The Usual Suspects

Summary: The DSH folks I’ve met have all been very impressive and incredible. Included on the roster are a former CS professor, a well-respected educator, a former teacher, an IIT graduate, an international citizen, and a hospital ER technician.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Lucknow less than a week, of which I’ve spent a good chunk talking to folks in and affiliated with DSH. These conversations have typically revolved around one of three things: (1) who they are and what they do, (2) culture of and life in India / Lucknow, and (3) their thoughts on DSH’s operations.

The folks at DSH are absolutely incredible and amazing. Given that I’ll likely refer to them frequently in my writing, let me take a moment to introduce you:

Randolph (Randy): I met Randy, the brainiac behind DSH, at a tech conference in Santa Clara, and he’s served as my main point of contact to DSH. An ex-CS professor at Princeton, he’s a typical nocturnal CS nerd. He’s a straight (and sharp) shooter and probably the first Chinese inhabitant in Lucknow. Interestingly, he dislikes most things Indian (particularly the food, which may partially explain his lankiness). Remember to ask him about his family (which consists of rats he’s caught at the office).

Urvashi: The co-founder of DSH, Urvashi has the spirit of a warrior and is easily one of the most amazing women I’ve met. Her list of accomplishments include: (1) attaining a PhD in education from UC Berkeley, (2) co-founding and running DSH, (3) founding Study Hall, one of the top prep schools in Lucknow, (4) founding and running a foundation, (5) founding Prerna, an afternoon program for slum children / girls, (6) founding Diddi’s, a women’s self-help organization for mothers of the Prerna girls. Not only is Urvashi is still very involved in all of her operations, but she also manages to find time to visit friends and family around India and in the US.

Anna: As my guide and hostess, Anna is responsible for helping me maintain sanity this first week in Lucknow. She has one of the most interesting and international backgrounds of anyone I know: born in Tonga, and raised in Africa, India, the U.S., Korea, Thailand, and Kazekstan. I am blown away by her ability to speak Hindi and Indian-English. She leads and runs the Digital Polyclinic operations. (DPC is a DSH subproject focusing on health education for women.)

Tanuja: The first employee of DSH, Tanuja is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the school sites, as well as general office management. Before DSH, she worked with a newspaper and before that, taught computer classes. With family roots in Pakistan, she breaks most conventional stereotypes I know.

Pratyush: The all-purpose guru and go-to guy, Pratyush not only manages the technology of DSH, but also our personal affairs (e.g., helping me find an apartment). He owns one of the spoke schools DSH operates in (Educational Academy, run by his brother Praveen), and also has a computer company “on the side.” I’m starting to think that there are more hours in a day in India than there are in the US.

Priyanka: Former teacher at Study Hall, Priyanka is responsible for content development. DSH content includes not only the curriculum videos, but also digital stories and plays.

Roshan: A former hospital ER technician, Roshan was snagged by Anna and works on DPC. Haven’t talked to him much, but he seems very sweet.

Sumeet: IIT grad, he codes all night and sleeps all day in a room next to the office. He’s leading the voice monitoring system project, which aims to automate the monitoring process. He and Randy seem like two peas from the same pod.

Rahul: Works with Tanuja on monitoring the schools; I only met him briefly.

How does such a young startup in “cow town,” India attract such amazing people? This is just one example of the incredible power of a great idea and tremendous potential for large-scale impact.