|
In the year 1982 Suchit happened to be in London, strolling
along with his maternal uncle at High Street, there his Uncle
saw a keyboard gadget being sold in a shop. This gadget fascinated
him and the kind 'Mama' got one for him for 120 UK Pounds
in a deal with him. This was a 48 KB, ZX Sinclair Home Computer
which changed his life. The 14 year old gizmo freak lad was
back in Mumbai to create history thereafter. In order to run
the computer, he required a (colour) TV monitor which he asked
his brother to bring from UK. Then he learnt that it would
still not work, tinkering with it and books he wrote a program
to make it run. WOW ! Eureka- the kid just did it only being
14 years old.
All this was happening in pre-PC revolution days of Apple
/ IBM/ Microsoft, when Internet was unheard of. To get a telephone
line in India those days one had to wait for 4 to 7 years.
At an age of 12 years kids play pranks, catch frogs and read
comics. Suchit was writing 'Software Programs'. He contributed
his first article on computers as a 15 year old teenager to
a magazine called PC Quest.
Suchit Nanda is a resident of Hiranandani Gardens 'Eden' where
he moved in 1988 after his dad retired from service as Director,
Air India. Suchit is a keen observer and used to frequent
his dad's office. During his visits there, he got to understand
rudimentary skills of organizational functioning and presentation
which helped him a long way in his tender career as child-speaker
even at International conferences. His Dad, Mother and Uncle
all have been a great inspiration to have tolerated his gizmo
fad and ideas ahead of times.
Suchit started Indian sub-continent's first Bulletin Board
System (BBS) to network online communities through a dial
up device on the regular phone lines. Believe it or not, in
those days it used to take seven days for your message to
get across the globe on this BBS. It held ground because it
used to take more than a month for an overseas letter to reach
then. It was called 'Live Wire'! BBS, It sufficed community
needs to create a virtual community, play com-puter games
and share news.
This BBS grew to 3,000 users through his perseverance. It
was the first & largest BBS in the Sub-Continent to have
joined with "Fido-Net" and put India on BBS map
of the world. All this started as a hobby and he operated
from his Eden 4 bedroom crammed with 30 telephone lines ringing.
It all looked like a World War exchange, for quite sometime
till Internet thing happened.
To expand the reachability and to widen the benefit of this
technology, Suchit worked with NGOs who used his BBS to communicate
to the world on the burning issues. Suchit has been a consultant
to many organizations such as Canadian IDRC, UNDP, GreenNet,
Reliance, VSNL etc. and in this capacity travelled to some
of the remotest & unlikely places like Mongolia &
Laos!
During his college days while still doing his B.E. Electronics
from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, at Bombay University
in 1991 he co-authored a book 'War On Virus' (http://waronvirus.
org) which gained international reputation on computer viruses.
He had a short stint as Product Manager of an anti-virus software
RED ALERT which was developed in India along with friends
Neville Bulsara and Peter Theobald. This top selling software
not only became a hit in India but also in Middle East and
South East Asia.
Today at an age 34 Suchit Nanda heads 'Online Services and
Nanda Netcom Pvt. Ltd.'. He has been a catalyst of bringing
'net' era to India and has been instrumental in bringing affordable
technology to make Internet available at low cost. They got
their 'Big Break' in 1999 when Infoquest, Salora, & Nanda
Netcom got together and formed Jadoonet.com Ltd. and tied
up with a UK based manufacturer for SET TOP box and marketed
it through Samsung India as an interface device to access
Internet from T.V. sets in some 55 cities of India.
With 30 million color T.V. sets and 38 million B&W T.V.
sets across India and PC cost not going down anymore Suchit
sees a huge opportunity and his company is working out a low
cost Set Top Box to work with T.V. sets to access Internet,
games etc. almost like a P.C. It should be some seven to ten
months to launch this in India. This would explode the P.C
market and redefine Internet access globally. With high bandwidth
availability today and service providers giving cost effective
access it will merely to delight users to experience techno-logy
in a more affordable way.
As a child prodigy, a keen techie combining good organizational
skills and entrepreneurship has made this Powai Lad create
history. Like all minds in quest for higher levels of achievements
& satisfaction, Suchit finds solace in Raj Yoga. He is
an abhyasi of Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM). Under the able
guidance of jean clad mod GURU he has also dis-covered life
at spiritual plane.
Suchit is a wizard of sorts, a vibrant personality with deep
roots in Indian culture. He is at complete ease and balance
from within himself and to his environment. He owes his success
to the fact that his parents encouraged his gizmo fads and
his 'Mama' had a vision about him. Today, having tasted success
Suchit has set new goals for himself to better his purpose
in life and to take Internet to the common man of India and
the world.
"Planet Powai" asked him
a few Questions:
1. As a techie why didn't you emigrate to US or Europe
for prospects?
Thanks to my Dad being in the airlines and we being able to
globe-trot at an early age, the exposure level to the world
at large was tremendous. With that came the realization that
this is my karam-bhomi. India is unique and the opportunity
that it has to offer for transformation is enormous. A slight
change can improvise the lives of millions of people and with
the Net the importance of the physical location diminishes.
As my Master says "We should have Eastern hearts and
Western minds". What's inside us and what we make of
it matters more than where we are located.
2. Have'nt you missed on your childhood by being involved
into serious tinkering at an early age ?
If this had been thrust upon me, I would have agreed with
you but that was not the case. In fact, I'm thankful to God
that I could convert my hobby & passion into my work and
that too in such an exciting space. I got a well rounded education,
I love reading so have an extensive personal library of hundreds
of books ranging from computers to self-help to spirituality/
astrology/Tantra etc. My aim is to write books on some of
these topics and share my ideas for healthy debate. That's
one reason I setup my website http://wwwsuchit. net. In school
& college I was on the TT, Basketball, Tennis, Volleyball
teams. What I didn't do was Time-Pass: waste time hanging
around uselessly at the paan shops or go too often to the
discos or picnics. In hindsight, I don't think I want to change
even one aspect of my life.
3. Having lived in Powai for last 15 years how does it
feel today ?
Powai has really blossomed into the finest living township
there is to offer. The change has been so dramatic from when
we moved in. I believe we were the first or second family
to move into Hiranan-dani Gardens. With clean air (rarity
in Mumbai these days), scenic lake, greenery around and overall
such a healthy atmosphere we are fortunate people. In Hiranandani
Gardens, we have the best of the west in terms of malls, entertainment,
shopping etc. and yet we are close to nature. Powai can be
a role model for a good balanced living. One just hopes that
the growth can be regulated and we don't lose on this delicate
balance in future. Its up to each one of us to nurture mother
nature and pass this gift onto future generations.
|
|
