the concept of a business did not exist. Business was something viewed with suspicion - something that others do and is acceptable only if its successful. 

Start up. Venture. Entrepreneur. Who has heard of these new fangled words that today’s generation insists on creating? Of course the newspapers and magazines are full of these words but that’s all for others to experiment and do. Not for us and definitely not for our son in laws. You can imagine their horror when their IIT passed out son in law decided to create his own startup. They reconciled themselves to their cub-in-laws jobscapades – after all he had joined a newspaper after his completing engineering at IIT that mecca of all engineers to be. That gamble turned out right. 

And – this one was the clincher - there is hope yet because his horoscope says that he was born to rule (behenji – ye toh raj karega. Aakhir raja yog hain). Cuddled up with comforting image of the future with their son in law in a throne, they resigned themselves to their fates. Their son in law helped the process along by carrying home articles of start up success stories in the latest magazines, and making them sit through TV interviews of the latest start up venture capitalist funded phenomenon who talked only in dollars and profits of millions. Though they still had not figured out the answer to that dreaded question “ So what does your son in law do “ they had reconciled themselves to the reality of his dream. 

From the point where the our iron man left his secure money spinning job to the point where the startup actually started, the dot com boom went bust. In a span of a month the economy changed. The idea, which would revolutionize the industry, for which VC funding to the tune of millions of dollars was assured, slowly but surely eroded. Dreams reached a stage where venture capitalists & investment bankers gave way to fat lala’s who where approached for a few hundred thousands. 

Nothing worked. It was a different market now – too many hands were burnt and too much money was squandered on ideas. Even the few who recognised the potential of the venture and acknowledged that the idea could work where too wary to back their judgement with hard cash. Money talks and never was a song needed so badly. The scenario was definitely not what I call optimistic. It reached a stage where it was hard to keep looking at the glass and tell yourself “the glass is half full not half empty” but hubby dear and partners where well and truly bitten. In their case the bug won. There was no going back for all of them. 

A job. A salary. Nine to five. No sir. That’s not the way. 

And so started a small company, which no one had ever heard of. It was quietly registered in Bangalore with one of the partners rented PG (paying guest for the uninitiated) accommodation as the company’s registered address. The fledgling startup operated in three cities without any operational set up for more than a year. Hubby “worked out of home”, as did his partners to “save on operational costs”. ShahRukh Khan's character in Chalte Chalte was suddenly very real. 

Since all concerned parties or should I say partners were journalists, working from home entailed a lot of pounding on the keyboard. Loud meetings, tons of coffee, more keyboard pounding was the norm. Ideas floated back and forth. Thanks to technology in general and mobiles and msn chat in particular, proposals based on these ideas were sent to hazaar companies. As the start up evolved in its own pace and progressed in its own unique new age working style, two ageing Indians watched with growing consternation at the turn of events unfolding in front of their eyes. 

Imagine their bewilderment at the latest turn of events. They had just about recognised their son in laws latest professional peccadillo as a stark reality to be faced with fortitude when they were hit with this hitherto unknown style of working. Leaving a well paying job, a respectable and powerful profession, a company flat in Mumbai, a mobiled existence (in those days carrying a cell phone was a status symbol as only the top executives were deemed worthy of the benefits of a wireless world) to do what? Hit a few keys, stare blankly at a monitor, sleep till 11 in the morning, walk around the house muttering proposals, and spend the whole day in your pyjamas… 

Its ok Mom. I’m working from home. 

He’s working from home. 

He is working from home. This one sentence became a mantra of sorts. It was as if, if they repeated it often enough to others and themselves it would become something normal, acceptable and gain a semblance of seemliness. Their reassurance to each other took on a hollow ring with time, especially when relatives called or they bumped into old friends. The bewilderment and complete lack of understanding of gen nexts definition of work tested their faith to the breaking point but confidence in their son in law’s ability always pulled them together again. 

After three long years of sweat, backbreaking toil, our marriage, and walkout of a partner, the big bad world of business listened. The first order, which came in, ensured the company’s survival and reaffirmed everybody’s conviction that they were on the right track. Their first magazine on the telecom industry, which rolled out, was read from top to bottom from the first page to the last by both parents. It didn’t matter a whit that both of them did not understand the T of technology and that IT became a mantra after their retirement. Their son in laws first magazine was out. No mother has watched over her baby with pride greater than our parents as more and more issues of the magazine rolled out. 

The first few steps taken by the company were watched with great interest and greater relief by my parents. With time a few more orders trickled in. And finally the big day arrived. The number of orders and new business coming in justified the set up of their own office in Delhi. The fact that it was increasingly becoming difficult to fob off clients who wanted to meet in your office was just a minor detail that everybody was happy to overlook. He was no longer working from home. Their happiness knew no bounds. From a state where they would give back vague responses to inquiries about who they had trusted their third daughter with to a stage today where they could proudly proclaim that he is a custom publisher. Not only does he have a profession which makes sense, but now he even has an office. 

Our dot com parents passed the test with flying colours.