Meet Cisco’s new CEO Chuck Robbins, who will succeed John Chambers, who spent 20 years at the helm of the world’s largest networking company. This “unexpected” announcement of a new CEO came as a surprise to many. Robbins will take over Chambers on July 26, 2015. He will also join Cisco’s board. Chambers will continue as Chairman of… Continue Reading
I had no idea what “Piku” was about. All I knew is the film starred Deepika Paduknone, Amitabh Bachchan and Irrfan Khan. The film is directed by Shoojit Sircar, whose previous film “Vicky Donor,” I enjoyed watching. The other bit of information I knew was that Juhu Chaturvedi wrote the story of “Piku” and “Vicky… Continue Reading
Over the years I have seen pictures of Iris Apfel in various magazines. How could you not notice her? She jumps out of the page with her eclectic, colorful, stylish and layered ensemble paired with those over- sized jewelry and glasses? And then there that energetic aura about her. Most often, you will find her smiling… Continue Reading
Alex Winter’s new documentary “Deep Web: The Untold Story of BitCoin & The Silk Road,” screened at the San Francisco International Film Festival, which is where we caught up with him to talk about the film. The film is about Ross Ulbicht, Silk Road, an underground market place, the war on drugs and privacy. Ulbricht… Continue Reading
This is our final episode with Dr. Salman Akhtar about the history of Bollywood or Hindi cinema. We talk to him about the label “Bollywood,” used to describe the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai. There are those who don’t like the term, while others see nothing wrong in using the term. What does Dr. Akhtar… Continue Reading
Manage and automate all of your HR systems—online, in one place—for free is the tagline for Zenefits, a San Francisco based company founded by Parker Conrad and Laks Srini in May 2013. And within a short span of two years the company has raised multiple rounds of funding totaling $581 million that includes the new round of… Continue Reading
What is it about mountains that strikes that primordial chord of awe, wonder, respect and admiration? These were the questions running through my mind as I sat in my comfortable seat and watched “Meru,” a mesmerizing and award-winning Sundance film. Meet Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk, three well-known and experienced climbers, who decide to climb one of… Continue Reading
A private memorial service for David Goldberg was held in Stanford this morning. The event was attended by family and close friends. Sheryl Sandberg paid a moving tribute to her husband and partner. Here is how Adam Lashinsky from Fortune described Sandberg’s tribute to Goldberg: In one moving tribute, she was simultaneously the poised, articulate public… Continue Reading
There are some books that are easy to read, and then there are some books that are dense and at times confusing to understand. One such book for me was Thomas Hardy’s “Far From The Madding Crowd.” Hardy’s book was our assigned reading for our literature class in high school and I can still vividly… Continue Reading
Meet Anshuman Bapna of MyGola.com. Bapna and Prateek Sharma founded their startup in Bangalore in 2009. They raised a seed round and Series A and pivoted a couple of times. Here is how Bapna describes the pivots: Arguably, travel planning is one of the top worst ideas entrepreneurs can think of. In our quest to crack that impossible… Continue Reading
With one more week to go, here are my 3 picks from this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23-May 7, 2015). These are films that I have seen. There are lot of films I have not seen, and would like to see them. These include “The Diplomat,” “The Deep Web” “Tangerine” and “The… Continue Reading
We continue with our history of Hindi cinema or Bollywood with Dr. Salman Akhtar. We pick up the threads of our conversation and look at how Bollywood films underwent a change during the 1980s. The films made in 1970s belonged to the angry young man genre and were marked with narcisstic rage. Concerns about the market… Continue Reading
On May 25, 2015 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake wrecked havoc in Nepal. This natural disaster has affected millions of people in this landlocked Himalayan country. The earthquake destroyed parts of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital. Over 1.4 million people need food, water and shelter according to a BBC report. Over 4,000 people have lost their lives and relief… Continue Reading
The 58th San Francisco Internatonal Film Festival is underway, and this year they have a really terrific lineup.The opening night film was Alex Gibney’s much talked about documentary “Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine.” The film explores our collective fascination with Jobs, and delves into what values shaped this iconic Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
Today is Ella Fitzgerald birthday, one of the greatest jazz singers in the world. She was born on April 25, 1917 in Virginia Beach. She was 21 years old when she recorded “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” which sold over a million copies. For the next 50 years she performed and sang in various venues around the world. She recorded… Continue Reading
