They Came, Got Mentored.. Date:   Wednesday , July 02, 2008 For KV Rao and Lakshman Narayan, the mentorship program conducted by Siliconindia was a right time coincidence. These Indian Air Force officers, who retired from 23 years of service just about a month back, were looking to restart their careers, but on a different track, preferably in the IT industry. And they were happy as they found mentors like Mayank Bhargava from Infinity Research and Prem Piyush from Logic Microsystems to help them in their future career plans at the face-to-face mentoring program held at NIMHANS Convention Center on June 28, Saturday. It was the first of its kind in the history of Silicon Valley of India, Bangalore. Apart from them, nearly 200 Siliconindia network members came in droves to NIMHANS to hear from a dozen of highly experienced IT bigwigs from across the sectors. In an arranged hall, mentors and apprentices were seen talking informally, finding it a right platform to give and take. While some apprentices came down to get tips on entrepreneurship, some others wanted to know about several subjects ranging from hardcore technology tools and career related subjects to even tips on how to keep themselves healthy. Giving tips on career related topics, mentor Yamappa Koppad, Information Assistant, Indian Institute of Science, said that he wanted to help young apprentices as he believed that he has to play a role in building a brighter tomorrow. Mahesh Premachandra from Outsource Partners, one of the apprentices who came down with high aspirations to become entrepreneurs, was seen walking up to all the possible mentors at the event who were specialized in entrepreneurship. Sandeep Lodha, VP, Netweb Technologies and Kishor Jagirdar, Managing Director, Infopace Management, helped him with some valuable tips. Lodha said that sharing the experience of a success is not everything. “A failure, instead, can give you more insight and knowledge than a success can. And this event, of course, is a confluence of sharing of both the success and the failure stories,” He explained. Meanwhile, Jagirdar, who had witnessed many SMEs in the bay areas of Bangalore vanishing within a short period due to various reasons, wanted to lend a helping hand to these buddies ‘who do not want to get lost in a jungle’. For A Sreehari, Senior Team Lead, MacMillan Publishing Solutions, who came looking for some insights for design architect, the right mentor was Prem Piyush, Team Lead, Logic Microsystems. Piyush, with entrepreneurial experience and high-tech knowledge offered him some teachings on technologies like Web 2.0, Java, HTML, and others. Piyush thinks that this platform will enable people like him to help aspirants identify their strengths and bring them on to the right track. RK Chandrashekar, President, GC Associates, Balasubba Raman Guruswamy, Principal Business Analyst, Merit Systems, Prem Piyush, Team Tead, Logic Microsystems, Rakesh Daddich, Director, Giantleep, Raghu Belur, Director of Engineering, Lifesize Communication, and Basab Nandi from Mindtree were some of the other mentors who made it into the event. This platform did not end as a one-day discussion; instead, this will go on as a continuous process on siliconindia.com. And those who are keen on reaping the fruits of this initiative can freely log on and start benefiting from it.