MUMBAI, December 5: Dad's not always right. That's what the 54-year-old super-achiever from Silicon Valley, Kanwal Rekhi, wanted his young wide-eyed audience to believe while talking on `Wealth Creation Through Entrepreneurship' at the Mumbai Educational Trust (MET) in Bandra today.``In 1963, when I told my dad an army officer that I wanted to study at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai, he was very upset. All he could remark was: `Come out of IIT after four years with no job in hand?' My father obviously wanted me join the army or any other stable government service,'' Rekhi today fondly recalled, talking of his early years of struggle.A struggle which began since he migrated from Pakistan to India as a refugee at the time of partition and continued till the day he finally reached the US, destined to become a multi-billion dollar venture capitalist and president of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).``I was just a toddler in 1947, third of the eight children in the family. So obviously like all other middle-class families in a newly emerging India, my father too wanted all eight of us to have decent government jobs, with pension for life!'' said Rekhi.He, however, added that with the leapfrogging in information technology (IT) the time is ripe for young Indian entrepreneurs to make it big in the global market. ``Of the 2,80,000 IT professionals in Silicon Valley today, 28,000 are Indians who have already made their first million dollars. This proves Indians do not have any genetic problems in being successful IT entrepreneurs! We do have the genes to compete with the brightest and toughest in the world,'' said Rekhi, perhaps the best living example of the Indian Success Story.The TiE, formed in 1992, consists of a core group of 70 Indian IT entrepreneurs in the US, and Rekhi said it is now ready to extend help back home in India for encouraging entrepreneurship. ``In the last 50 years Indians have largely underperformed as a people. But now TiE is ready to listen and financially help anyone with a good idea and concrete plans in India,'' said Rekhi, adding the Indian leg of the TiE will be officially launched in the city on December 7 this year.After completing his BTech in electrical engineering from IIT-Mumbai in 1967, Rekhi did his two-year masters course in Michigan University, USA. There was no looking back after this as he worked for various IT firms as an engineer, systems analyst, and signal link before becoming founder-partner of Excelan in 1982.``It was in the early 80s that most of the Indians started feeling the proverbial itch in the Land of Plenty. But when I told my wife Ann about the plan to start my own company she was just as upset as my dad was earlier! But I was 35 years old then and had the drive to branch out alone, and my wife finally saw reason,'' recalled Rekhi.Another successful entrepreneur, B V Jagadeesh of Exodus, an Internet Data Center Company, said TiE had helped him start from scratch. ``In 1995 only Rekhi recognised our idea to start an ISP (internet service provider) company and through TiE gave us a cheque of US $ 200,000. We are now a successful 10 billion dollar company, handling 40 per cent of the internet traffic,'' said Jagadeesh, asking the MET students to `tie up with TiE' and pursue their dreams.Meanwhile, Rekhi also said though it is known that he made a donation of US $ 5 million to IIT-Mumbai, not many are aware of his concern for Kargil and Orissa. ``I have given Rs 20 lakh already for Kargil and the Orissa cyclone,'' said Rekhi.
