KnowYourStar.com Journey: Jaideep Rao
There are times when a person falls short of words. I think it’s happening with me today when I am writing this. My journey with KYS has been extremely fortunate coupled with some real hard work. When I look back- I don’t see the struggle that we went through to set this credible brand. Instead, I see a mirror showing thousands of opportunities that are up for grabs to beautify our beloved and sole reason of existence – Society!
A Guru holds the most revered position in our culture. The day this idea struck us on a “Bharath Bandh”, me and Sharath, took no time in requesting our Guru- Kiran sir to join us on this mission. He has guided us and pulled us back when we were longing for cheap attention. Then came in my buddy, Ashwin, a marketing genius. God knows how many times we have ended up having long debates to arrive at a simple strategy. He is the force behind keeping KYS ad-free and not-for-profit. He taught us the golden mantra- Customer and Content. With content comes the customer.
With content, I acknowledge the heart of KYS – Writers! Pranita and Jenifer– both of them gifted with a unique style of writing and a different angle of proof-reading. We have complemented each other, made quick work, efficiently coordinated and the result is here to see. From interviews to screenplay, from thought-provoking articles to catchy FB updates.. to simple tweets, we have written it all!
From our kick-off teasers to our failed attempts to make a short-film… to an unforgettable “Dwar” cinematography – I am sure Ruchi has had a fascinating journey. When we started- our servers crashed, our website was terribly slow, our designs changed, we struggled to get interview appointments, we experimented with whatever content we had. Some miserably failed, and then we had our team come to the rescue, everyone playing a crucial and important role – my mentors Shipra, Kiran E, Ragi, Vinci, Ikku, Akshay and Divya. End of 2013 saw Nachiketh, Mani and Archi coming in to the team with new talent and spirited ideas!
Things progressed and as we stabilized, we were recognized by Deepthi Sridhar’s article in Bangalore Mirror. The Kashis- Vyjayanthi Kashi and Prateeksha Kashi trusted us when we had no base. Chandrajith and Prince helped us realize the dream of Dwar. Many well-wishers constantly guided us to approach the right and bright stars, many also gave their co-ordinates. Some of them sat with us and helped us introspect- made our path clearer to us. Bloggers who made our article on “RAPE” reach many, deserve a mention. To all these people- Heartfelt gratitude!
KYS working for India Inclusion Summit-2013 as official Blogging Partners gave immense satisfaction, particularly Book Collection Drive for Kartik. Recognition in New India Express gave the new visibility!
After a year, things have not changed. We clearly know that we are no messiah, no Buddha. We know that rapes are still happening every minute, autistic individuals are still not in the main stream of society, water conservation measures are still not implemented, every student still longs to become a doctor or an engineer, peak of corruption is still not reduced by an inch, we still have not recovered our investments, our fan following in twitter or FB is nowhere close to TOI. So what have we achieved?
YOU! Like-minded people who have formed a strong KYS community that strives hard to bring the gradual transformation – that’s YOU!
