More Than Silicon - Feb 2024

A newsletter from Vinita Gupta about the drive, empathy, passion, and humanity I’ve found in Silicon Valley.

I am very excited to share my newsletter From the Valley: Curiosities, lessons, and truths from my time as an Indian woman in Silicon Valley.

Join me each month as I explore the myths, curiosities, and learnings I have seen during my time as an entrepreneur. Being the first Indian-American woman to take her company public, I have seen the challenges of the Valley and humanity. This newsletter is my way of sharing those stories with you.

Thank you for joining me.

Vinita

FROM VINITA

Understanding America and India, 50 Years Apart: Culture Runs Deep…

Living in the United States for the past 50 years has given me a unique perspective on the cultures of the US and of my native India.

The culture in the US is shaped by Christianity, with 65% of its Christian population.? In contrast, 80% of India’s population identifies as Hindu.

Cultures are complicated.

India’s Kashmir issue is an ongoing debate.? At the time of Independence, 75 years ago, India and Pakistan got divided along the lines of Muslim- Hindu population concentration. ? Consideration was also given to the geographical proximity of Muslims to Pakistan, and how the kings of the princely states voted for or against Pakistan. Kingdoms were abolished post-independence, by the stroke of a pen.? In Kashmir, there was a Hindu king ruling a Muslim-majority population.? To appease his people, he voted to stay with India but only as an autonomous state, with its own laws.? Since then, Pakistan has encouraged Kashmiri Muslims to revolt against India and join Pakistan.? Thousands of people are killed every year. India’s economic progress 7.5% annual GDP growth in the past 10 years, did not benefit Kashmiries, because of their closed system.? I saw terrible poverty and poor infrastructure when I visited, Kashmir in 2018.? In 2019 Prime Minister Modi of India rescinded Article 370 which had granted Kashmir its autonomy.

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STAYING CURIOUS

Questions I have been asking myself, curiosities I want to explore, and prompts to get you thinking:

1. How has Indian culture affected American traditions as more Indian people immigrate to the United States?
2. What do we gain and what do we lose when we hold so tightly to tradition?
3. What have I found to be more important here in the US – what I know? Or, who I am?

WHAT I AM LEARNING

Learnings don’t build like layers of cake.? We frequently forget what we learned before –? as individuals, nation or civilization.?

Selfishness is a not something we can wash off from our personality.? In moderation it is? a strength.?

The biggest favor we can do to ourselves is get over our regrets as fast as possible.

What I’ve been reading:

• India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution? from Independence to Global Information Age; By Gurcharan Das - It is an educated account of India visa viz America and the West

What I’ve been listening to:

• The complete History of Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Acquired
• They won’t teach you this in any school

FINDING TRUTHS IN THE MYTHS

People have a very specific view of what it means to be a person who works in Silicon Valley.

“Tech bros”, “hustle-culture”, “cut-throat”, and “only care about money”.

But in my experience, Silicon Valley is so much more than that. Here is one myth I would like to give you another view on:

Myth: Silicon Valley has so many Indian-American entrepreneurs because Indian people are just naturally good at tech.

The truth in the myth: People who have immigrated from India or who were born in the US to Indian parents have long been stereotyped as naturally being good at certain fields, like medicine, tech or STEM in general. Are people of Indian descent simply born with tech skills? Obviously not.?

However, there is an emphasis many Indian and Indian-American children feel to study and enter certain career fields, not to mention the backlash from the community and family if a different path is chosen. Tradition and family honor are very important in Indian culture. So for a young person to choose something different than what is expected of them often does not feel like a choice they can make.?

In addition, education in many parts of India also emphasizes the STEM areas. So, if you are graduating with skills in those fields, why would you not pursue that career path further??

And we cannot forget that the population of India itself is over 1.4 billion. There are over 4.4 million people of Indian descent who live in the United States. That is a lot of people with so much diversity of experience, religions, education, interests, and family backgrounds. Indian culture is not a monolith.

MORE FROM VINITA

• Let’s connect! Find me on LinkedIn
• Read my January article: Caution: AI Luminaries Singing From the Same Music Sheet
• Join the conversation