The momentous history of the valley is as remarkable as its potent present.
BLOG: Valley View
By Zenobia Khaleel
SAN FRANCISCO: Silicon Valley, the land that launched a thousand startups. Brilliant ambitious minds from all over the world stream into this meritocracy, aspiring to be the next Jobs or Gates. The numerous technological inventions that germinated here has revolutionized our lifestyle and made an impact in every sphere of science and industry.
But visitors who come to the valley are often confounded. The scenic Santa Cruz mountains, the wide expanses of the orchards and vineyards and the suburban neighborhoods are a far cry from the futuristic technological hub they had imagined. The pastoral scenery may overshadow the high-tech research and development centers, but the power that drives the Silicon Valley can only be perceived cerebrally.
The momentous history of the valley is as remarkable as its potent present. The early Spanish settlers and the prospectors of the gold rush era set its historic timeline rolling. During the second World War, military financed research centers in Stanford and NAS, Sunnyvale, made groundbreaking strides in transcontinental telephone communications, and early digital electronics.
Half a century earlier, in an endeavor to promote the regional industry, and to prevent young entrepreneurs from migrating to a more lucrative east coast, Stanford University leased its land to upcoming high tech firms. Thus, the Stanford industrial park was established; a milestone which saw the birth of Hewlett Packard, Kodak, General Electric.
Fairchild Electronics, creators of the first commercially viable integrated circuits, set the trend for the Venture- backed Startup business model. The work culture spawned a chain reaction of startups that has exponentially grown into today’s billion dollar corporations, the likes of Intel and Google.
Ideas that tinkered in the garages of William Hewlett, Dave Packard, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs, flourished into the cutting edge technological gadgetry that propels the modern world. A renaissance spirit of discovery and innovation is the galvanizing force of the Silicon Valley. This relentless quest for perfection resulted in the scientific evolution of computers, from the mainframe computers to mini computers, mini computers to personal computers to laptops and smartphones. Now the evolution continues to computerized eyewear and hopefully to more fashion accessories.
The influx of Indians to the Silicon Valley is a recent episode in its timeline, but the community has made an indelible mark already. Indian immigrants are the leading company founding group, having created 15% of Silicon Valley’s startups and comprise seven percent of the workforce. Indian students account to 18% of the student body of Stanford, UC Berkeley and other colleges in the region.
The Indian presence is felt outside of the workforce too. The repertoire of restaurants in Sunnyvale now includes Punjabi Dhaba and Saravana Bhava. Multiplexes play a selection of Hindi, Tamil an Telugu blockbusters for the Indian patrons. The freezer aisles at Safeway and Costco invariably contain packaged samosas and tandoori chicken.
Having spent considerable time here, I‘ve gone through the rites of passage that most Indian women go through, when they get married and move to the United States. Mentally converted the prices of my shopping merchandise into Indian Rupees, tried the Rachel hairdo, mastered parallel parking (not too successfully), dodged the Amway, hosted potlucks and raised a family, but still haven’t figured out the intricacies of the Universal remote.
Here in Silicon Valley — the holy grail of technology — the jargon in the conversation can be quite baffling for a student of English literature. This blogging venture is my latest attempt in my ongoing quest to learn the language of the natives.
(Zenobia Khaleel has donned a lot of hats; writer, photographer, travel enthusiast, troop leader, amateur actor, event coordinator, community volunteer, but predominantly go by the title Mom.)