300th KaVita : The one and only !

Prashant like many of you came to USA for higher education. After graduation he came to California and started working at Yahoo.
For those of you who don’t know him, he is currently in India.

He is one of those who wants to keep KV connected and puts in those late hours to keep us connected.
He is one of those who is constantly updating KV.com.
He is one of those who has immense enthusiasm and energy and not to forget his creativity skills.
He is one of those who can spend hours coming up with unique April fool pranks.
Am sure a lot of you would remember his AFD pranks.

Kudos to his commitment, enthusiasm and hard work for sending out the weekly/bi-weekly KaVita’s and keeping us all connected. We couldn’t have done it without him. The lady behind this man, aka Dimple Dedhia also gets credit for the immense support she provides.

Since it’s going to be a virtual celebration this time, presenting an e-interview with Prashant Shah.
Thank you Prashant for taking time to respond to the questions.

*********************************** E- interview ***********************************

1. When did you first think about creating a blog for the kutchi community ?
Till 2005, the kutchvalley yahoogroups was the way to communicate between KVites. Then in 2005 the Jaina convention was held in the Bay Area. I had good fun at the event and wanted to tell KVites about it. Something which would be permanent, easily accessible and interactive. Hence was born the kutchvalley blog and first KaVita was sent out Jul 16, 2005. I believe the Jaina convention articles (by Prashant and Bhavini independently) and Folsom Lake Camping article were among the first few blog posts on kutchvalley.

2. 300th Kavita, Another milestone – How do you feel?

I am glad that kutchvalley.com is still active and content contributions are coming in (though not as many as I would like). I have not found any other bay area community blog that has been active for so many years and has a constant stream of articles and useful information coming from the community for the community. Community Blogs come and go but we plan to keep our KV flame alive and hopefully reach 500th KaVita one day. Thanks to all the content authors. You are the reason we are here at #300. Some of the content authors share the same vision and passion as me for KV and that really helps in keeping the momentum going.

3. What motivates you to keep sending KaVita ?

a) I am human and sometimes feel lazy or busy with other work on KaVita due dates. But the people who keep asking me “Is KaVita coming out today?” motivates me to shed off my laziness and stretch myself that extra bit to send out the KaVita during Thu or Fri night. I will not name them but they know who they are. 🙂
b) When people write good informative articles or post webreads, events, videos, etc I feel more motivated to send out KaVita since there is some content to send out. Otherwise I have to generate content and send it out. 🙂
c) The hope that there are at least a few people in KV who benefit from our community articles.

4. Who is your biggest inspiration ?
The goal for a united, well-informed, happy and fun Bay Area Kutchi community is my inspiration.

5. What do you like to do in your spare time?
Surprisingly I like to code in my spare time. Besides that, reading, cricket are my other hobbies. Recently spending quality time with kids has taken priority too.

6. Were you this social and connected in school/college ?
Nope. I have been an introvert and still consider myself an introvert. (Dimple will attest to that).
Moving to USA for studies and job did change my social approach and overall personality.

7. What’s next in store for Kutchvalley.com ?
Before facebook became popular around 2009, Kutchvalley.com was fairly well visited by KVites. We need to bring the eyeballs back to kutchvalley.com. More interesting ways for people to contribute is the first priority. Second is to surface past content better. We already have a ton of good content that has been written in the past. Third is to improve the feedback loop so that people are aware that someone has posted feedback on their content. Contributions via mobile is also important and on the radar.

8. What do you think is the reason people are not posting much content on KV ?
People are taking things for granted. :-). If someone posts a good article on KV that you like, at least post a comment which will encourage the writer. However this is not a problem confined to KV only. If you email photos to a group how many of them reply back with some message or feedback? Worldwide the percentage of content creators on social media is probably 10-15%. The rest are readers. But if the readers don’t provide feedback then the writers will feel discouraged and stop writing. On our part, we plan to reintroduce the ability to “like”, “find useful”, etc on all content so that all that folks can at least indicate that they “liked” the content.

9. It will be two years since you moved to India, what do you miss the most about bay area ?
Its actually been three years. Time has flown fast. About the Bay Area, I miss the KV Junta. It was easier to gather people there than here. :-). I miss the campings, the nice parks, hikes, the picnics, the diwali parties. On a personal front, I was doing more things there than here.

10. What is one thing that you like being in India?
Kids getting exposed to Indian Culture is one of the biggest plus points I believe. Kairavi can now speak good Hindi and follows Hindi kids serials and movies. Suravi is catching on too. Both are fans of Hindi music. I think I will be able to connect with them better in the future since they share some of the same culture as me. But then, who can predict the future. :-). Inspite of all its problems, India seems more dynamic than USA. Something is always happening here. People are always around. India has its own beauty w.r.t to people and places. 🙂

******************************************************************************************************

KV is lucky to find this rare gemstone !!