Realising the impossible dream

If trading kitchens for boardrooms was a big step for women, today, a new trend is emerging where women are moving out of high paying office jobs, and going back to the drawing board to sketch out plans to pursue their dream careers.

Many of them are not perturbed that they are setting aside high profile assignments to launch into a new and often, unfamiliar field. They are determined to follow a dream, while they are energetic enough to set it up and young enough to enjoy it.

Says Aparna Raghavan who stepped out of a job as a software developer to set up a wellness spa, “It is not easy to give up a fancy job and the security of money coming in every month to pursue what you enjoy doing. There is always the nagging worry if you are doing the right thing. But at the end of the day, when you've finally got around to doing what you love, there is a great sense of satisfaction and freedom in the true sense of the word.”

“It was exciting and challenging,” says Aparna of her office job at Intel. “I worked with different countries, mainly Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and the US. It was a high profile job and I had a great team too, though in terms of timings, it was crazy.”

It was during those busy days that Aparna realised that she wanted to do something different. “I always had a passion for wellness and at one point I decided to research the subject further,” she says. “Wherever I went across the world, I would visit spas and enjoy the wellness initiatives at these centres. One day, I realised that I wanted to set up a wellness spa. It took me five years to get it all together and finally I was able to set up my own spa called White Mantra.”

Archana Nagaraj, a corporate communications professional, was working for Network Solutions and heading a team, when she decided that she wanted to do something different. “I had already a long stint of 11 years there and I wanted to do something I was deeply interested in,” she says. “And suddenly, one day when I was looking for children's linen for my own family, I realised that this kind of linen was not easy to come by. It was at that moment that I decided to get into this business.”

Once she left her high profile job, Archana is all set to launch a company called Laughing Zebras next month, that deals with children's linen. “I want to help people find linen at lower prices, printed with interesting designs,” she says. “My linen is sourced directly from the factory and we have an in house artist who works on the designs we provide. I really love what I am doing now, especially working in the design space. Soon we will be bringing out organic cotton and non allergic cottons that are very child friendly.”

According to Archana, it is not easy for a woman to follow a dream “You have to be very sure that this is what you want to do. The mental battle is the toughest. You cannot allow yourself any thoughts of negativity at any time.”

Kishori Mudaliar, who worked in a Knowledge Management company and as a free lance writer, has a different story to tell. “Don't put a deadline on a dream,” she says. “You can put dreams on the backburner while you get other things streamlined.”
Kishori left her regular job to join her husband in his restaurant business to help him out, but today, she has found her own niche, working with kids in the Bangalore chapter of the Mumbai-based WorldKids Foundation, a non profit organisation. But getting to this dream was not immediate.

“My husband Suresh had entered the restaurant space and was suddenly swamped with various commitments,” she says. “It was pretty much like having a second baby, fun but exhausting. At any time when I was getting complacent, the business threw me a curveball at every step, but it has built me a valuable skill set for life.”