Working with Dad..

I had mentioned in my earlier post that i was super anxious about joining dad's office, only because i was afraid of being judged and tagged as the 'boss's daughter'. Well, for one I was welcomed warmly and started learning from Day 1 itself. The gentleman i will work with is very patient and eager to explain. He has brilliant ideas and i just hope i will be able to do justice to his ideas and in the process be able to create some of my own. My dad's business is a very simple one of manufacturing and trading surface protection adhesive tapes. We make just one kind of tape and cater mainly to the steel industry. I was so surprised to learn that our product is used for a temporary purpose, that of protecting the surface until the finished product is used and then is simply peeled off. Even then there is a roaring market for it. We'r just a tiny and minute segment of the market. But inside this market there is a variety of products that can be dealt in.
Well, as and when i learn more about the business, il be able to write a seperate post describing it all. At the moment i dont have much to do, and blogging is my new hobby as well as a way to use time well. So im writing about whats in my head right now.
Its good to have a routine and to dress up everyday, when its your own office u have to go to. I dread the day already when i will have to work in another company. Although, before this until a few month ago i was dead against joining dad. I found what he is doing dull and boring. But on the contrary, i find what i was doing dull and boring, studying for CA over and over again. Now its awesome to learn something new and be able to revel in the fact that im actually in the process of becoming a businesswoman. Its a very noble feeling, if i may put it so.
My dad started this business on his own with a lot of guidance from his father and a lot of hitches and hiccups on the way. He worked with some people who were not good for him or the business, and now he stands alone on the top. However small our concern maybe, it has been built with a lot of hardwork and faith in God. And it is dad's as well as my own intention that no outsider should take over it. I will on an emotional as well as a realistic note sit in his chair one day.
Well, i did go off on another tangent altogether. But this is the start of the second week at work, and i feel good. :)

Bridging the Gap

Its December 2011. Its almost close to impossible to recollect and jot down everything that has gone by, since the last post. But i somehow find that to be an essential thing to do. I started this blog just to keep my writing abilities alive, and also to scribble the going-ons in my life. Lets see if i can atleast touch upon the milestones.
November 2009 - first CA Final Exam attempt.
January 2010 - My Parents' 25th aniversary
August 2010 - Ganesh's engagement.
February 2010 - Ganesh's wedding
November 2011 - 5th attempt at CA Final Exam :D
December 2011 - Joined dad's business
Im to have missed many more significant events, but I guess I am close enough now to start writing about current thoughts and happenings.
I joined dad's office on December 1st. I was so apprehensive for days before that. The people working in his office have seen me grown up, and now suddenly i'd turn up and sit there and try to work with them. i was so scared of being judged. I was so phsyched. Worst of all i dint know what to start with when i went there. But i jotted down a few pointers with mom's help and felt better. I actually had a very fulfilling day that day.
Ganesh, soumiya, sharanya and i went on a short trip to a resort in Alibaug. It was a very relaxing trip. I'd always imagined a resort to consist of Big comfy beds, massages, yummy food, a TV and good weather. This trip had everything i'd imagined, except that the weather was on the uncomfortably warmer side, but we had an AC to compensate for that.
Back from the trip, we celebrated karthigai, and looking forward to a new week.

Project TAG ALONG

Project TAG ALONG was a simple and novel way of celebrating the success of the movie Slumdog Millionaire. I became a part of it quite unexpectedly actually. I came across a write-up in the newspaper about this guy, Harish,who wanted to celebrate the success of the movie in a different way. He wanted to take children who live in slums,i.e, under-priviledged kids, to watch the movie. Basically, it was to make the society aware that this strata of the society need not be ignored or shunned. So, i googled this 'Project Tag Along' and reached his blog where he had posted details about it. The deal was simple. Just take along a kid who has never had a whiff of a mall or a multiplex, and watch the movie together. All those interested were to book tickets for the Hindi version for themselves and their ward in a theater in Andheri, which was the pre-decided venue for all. So basically, just have fun! I dont know what made me do it, but i was soon texting everyone i knew, sending invites on FB and making calls to rope in people. I had two days to make plans and set things up. By friday evening 7 children were invited, tickets were booked and we were set. So today afternoon a jing-bang lot of 11 people made their way in the brutal heat and the excrutiatingly slow-moving Andheri traffic to watch the much acclaimed film. Well, plainly speaking I dint like the movie, and was quite appalled that we had brought these already very dazed and extrememly shy children, to watch this flick. But surprisingly, at the end of the show, all of them were quite happy if not thrilled with the experience. Then i thought, maybe they connected with the movie and its message more than I did. Thats when it struck me that this was the whole idea of this endevour. The movie is all about optimism and it did get across the message to them. So inspite of the almost non-existent response from people to join in this cause, or any media attention(well, i dont deny that i was very excited at its prospect), I was satisfied with the whole exercise. The kids were happy and expressed their gratitude, which removed all remenants of doubts if the whole thing was worth it or not, from my mind. It was a bloody tiring day, but it was worth every bit of the heat, grime, sweat and commute!!! 

*Ahem* I dint stick to my promise now, did i?

In the previous post "why did i start a blog", the promise that i had made to myself was that i would start writing again....that lovely thought came to an abrupt standstill almost immediately....hhmm...now that was more than a year ago, wasnt it? well, lets hope i have matured enough to understand how essential it is to stick to a promise made to oneself...No, but seriously, i love writing...there are times when, like when i am sitting in the bus, stuck in unmoving traffic, when tiny observations that i make outside the window or within the bus, puts the writing part of my brain on auto-pilot and it starts framing sentences on it own accord, and even scratches out sentences and re-frames it sometimes.. :D so, thanks to a sudden turn in events yesterday, when i came across this person called, Harish Iyer, who is a blogger for one, secondly, one of his brilliant ideas was to 'Tag along' with some slum children to watch Slumdog Millionaire this weekend, i suddenly was compelled to start updating my own blog that has been dormant for more than a year now.....i already know what my next few posts will be about...EUREKA!!.....about the planning and implementation of Harish's brainwave of taking the kids for the movie....so until the next post...

why i started a blog??

Why did i start a blog? Good question. I started it because i thought it would help in the rebirth of my once decent writing skills. Well, actually i started a blog because my sister just started her own and i was very impressed with her writing. So impressed that im actually envious. Envious in a good way ofcourse :D
So anyway, i thought this is a good way to do the thing that everyone in school thought i would end up doing. When i was in school i happened to win a couple of Essay Writing Competions and also one on a national level. So that was the beginning to my editorial debut in my School Magazine for a couple of years. The teacher in charge of the Magazine was an inspiration. He, i learnt much later after i passed out of school, was a Chartered Accountant who did nothing with this mammoth degree. He chose Journalism over being a CA and worked with a well-known newspaper for a while before he thought he'l do a stint at being a teacher. I had an enormous amount of fun learning under him, which i did enormously.
As fate would have it and as my Blog Title describes me, i took to studying what but Chartered Accountancy after my 12th. It came in as a shock to all those who knew me when i was in school. Then, one day on my way to CA classes i bumped into my mentor in the field of writing, the teacher under whom i bloomed as a 'budding writer' as they used to call me. When he learned what i was presently pursuing he said, "I disown you", before walking off into the milling crowd. I laughed it off then, but now i realize that i might be following in his footsteps. Going to far, huh?? Well its worth a try anyway. Im sure he did CA for reasons similar to mine.
Anyway, i think my writing has markedly improved from the first sentence of this post. So i have decided to continue on this endevour, the main aim of which is, to once again start writing. :)