Showing posts with label nihal mehta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nihal mehta. Show all posts

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Reshma Saujani's Book: Pay Up (Or Go Home)

Motherhood in America is broken, and we need a plan to fix it,” Saujani said in a statement Wednesday. “I wrote ‘Pay Up’ because mothers are tired of being America’s social safety net and working for free. And we know that equity in the workplace will only be accomplished when there is equity at home. I want women to see themselves and their worth in this book and it provides a guidepost on what we can do to bring about change on a structural, cultural and personal level.”

Deep in the archives of this blog are several months of blog posts from when I volunteered for Reshma Saujani's campaign for Congress on the Upper East Side, and Astoria. She has impressive political instincts, not to say amazing intellect. To me it felt like a product launch before the market was ready. Gender is not a statement on Reshma Saujani, it is a statement on the rest of us, particularly men. I am very selective about who I volunteer for. For example, right now my focus is on this dude in Nepal who has never held any office but who I think is going to pull a Macron in Nepal. Dr. CK Raut. When America is trying its best to become South Africa, I think Nepal where I grew up and which has been seeing revolutionary fervor since 2006 just might give the world its most cutting edge democracy.



At the election returns party, when it became obvious she had lost, Reshma Saujani's then fiance Nihal approached me. To console him I said, Bill Clinton lost his first election for Congress, so did Barack Obama. To console me he told me how many times Lincoln had lost!

Might I suggest, a Marshall Plan for women can only be global. There is no other way for it to succeed.

Earlier this year, Saujani placed an advertisement in The New York Times, with co-signers including the actors Julianne Moore and Charlize Theron, urging President Joe Biden to pass a “Marshall Plan for Moms” that called for mothers to receive $2,400 monthly checks for unpaid labor at home. For her book, Saujani interviewed hundreds of women, and also shares her story of “waking up to the notion that overwork is a path to burnout, unhappiness, and rage,” according to One Signal.

Go big or go home!

Monday, May 31, 2010

A 14-7 Office For Reshma 2010

I want a Reshma 2010 office that is open every day of the week from 8 AM to 10 PM all the way to September 14. Your average staffer still works about 50 hours a week, but shutting the operations down during weekends is a very, very bad idea. I volunteer to work weekends, and I volunteer to work the late hours. I get to take my day off on Monday or Tuesday. And I like sleeping in late anyways.

The hours go up as we get closer to September 14. Victors put in hours.

An open office is one that has at least one person in the office. We want people out in the field as much as in the office. But we want one person who will answer the phone. "Hi, this is Jon with Reshma 2010." "Hi, this is Kevin with Reshma 2010." We answer the phone 14-7 unfailingly. And we talk to the caller as long as they will talk to us. And we answer all emails. All emails. What is that one email address?

People still will get their days off, but not all of them will be off on Sundays. A lot of community action happens during weekends. A lot of events are evening events. Everybody on the team has to have a phone that is always on. When you are not in the physical office, you are in the mobile office. But if we plan well, the last minute fire fighting phone calls will be kept to the minimum. When you are with people, be with the people, get off the phone, concentrate on the people. Shower attention on the volunteers, shower attention on the media people, shower attention on the community leaders and activists. Get on a first name basis with all of them. You can't do that if you are on the phone with the campaign office instead.

I can do weekends, and I can do the late shift, no problem. I could take Wednesdays off. I hear the Bronx Zoo is free entry on Wednesdays.

Read, read, read. Read the New York Times. Read it every day. Read it first thing in the morning. It is a good newspaper. Got to talk up the politics of the day. What is the latest? What is happening in DC? What is happening in Albany? What's up in City Hall? What is Bloomberg up to today? Read up. Read it on online. Buy it in print. Share it. Pass it around. Ask to read the business section when someone else is reading the front page. I want to see stains on that paper, your hand stains.

On your day off go read a book.

Call, call, call. Spend at least one hour every working day calling up voters. I don't know yet what the setup is like in the office, but we need a few dedicated landlines for that express purpose. One hour is minimum. Do it at random hours of the day. Do it because you need a break from staring at that computer screen.

Meet, meet, meet. Meeting ordinary people is the best part of working on a political campaign. You should have fun doing it. You should look forward to it. You should feel like, I am having so much fun meeting people, why is Reshma even paying me to do this? Paying me to meet people is a scam. I would do it for free. This is so much fun. If you are not enjoying meeting people, you are in the wrong line of business. Go become a carpenter or something. Or a rocket scientist.

Drink, drink, drink. Do not get dehydrated. Always carry with you a bottle of water wherever you go. We just need the plastic bottles. Tap water works just fine. Bottled water is tap water with a brand name. That is all. Bring the bottles back to the office and fill them up. Never run out of water. The best things in life are free. Water is one of them. Water is officially the best drink anyone can get hold of. Better even than milk.

