Namastey!
My Name is Ravinder Khurana. Born and brought up in an Indian industrial town – Ludhiana, I was never into academic subjects much. The only thing I was good at during my school days and which kept me going then was science projects – intuitively working on aeromodelling and electronics used to give me immense joy.
While other subjects used to bore me to death, aeromodelling was like a fresh breath of air. It was my first love. And that’s the reason I felt happiest when I took a flight for the first time. I still remember losing my sleep thinking how fascinating it would be for days before the actual date of journey. It was almost like a dream come true for a 13-year-old.
Days went by and I don’t even remember when I became RK as calling Ravinder Khurana required some extra effort for my lazy school mates, not that I am complaining :).
I was still a teenager when I shifted to Delhi somewhere in 1984-85. I first tried my hands in wholesale marketing in ‘Sadar Bazar’, but soon realized it’s not my cup of tea. I then went to Calcutta as my first business trip at 17, but family set-backs didn’t allow me to continue there. In a bid to make it big, I flew to Dubai during 1989-1990 and worked there for almost a year. I did everything in a company that used to export iron and steel scrap to India. However, this too didn’t go long as another family set-back forced me to return home leaving everything in between.
Though I never had the business acumen, I had no other choice then. Still clueless about what I actually wanted, I started another business in Daryaganj (Present RO) in 1990 with manufacturing and trading batteries at small scale. I put huge efforts into this because I was almost tired of things not working out by then. Sadly, I couldn’t endured this either and ultimately ended up losing interest in the product and the whole process.
Interestingly, I had bought a computer for smooth running of the battery business but it broke down and I was so upset that I joined a one-year diploma course to fix it and hence began the journey. All those Multimedia, Computer Hardware, Networking kept me enthralled and detached to my battery business. Helping my battery clients with their computer issues gave me more pleasure, satisfaction and confidence than the business.
I was so keen to learn more and more about computers that I took many courses from electronics to languages. While I couldn’t learn much in languages, electronic and computer courses such as Microsoft’s, Novell’’s, Google’s certifications gave me great experiences.
It was the first time I was actually enjoying and loving my work. The business boomed and I soon made clients like Swiss Embassy and Bpb Publications which later became more of friends than just clients. The number was climbing every month, but there was a lot more to it than I could actually see.
There was a huge fire accident at Daryaganj and the place was sealed. In order to keep my business going, I went to the US a couple of times and also tried to move there but another horrific accident happened that entirely took away my childhood fascination of flying, my first love. It almost led me into depression. It was 9/11. I wouldn’t have pulled that out had I not saw the film — “ A Beautiful Mind.”
During US visits, I started working on MS Exchange servers and Websites though mostly Static but few applications like form submissions in databases and report generations. But I stopped working on hardware and networking stuff. Many thanks to all the Hardware/Networking Engineers, designers and developers who helped me all through this. With all the efforts that I had put and the experiences life gave me, I became a renowned IT consultant majorly helping small businesses and NGOs with their Websites, Web Applications and IT infrastructure needs. As demand for digital marketing increased, I started offering that service too.
I must say, even with all the ups and downs, life has been so kind to me. I have a loving family with two beautiful daughters. There are many kind-hearted amazing people around me to encourage and support. Thanks to God, I found supportive people and friends in New York, Las Vegas, Switzerland, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart and London during my struggle and journey.
Wife
The journey wouldn’t have been easy had I not have this beautiful woman by my side all through it. She is the pillar that holds my life together and without her support, I wouldn’t have been where I am today. She made my every ups and downs her own and kept me motivated. She brought all the love and confidence in my life and I would always be indebted to her for everything she did and been doing. It is because of her that I am into computers, at least she says so :). Her contagious smile is a lifeline to me.
Daughters
They say, Behind every successful man, there’s a woman, I have three – my wife and two beautiful daughters Sanya and Khushi. They are very special and inspirations to me at the same time. I wish I was smarter as them when I was their age. With everything that they have been doing, I must admit I’m a proud father. Love you both Beta!
I can forget all my downs when I see her. She is my special daughter in Germany and this page and my life wouldn’t complete without mentioning her. She is precious.
Ideas I am proud of:
Shoonya: I entered into the digital world at the time when even a tech giant like Google was finding its way. Conceived the idea of ‘Shoonya’ – the concept of an internet page nearly at the same time the Google engineers were also putting their blood and sweat. This fact itself makes me a proud techie.
Tvos.in: Another concept I am equally proud of is ‘Tvos.in’. I coined and booked years before Apple did.
InternetSpeedTest: This wasn’t as common then as it is today. I built this
InternetSpeedTest – a few bucks site which was visited by lakhs of people across India and abroad.
Projects I am proud to be part of:
- AIIMAS
- All NGOs
- Im4change
- Csds
- Lokpal
- Lokniti
- CommonCause
- Cicero
- Indirapuram
I have always been blessed with remarkable people and I couldn’t be more thankful for all of this. There are many who should be named here, especially ones who worked with me and recommended my work and helped me grow.
Unlike others in the industry, I have never promoted my business by spamming emails or messages. I don’t even carry a business card from the last 10-12 years. I never felt the need actually and always believed in doing the good work. I personally feel the quality of work does all the talking in the market than any promotion. Word of mouth is something I have always relied on and it worked in my favour. So, Many thanks to all who have given me business and more to those who have silently recommended me. I will be very happy if I can help people in any way to grow their businesses or projects,