Leila Sen shares the story of Hedeya Khayat, her Armenian mother’s unusual story and journey from Turkey to Egypt, to India, to England and finally to the USA. As part of a people who define themselves as ‘survivors’, one wonders what it was like for Khayat who became Hoda Dutt after her marriage and learnt… Continue Reading
Alex Gibney’s documentary “Steve Jobs: Man In The Machine,” was the opening night film at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival. In this 120 minute long documentary we get to see Steve Jobs up close and personal and discover facets of him like his obsession with Zen Buddhism. Jobs apparently wanted to be a monk… Continue Reading
Today is the opening night of the longest running film festival in the Americas – San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). The festival runs from today through May 7, 2015 and is studded with a wonderful array of films, guests and talks. We sat down to speak with Noah Cowan of San Francisco Film Society… Continue Reading
Film lovers are in for a wonderful treat at this year’s 58th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23 -May 7, 2014). With so many terrific films it is always a challenge to find out which ones to watch. Here are five films from different genres and parts of the world that I enjoyed watching and… Continue Reading
We are obsessed with Steve Jobs. We just can’t seem to get enough of him. There is a new book out about Jobs and two different films about the iconic Silicon Valley entrepreneur. This is not including the 2011 book by Walter Isaacson and the 2013 Hollywood film “Jobs,” with Ashton Kutcher that did not do… Continue Reading
Dr. Salman Akhtar talks about Bollywood or Hindi cinema’s 100 year old history in this multi-part interview. In Part-3 of our conversation he talks about female sexuality and the angry young phase of Hindi cinema during the 1970s. “I will tell you a very interesting story about female sexuality in Hindi film,” he says. And he shares the… Continue Reading
This week as you celebrate Earth Day, you may want to remember the California naturalist, who played a key role to help create awareness and advocate the preservation of America’s natural wilderness. If it were not for him, we would not be paying our annual pilgrimage to the various National Parks of America from the Grand… Continue Reading
In last night’s episode of HBO’s Silicon Valley, you watched the good folks at Pied Piper struggling to raise their first round of funding from Venture Capitalists (VC). This, after being chased by VCs, who were eager to invest in the startup in last week’s episode. You may have fleetingly wondered how much was actually… Continue Reading
San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) is gearing up to host the 58th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 23 – May 7, 2015). This is the longest running film festival in the Americas points out Noah Cowan, Executive Director of SFFS. What is different about this year’s festival I asked Cowan. The actual festival itself won’t… Continue Reading
Steve Wozniak has joined hands with Stan Lee to launch Silicon Valley Comic-Con 2016. And the announcement has created a lot of buzz and you don’t have to look into your crystal ball to predict that this will be a successful event. “I’m teaming up with friends to make this happen because I want to… Continue Reading
Take a look at the new trailer of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” directed JJ Abrams. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and JJ Abrams. The film stars Harrison Ford, Oscar Isaac, John Boyega Lupita Nyong’o and others. This much anticipated film releases on December 18, 2015. Earlier this year, I got a chance to interview Kasdan… Continue Reading
Meet Mikey McCleary, musician, composer and music producer.He has been kept busy creating music for Bollywood films and Indian advertisements, and lately he has branched out to score music for Indian-American filmmaker Shonali Bose’s “Margarita With A Straw” If his name is unfamiliar, his music must certainly be familiar to most of us. You might… Continue Reading
Meet Hollywood actor and TV star Tiya Sircar. We caught up with her at this year’s Cinequest film festival in Silicon Valley. She was here for the world premiere of her new film “Miss India America.” A couple of years ago Sircar spent time in Silicon Valley filming for “The Internship.” Naturally one of the… Continue Reading
Dr. Salman Akhtar talks about the 100 year old history of Bollywood or Hindi cinema in this multi-part interview. Dr. Akhtar comes from a family of poets and writers in India. His father Jan Nisar Akhtar worked in Hindi film industry as a lyricist and poet. His mother Safia Akhtar was a talented writer & poet. His brother Javed Akhtar is a well-known writer… Continue Reading
April is certainly been a busy month for startups and investors. As you know investments are no longer in the $10-15 million category, they appear to be in the $70-100 million category with valuations pegged in billions of dollars. Here is a sample of companies that raised fund in the last few days. Docker, an… Continue Reading
The Kamla Show 