def begin_state(self, batch_size=0, func=ndarray.zeros, **kwargs):
        """Initial state for this cell.

        Parameters
        ----------
        batch_size: int
            Only required for `NDArray` API. Size of the batch ('N' in layout).
            Dimension of the input.
        func : callable, default `ndarray.zeros`
            Function for creating initial state.

            For Symbol API, func can be `symbol.zeros`, `symbol.uniform`,
            `symbol.var` etc. Use `symbol.var` if you want to directly
            feed input as states.

            For NDArray API, func can be `ndarray.zeros`, `ndarray.ones`, etc.

        **kwargs :
            Additional keyword arguments passed to func. For example
            `mean`, `std`, `dtype`, etc.

        Returns
        -------
        states : nested list of Symbol
            Starting states for the first RNN step.
        """
        states = []
        for i, info in enumerate(self.state_info(batch_size)):
            if info is not None:
                info.update(kwargs)
            else:
                info = kwargs
            states.append(func(name='%sh0_%d'%(self.prefix, i), **info))
        return states