In Italian, capisce is to understand. That's how Kapisce started, as a way to understand educational material, specifically history. I wrote the software using content created by my friend Martin. The goal of the software was to have an administrative backend for managing historical content. There was also another frontend for distributing the questions, starting with constructive response questions (CRQs). It was meant to help teachers, but we hit several snags along the way.

As it also tends to happen to software projects and startups, there wasn't enough momentum behind the original Kapisce. It was left by the wayside. The domain name was useful, so I used it for a personal blog to share my own understandings about the world. The new Kapisce was born.

When I was a child, I Thought like a Child

Maybe birth is the best place to begin. I was born in western India in the state of Gujarat. India is a place rich with culture, language, and religion. I have several early memories of my childhood there before moving to the US; I remember playing tag and cricket with the neighboring kids in the apartment complex every day after doing my homework; I remember visiting my grandfather's farm that was converted to an ashram, a place of worship; I remember seeing peacocks, monkeys, and other animals there. Despite seeming far off in time, I had a community there that I belonged to. I didn't feel like an outsider until I moved to the States.

Both of my parents worked, and have been working since as long as I can remember. I likely inherited this from them. Working feels like therapy to me. I like being in the zone. Whether it's writing, reading, programming, or playing a game, that feeling of being completely immersed in something feels refreshing to me. It wasn't always this way. Growing up, even though I was bright, I didn't like to do homework. It felt boring. I would still do well enough in class, but there was a lack of motivation for some reason or another. There are kids who do well in school but not so well at real life. Maybe it was supposed to be the opposite for me. I didn't do as well in school as I could have. It was like life was waiting for me to graduate. And graduate I did.