Who Knew Glass and Cold were Such Revolutionary Ideas? The CC Knows!!

Rao and his wife Sheila hosted the CC quarterly meeting at their house. A CC founder, Atul Vir (left) stood by as Surinder Talwar (right) regaled the couple with two lines of a popular Hindi song.

Rao and his wife Sheila hosted the CC quarterly meeting at their house. A CC founder, Atul Vir (left) stood by as Surinder Talwar (right) regaled the couple with two lines of a popular Hindi song.

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: If he had another hour, he would have kept on going as Ashok Rao was in his element – literally, since this was his home and entertainment room – and figuratively as he was doing something that he loved: sharing the secrets he had uncovered in the dusty rumblings of old and forgotten texts, of the universe we inhabit. His upstairs study, visible through the cutaway in the ceiling, was lined with books in shelves and the internet was not far away.

But inquisitiveness is one trait of this serial entrepreneur, and sharing is the other, both of which he put to good use to become the global president of The Indus Entrepreneurs, a non-profit formed in 1992 in Silicon Valley by a group of successful entrepreneurs, corporate executives, and senior professionals with roots in the Indus region. He has been associated with the GOOSE (Grand Order of Successful entrepreneurs) Society of Texas and the Rice Business Plan through which he has become an investor in a medical device venture. He is a co-owner of Songkran Thai Kitchen and has made three indie movies.

Ashok Rao sharing the secrets of Glass and Cold at the Connoisseurs Club meeting last Friday, June 2.

Ashok Rao sharing the secrets of Glass and Cold at the Connoisseurs Club meeting last Friday, June 2.

This evening was special for him and the rest of the Connoisseurs Club members who arrived for their second quarter get together. As CC co-founder Atul Vir, a serial entrepreneur himself, explained later in the night after dinner, the group was celebrating its fifth year, having started out as a Whisky Lovers Club where people brought along their own bottles of unusual Scotch to share with their friends. “That idea expanded very soon to include sharing stories of travels, unusual experiences, tastings of cigars and other things over a potluck of dishes,” Vir explained, “usually at the homes of club members.”

Rao landed right into that spirit of sharing as he told everyone of the revolutionary technology of creating glass, rising from “the lowly and most commonly available product on the planet – sand – and changing the way we saw ourselves in refection, creating our identity and of course,” he ended with a flair of his hand, “how we communicate now on glass fiber.” He explained the “hummingbird effect” – fluttering in space and coalescing many new ideas – that allowed glass to become so pervasive.

Though overwhelmed by all the information, the group stayed together to listen to another fascinating discourse by Rao on the concept of “Cold’ and how the desire to have cool dwellings and drinks in the tropics led to a burgeoning trade in ice blocks and later led to the discovery of refrigeration by Willis Carrier in 1902. As he finished, Rao quipped, “you wanna stick around? I have five more technologies to present!”

As people were milling around their exotic Scotch drinks and diving into the potluck dinner, Rao responded to a question on how much research he had done for the presentation. “It’s something I have been working on for the past 60 years,” he quipped, of his quest and thirst for knowledge.