All posts filed under: Projects

The X-Files, Part 1: A list of entrepreneurial ventures run by women

The last few months have been an amazing journey for me. Not only did I take the next steps with my own ceramics venture, MyArtitude, I got introduced to The Friday Convent (TFC), through which I got to know several women who are striking out on their own. The start-ups and ventures range from kids services and education; to event planning and PR; home decor and jewellery to content and photography – the list is endless. Though most of these women are based in Bangalore, most of the services cover the rest of India and even overseas locations. Anything you want – and you can find the solutions or the service. All run by women who have decided to quit their corporate jobs and work on their own terms. An extremely encouraging sign in these times when flexibility has become so very important, rather than being tied to desk jobs. There’s nothing wrong with the latter, of course. In fact, there are definite advantages of the corporate life and climbing up the ladder – a …

Mountains and river crossings

Mountains and water crossings: ooh, aah, shiver!

We surveyed the scene before us. But none of us wanted to take the plunge. The cold mountain water gushed out from the left embankment of the road, formed a big pool of water and then gushed into the valley below. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have bothered at all and walked through. But this was different. This was ice cold water that none of us wanted to wade through. After our first day in the mountains, all of us got wise and bought ourselves gumboots. Perhaps the best accessory purchase decision we made before the trip. We were somewhere on the way to Leh, having started from Manali. And to add to our woes, we were on two non-mechanized human powered wheels. Also called bicycles. If cycling wasn’t foolhardy enough, we were also trying it with gumboots. Wasn’t exactly a very pleasant activity. There were times when I badly wanted to throw them out, but the thought of these icy water crossings would keep us going. We were a set of 10 brave souls who decided …