Apu’s World

Where every family wants a hundred sons, but not even one daughter, where infant girls are killed using many ingenious methods, or even simpler, not allowed to be born, in such a land, what is the future of womankind?

Manjula Padmanabhan’s recently published novel, Escape is the dystopian vision of such a society where the no-girls policy has been taken to its  extreme; for now, it is not only individual families that conspire to kill women, it is the government itself that has officially outlawed and exterminated women…

The rest of it, over at Ultraviolet - my review of Manjula Padmanabhan’s recently released novel, Escape. 

apu The Literary life, Women & Feminism

I read a startling bit of news today. The Delhi High Court is to decide whether rape charges against an alleged rapist can be dropped if the victim decides to marry the rapist! This is so incredibly saddening - that in many parts of our country, women are still considered “damaged goods” if they are raped. Whatever a few empowered urban women might feel, the truth is that most women in our country still don’t have much of a future if they don’t get married. The husband might be an alcholic wife-beater, but she still has some security as a married woman - and the marriage prospects of a woman who has been raped, take a beating. Not to mention the shame she is made to feel, for having been raped.

Not surprising then, that a victim who has actually changed her religion to be able to marry her rapist, says, ”The rape case has made my life hell and jeopardised my future prospects of leading a happy married life. I want to marry Ali, as our marriage would end my ordeal.” Being left unmarried and having to live with the shame of having been ’spoiled’ is a worse fate to her, than having to marry a man who violated her body and her dignity. 

I don’t know if the court can actually prohibit a marriage between two ‘consenting’ individuals, even if the consent has literally been forced upon the victim. If they can prohibit the marriage, it would be good from a larger perspective - rapists can’t just commit a crime and patch it up by offering marriage; but what about her own case? Unless society’s attitudes change, she will have to live with the ’shame’ of something that is in no way her fault. 

If they get married and the court drops charges, it does send a signal that rape is ok provided you offer ‘honour’ to the victim. On the other hand, If they get married, and the court refuses to drop the charges, she would face trouble having to prosecute her now ‘husband’.

The whole thing makes me sick, and yet, while that woman’s decision seems startling, is it not the result of a society that refuses to acknowledge the worth of its girls as independent from the state of their virginity? 

apu Women & Feminism

It is almost two years now since I quit a steady job in Consulting to start-up my own small business as a Communication consultant and writer. Before I quit my job, I had some vague ideas as to what the challenges in running your own business would be. I assumed that not having a monthly pay cheque and managing household expenses would be a significant challenge. I wondered whether working by myself would get lonely; no coffee-breaks to share office gossip, no going out in the evening with colleagues. 

While on some of these my expectations were accurate (yes, it is difficult not being able to anticipate exactly what the 1st of each month will bring you), some were not (no, I don’t mind working by myself, so long as I meet clients from time to time). I thought it would be worthwhile putting down some of my learnings from these 2 years; it could help other people in the same boat or those looking at taking the plunge into entrepreneurship. 

On turning Entrepreneur 

Each individual’s temperament and ability to take risk varies. If you are a person who doesn’t have a very large appetite for risk, it may make sense turning entrepreneur in stages. Yes, we’ve all heard that you must ‘jump in’, ‘take the plunge’ etc, but I think this really depends on what you can handle and your financial circumstances. There is no point in quitting your job and going solo if the stress is going to give you a heart attack. Not everyone is meant to run their own business. 

When you are sure that you have a great idea in mind, see if it is possible to work on it for some time while you keep your current job. In my case, when I quit my full-time job, I continued consulting for 20 hours every week for a start-up research firm, which allowed me to simultaneously pursue opportunities in communication consulting. Finally, in September last year, I felt confident enough to focus on what I really want to do, which is, work in the communication, content and writing area. 

Keep a Plan B open. What happens if you fail? Do you have ex-colleagues, bosses, acquaintances - who will be happy to refer you for a job? Or, is there an alternative business plan? How long will your finances last while you experiment? It helps if one spouse or partner has a steady job while the other experiments. For single people, this means added risk since they have only themselves to fall back on. While trying your best to succeed, I feel that it is important to be unemotional - failure is a possibility and one has to acknowledge that and be prepared. 

On Project Handling 

When starting fresh, it is sometimes tempting to accept any project that comes your way, especially when finances are running low. I learnt the hard way that some projects are not worth taking on, and in fact, must be turned down. These include unscrupulous clients who will coolly skip payments, clients who want small company rates but expect you to work on ‘only’ their project and projects where the client wants an unspecified ‘high quality’ but is unwilling to spend any time on defining that. It is of course tough identifying such clients before taking on work, but with time, one starts getting smarter!

These are of course issues for project managers everywhere, but for a small company, it is a nightmare. The Rs. 10,000 that a corporation will write off easily as bad debt can pay a good chunk of my monthly household expenses. More importantly, I realised soon enough that I didn’t have the bandwidth for such projects - the time spent on them was making me resentful and unproductive. 

In India at least, projects will always need “just a little bit extra” - clients will invariably remember just that small thing which they forgot to mention when you signed a contract. When I calculate how much time a project will need, I make sure to include a small buffer for such over-runs. At the same time, if the small things get larger and larger, one has to find a way to say no, or bill extra. 

On the Long-term Value of Clients

As for any business, client satisfaction is critical for small businesses. When I turned solo, my first project came through someone I know. After this, most clients have come to me through referrals, and some clients have gone on to become regulars, and eventually, friends. I believe that the long-term value of such clients is, in Mastercard advertising language, priceless.

It isn’t just that they give me regular work and therefore mitigate some of the uncertainty of operating on my own. Nor is it limited to the referrals they can offer. It is more than that. With clients who return to you, you can do some of your most innovative work - you get to know their needs better, you understand the risks they are willing to take and in the process, keep improving your own skills. Plus of course, it is deeply satisfying. 

After I started writing this, I realised that there was more I wanted to say and that this was becoming a long and unwieldy post. For instance, I want to talk about a big bugbear for me - Pricing, and I also want to take about issues of self-worth and doubt. What I’m go to do therefore is label this Part 1 and continue with a (hopefully smaller!) second post, where I’ll be taking about some of those issues. 

Update: Part 2 of Lessons from Being My Own Boss is now up here. 

apu Entrepreneurship