x = the missing connection. In Mumbai, cable operators could reach the home. In Kota, WiFi was my way to test demand.
What doesn't make sense to me?
In 2009, I returned to India after five years in the UK and South Korea. I wanted to understand why a fast wired connection was so hard to get at home. To find out, I started an ISP in Mumbai and a WiFi ISP in Kota.
Where a child lives and what their family can afford shape who gets to teach them. I saw that pattern continue after the school day ended, when children went to tuition. In a system where so many tutors work independently, where could change begin?
What have I tried to change?
In Mumbai, local cable operators already had lines into people’s homes. In Kota, I had to find another way to reach customers.
Running a WiFi ISP in Kota let me test demand and see whether I could earn revenue before investing in cable. In 2016, I began rolling out a wired network there.
In Mumbai, even with a line into the home, bandwidth was expensive. I brought costs down and showed other providers what was possible. Peering, which lets networks exchange traffic directly, led me to a larger question. How could more providers get access to content on those terms? That took me to internet exchanges.
Families already turn to local tutors for help after school. What would it take for a child in a small town to have the same choice of teachers as a child in a metro, whatever their family can afford?
Some questions deserve answers. Others deserve a poem.
I write to question, provoke, amuse, and occasionally make sense of the absurdities around us. Sometimes through essays. Sometimes through poetry. And sometimes through books nobody asked me to write.
Observations on society, contradictions, convictions and human behaviour.
Two humorous booklets written as wedding gifts for friends. The weddings were planned. The advice was unsolicited.
Writing on education, technology, leadership, public policy and other subjects.
The individual beyond the ideas and achievements.
I’m Raunak Maheshwari. Mumbai is where I’m from. Kota is my native place.
When friends got married, I wrote them booklets. Some questions are more fun to answer when nobody has asked.
If you’ve worked on either question and found a different answer, I’d like to hear it.