I demand we keep a mixer/grinder in the office, and always a ready stock of yogurt, mango pulp, icecream, and ice. I will make mango lussee for everyone, as often as I have to. But I'd prefer to teach it to you. You add two raw eggs and some milk into that mix, and it is a meal. I have tried that many times. I want an endless supply of lassee for me, lassee that I make myself. Yogurt, mango pulp, milk, eggs, icecream, ice. Kevin, if you want me to call you boss, do this. Keep the supplies stocked up. This is what I mean by keep the trains running.

Mock debates every week. Megan stands in as Maloney. Kevin moderates. I do a brutal analysis after it is over. All staffers and interns are encouraged to come watch, to offer one liners, funny and otherwise. We are opening up a bank for one liners. Donate one liners. We are not asking for blood. It is just one liners. Any staffer/intern/volunteer can apply to stand in as Maloney. If you think you are a great debater, contact me.

Work the subway stops. Everyone on the team - staffers, interns, top volunteers - must work a subway stop in the district for at least an hour during rush hour each week. We will meet many non voters in the process, but that is okay. Remember that part about meeting people? All we are trying to do is get people to visit our website. And they don't have to be in the district to donate. If they are not in the district, maybe they know someone who is. If they are not a voter, they might know someone who is. Hi, Reshma is running for Congress, and she would like you to visit her website. And you hand out the flyer.

I am assuming all staffers have the monthly metro card. I will get one too. If anyone wants to get on the Metro PCS family plan with me, holler! Unlimited talk, text, web sounds like sliced bread. I have never tried it. I am about to. On the other hand, getting the new 4G Android phone from Sprint might allow me to video blog for the campaign every day, several times a day. Video blog, tweet. Feedback welcome. I am going to ask Nihal about this tomorrow.

Buzzd: Paramendra
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Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Reshma Saujani "Gets" Tech

Monday evening I went to this Reshma Saujani (@reshma2010) event near Union Square: What Are You Doing Monday? Come Meet Al Wenger.

Reshma Saujani: Innovation, Ethnic Pride, Thought Leadership

It was a great event. I got to meet a whole bunch of people. I got to meet Reshma's boyfriend Nihal. (@nihalmehta). At my first Reshma Saujani event in early April, towards the end, someone told me "Reshma's boyfriend is a DJ," and I was like, wow, that is like Madonna, Madonna's boyfriend is also a DJ. (Madonna Is Dating Jesus, No Kidding) Ends up Reshma Saujani's boyfriend is not a DJ, but a tech entrepreneur. He does do the DJ thing though. I asked, and he confirmed. (@buzzd)

Fred Wilson: A DJ
Fred Wilson: DJ

Nihal is a cool guy. He asked me if I was going to the after party after the event was over. Of course I was going to the after party. I was one of the last to leave, and it was not even that late. There on the rooftop I got into an intense conversation about Twitter with @a_buchanan. She said the first time she met Reshma she was like, "You are @a_buchanan!" The first time she met Cory Booker, that New Jersey Mayor, he was like "You are @a_buchanan!"

I got to meet Al Wenger in person for the first time. (@albertwenger) The guy was on his BlackBerry, typing away when I first saw him.

"For the longest time I did not realize Union Square Ventures was named after Union Square," I said to him. "I kept thinking so square is square like in rectangle square, but what is union?"

"People think we are west coast," he deadpanned.

Nate was on the panel. (@innonate) Running the NY Tech MeetUp has turned him into a public figure in the tech circles of the city, and that was obvious at this event. He sure has a personality that could handle all the fame that could come his way. He is comfortable, he is affable, he is sharp, he has presence.

I asked my question to him after the panelists had had their run.

"I am not going to hide the fact that I take obvious ethnic pride in this campaign," I began. The crowd laughed to that line. "But the first time I heard the Reshma Saujani name was at Nate's blog, and that is a tech blog. I looked at the blog post, and I remember thinking, this is obviously an Indian name, and an Indian face, but she is talking technology, she must be running in California somewhere. My question is, how do you explain this tremendous poverty among New York politicians when it comes to all things tech? Especially when it is no longer this fancy, elitist topic, it has by now become a do or die topic. The jobs that are gone are gone, they are not coming back. The next rush of jobs this city needs will be created by this innovation community. Our politicians can't afford to stay away from the tech community, and refuse to pick up the vocabulary. Not any more. How do you explain this tremendous poverty among New York politicians?"

Nate said it takes effort, and so far the politicians have not put in that effort.

I got to meet the Dropio cofounder Darshan. (@darshan)

Dropio's Indian Cofounder Darshan

Meghan Asha ran the show.

Wall Street Journal: Upstarts Aim to Unseat Upper East Side Fixture