No Falling Back

I wrote this piece after I spoke to Amita Nandy in 2002. I met her during a yoga class at Ananda Marga once. I have lost touch with her but she is one courageous woman. This piece appeared in i-asianwomen.com's Work@Home section. I spent a whole morning talking to Amita for this story below. It was well worth it. Her advice is spot-on.


No Falling Back

Affable and totally open, she comes across as a contradiction of sorts. You'd never imagine that this is the very same woman who attends four-wheel-drive rallies with much gusto ("We raised our own money for the rallies"), backpacks across India with her boys (her youngest babe was a mere three month old then) and yet, sinks gracefully into yoga and whips up a mean meal in the kitchen whenever she feels like it.

And tag this to her CV: she is also a successful and established work at home mummy, dictating her own time, and enjoying every moment of her work.

Amita Nandy, wife, yoga practitioner and a no-nonsense, highly-organised work at home mummy to three boys (ages ranging from five to 13) has this solid piece of advice for those starting out on their own a.k.a wishing to set up their own business to work from home: "Whatever you do, don't ever think of falling back on your husband!"

Seated in her spacious home where "each piece of furniture has a story to tell," Amita was quite nonchalant to the point where she seemed quite carefree about her business. But passion cannot be bridled and it simply flows from her words. It all began quite simply as a need to be a mother to her boys and a wife to hubby, B.K.Sinha.

Originally from Selangor, and from a Bengoli background, Amita had followed her Penangite husband and made her home in the Pearl of the Orient some 15 years ago. Her late father, by the way, is the famous Milon Nandy, teacher and English grammar expert, whose books are still used by many as references to the Queen's English.

With a job as an assistant principal of a local college in the heart of Georgetown, Amita had to put in long hours, usually going home after everyone had left the college.

"I was putting in a lot of hours, and after sometime, I just felt that I had to move on," she recollects of her early days.

While being pregnant with her first child, Amita decided that she had to get a regular nine-to-five job, one that offered more time to spend with her baby. It was then that she chanced upon an opening in one of the local factories, which was at that time, looking for someone to train the factory staff, from teaching production operators basic English to making sense of the SOPs (standard operating procedures) and breaking it down into everyday language for the everyone in the factory, especially for the human resources department.

Her grasp of the language, accompanied by her experience in education, and a Masters in Literature made her the perfect candidate to head the new department. She took to the job rather well, and enjoyed her four years tremendously.

Until a nudge from an ex-colleague made her rethink her options in life. Here she was, egging her to take on a new challenge at another factory. Amita shrugs, "I admired her from the time I began working at the factory. After she left, we still maintained contact and we'd see each other at functions and she was pivotal in getting me to go over to her new workplace."

With the new switch, Amita still felt that she could do so much more, and soon, grew weary of the regular nine-to-five which she coveted so much in the earlier days. It wasn't hunky-dory anymore, plus her third pregnancy made her sit down and ask herself, what did she really, truly need from her career and family?

"There is a marked difference with Baptu (her nickname for her youngest son) and the older two," she says. Her youngest is more of a confidante, and seems much more mature for all of his five years; he is more active, extremely confident and able to relate much more to her.

This, Amita feels, is the direct outcome of her being together with her child when he was in his formative years - when she was spending time with him while working from home - and she compares it to her two older sons, who were always with one babysitter or another when she was working.

Seven years ago, she decided to put all her skills that she'd learnt while training others and her close network of friends, colleagues and business associates to good use. Coupled with her HR expertise and the desire to educate and train, she began her training and consulting business right from her home.

It was stressful, as Amita remembers being a one-woman-show in the beginning. Everything happened from her home - contacting clients, meeting them, interviewing them to understand their corporate needs ("on what aspect did they need me to train their staff?") and coming home, and sitting down to formulate a training programme to address those needs within a set period of time. Juggling everything from photostating to driving all the way to Kulim to meet clients, those were the days when she was coming from nowhere but deciding from the very start to make it work.

"There was no option of falling back on the husband so I had to give my 110 percent!" She laughs easily now, as her portfolio of clients have grown to a considerable size, and training to her, after seven years, she has got it down pat, with each and every detail right in their place.

These days, her days run on a more leisurely course, affording her the pleasure of yoga though she still travels all across Malaysia to conduct her training. Training has even taken on a fun note as she currently includes outdoor teambuilding programmes which fits her active lifestyle to a T.

To get in touch with Amita Nandy, please write to: tactful@tm.net.my


by Krista
21st February 2002