Working life...



Me, Gopi & Gerard hanging out at the office

During the last couple of weeks I have learned 3 important facts about working life in India: 

1)  No new projects should be started on a Tuesday for cultural reasons (also you will never see a marriage, house move etc on a Tuesday as this is considered bad luck).

2)  Confusingly, a shake of the head from side to side can mean "yes", however it can also mean "no", "maybe", "I don't know" and "I've got no idea what you just said as I don't speak English".

3)  Don't rely on electricity for getting things done (this includes computers, internet connection and the operations of the local print shop).

However, in spite of lots of head-shaking, a powercut and it being a Tuesday, this week I managed to succeed in my first solo task for Sharana - popping down to the aforementioned local print shop to print 3 pages of sticky labels for our homemade cookies!



Me and Sharanya hard at work!!!

My role at Sharana is to assist Sharanya (no she wasn’t employed because her name sounds like Sharana!), one of the permanent employees, to improve the revenue generating operations of the business, being an on-site bistro and a recycled newspaper products division.  Bistro Sharana is beautifully located on the terrace at the top of the office building and employs 2 women full-time who are being trained by a local chef to prepare breakfasts, lunches and snacks, including delicious oatmeal and peanut cookies which we are trying to sell in a number of local shops.  The paper products division employs 3 women full-time who have been trained in making products such as bags, bowls, placemats, plates and even window-blinds from recycled newspaper.  It is hoped that whilst providing vital training and employment to vulnerable women these projects will ultimately become self-sufficient and generate surplus revenue to help fund Sharana’s other operations in the communities around Pondicherry. 



The "Bistro Sharana" girls!

 A typical day will involve getting to the office around 9am, checking emails for customer orders/queries, having a quick catch-up meeting with Rajkala if she is in the office, then performing any number of tasks such as typing out the list of provisions required for the bistro and popping to the shops for essentials, assisting Kaladevi (in charge of petty cash so a good person to know!) to sort invoices, reconciling the Bistro and paper unit stock with production/sales, working out the costing for the Bistro products to ensure the selling prices are correct, acting as cashier for sales from the onsite boutique, catching up with the social workers (Vetri, Srinivasan and Brinda) to see if they need any help etc etc.  A long lunch break is typically taken from around 12:30 to 14:30 then it’s back to work until around 17:00.  Oh and from 09:00 to around 12:30 on Saturdays too.  During the last couple of weeks I have also been lucky enough to visit the children’s Summer Camp for a couple of days and help out playing games with the children and serving lunch – despite several defeats I still maintain I am an Uno champion and have vowed to return to defend my title!


Sorting invoices with Kaladevi

Working life is therefore very different to that of an auditor, hiding behind laptops and spreadsheets all day.  Working in an NGO requires the volunteer to be open-minded and flexible and embrace whatever tasks are required, whether it be negotiating with local shop owners to stock our cookies, explaining Sharana’s operations in French to a Belgian tour group which descended on the office one Saturday morning, or moulding shapes from dough with the children at Summer Camp!  I am definitely enjoying the variety of work undertaken at Sharana (not that the life of an auditor wasn't of course full of excitement!) and the feeling that I am contributing towards something real, tangible and lasting.