New Delhi: We discover great personalities by chance. I met a multi-faceted person during a train journey a few months ago.
A lady who was traveling in the same coach had a magazine “Sampadyam”(earnings) by the Vanitha (women) group of journals.
I had already seen the magazine at my home but could not read it. So, I grabbed the opportunity and devoured the pages. It contained articles about women entrepreneurs who with or without education and by sheer hard work and interest, were earning money for their families’ upkeep.
After reading the article, I told the young lady, “How encouraging these women are!”
She nodded in agreement and smiled and fell silent again. As we spoke more in the course of time I discovered her name was Aji Anil. “I also do something small in my leisure time,” she told me casually. That aroused my curiosity. And the plethora of creativity opened before my eyes.
She narrated how it all began. “I made a fountain and installed in our drawing room with plants and lights making it alive,” she said and showed me a picture of her fountain in her mobile. I listened with amusement as the train roared ahead and we enjoyed the coolness and the friendly atmosphere inside.
She continued: “My teenage daughter then said, ‘Mummy we will post the photograph of your fountain in the Facebook and you will get many requests’. She said it to tease me and I took it as a joke and had a good laugh. But she did it and I took it as a challenge.”
To their surprise, Aji’s family began to get calls requesting for fountains from homes and hotels. “I could not believe myself,” Aji recalled her journey into entrepreneurship.
That was about a year and a half ago. Today Aji, the mother of two teenagers and wife of a Vigilance Officer in Delhi, has made over 15 fountains for friends, and other families.
Having a fountain in her home was the dream of Aji, who hails from Kollam, Kerala. Her parents’ house was surrounded by coconut trees, other plants and green gardens giving a soothing atmosphere. She missed the lush green carpeted meadows, flowing with streams and rivulets while living in a quiet secluded flat in New Delhi. She felt it more when the children were away at school and husband at office during the day.
For this she went around with her husband who understood her mind, to different shops that sold fountains in New Delhi. The price was unaffordable and she felt disheartened her. She returned home determined to find a solution.
“I enjoy the sound of the flowing waters,” Aji smiles, “but It was too costly for us to buy a Fountain.”
Aji’s creative mind began to awake. She looked around for materials for her dream project, like thermocol pieces from packing boxes of television, computers; old plates and pipes, stones. One by one she gathered things. Realizing small pumps used in room-coolers would be ideal for her project, she requested her husband to buy one for her.
“My husband is very cooperative and gets me whatever I need, even if he has to travel much around in Delhi,” Aji says with joy.
Putting in many hours of work in her leisure time, Aji completed her first fountain in 2013.
Posting the picture on Facebook was an acknowledgement for her hard work.
“When orders began trickling in I was happy that my work was appreciated. Now I had to find time to provide it for those who had ordered it. It was a challenge,” Aji admits as she had to manage the house chores and children, and give tuition to students who were coming to her for help.
“But I was happy. I wanted to use my creativity,” Aji admits.
She has made 15 fountains for different families. When the order from the hotels came she could not get it ready at the specific time.
“Every fountain has to be done according to the taste and requirement of the client. Some of them want a small fountain with a god for their house. But all of them want a beautiful fountain with plants and animals walking/sitting around. It costs much. Some of them are not able to pay the full price too,” Aji recounted.
But she does not disappoint anyone. “I want them to be happy with my fountain,” she says.
“Some times during transportation by the truck to distant places the whole work gets affected. Then I have to go to the place and fix it up for them,” she shared her difficulties.
“When they return home in the evening they like to have something special and good,” she said placing before me a glassful of drink made of banana and milk, topped with cream and fruits. Everything made by her.
Fountains and culinary skills aside she is also into making wall plaques from paper pulp.
“For this also I make use of pictures of gods and goddesses according to the desire of the clients,” she said pointing to the display on walls of the drawing room.
Where does she find time for all this?
“My husband wants the house to be clean and tidy always. He does not like things scattered all around though he is the one providing the materials for my creativity and encouraging me,” she said with a sparkle in her eyes.
“I collect many old items like plates and tins. I find usefulness in all this. But the house gets filled with these.”
Aji’s house is sparkling clean. She does the cleaning, cooking and everything and yet she finds time for her creative expressions!
“When our heart is full of love we find time for our dear ones,” says the 39-year-old woman, who was married at the age of 20.
A graduate in economics she is an avid reader, according to her daughter Akhila, who aspires to become a doctor.
Anil, her proud husband, is full of praise for her. “She has been an efficient housewife ever since marriage,” he says.
Marriage immediately after her graduation gave Aji no option for further studies. However she had training in embroidery which she keeps alive even now, he added.
“Mummy is a person with immeasurable potentials,” confides Akhila, “only now they are flowering.”
“I am very happy to have a mother who is loving, and concerned about her home than anything else amidst her other sundry jobs like needle work, embroidery, cooking, making frames,” she says with a smile.
Anupam, Aji’s teenage son, says his mother reads a lot and browses the net. “That gives her immense and new knowledge about various things,” he adds.
Aji says nobody had taught her cooking or for that matter anything else. Soon after marriage, she had to come to Delhi. “I worked until my first baby came. Then I had to give up the job with two children who were falling sick often. I felt my first concern was my family; and I am happy with my decision.”
Her husband too finds Aji multi-talented. “I have no time to promote all her talents. I cooperate with her, providing all that she requires to realize her dreams and talents.”
Aji’s self learning from internet, reading, and visit to trade fares and exchange of ideas with like-minded people have done her good in developing her dormant talents.
Her day starts at 5 when her husband gets ready for office and children begin to study. “By 9:30 I finish all my cooking and house work,” she said
After her husband and children depart, Aji works until 3.pm when the students come for tuition. It goes on until 5:30. “If we want to do something we can always make time,” she says and other family members agree. “If there is something to finish with regard to my art both of us sit together to complete it before we go to sleep.”
Gods, flowers, sceneries are the themes that she chooses for her handiworks as they give a soothing effect on one’ mind soul and mind.
Aji is certain that a home garden can provide for her small family, avoiding the pesticide coated vegetables in the market.
Her vegetable cultivation in flowerpots on her veranda and terrace provides not only for her kitchen; she also shares with her neighbors. “Those who told me ‘why to take this trouble you can get chilies in the market are the same persons who come to my garden for green chilies because they taste better, they say.”.
For her home garden she also uses her kitchen wastes as manure. “It is quite sufficient to get a good crop for my family,” she assures.
Aji’s wisdom comes to her through wholesome reading. “Books are my friends, as they wait for me; they are my friends in times of my aloneness, inspiring and guiding me,” Aji appreciates the print media.
And it is the print media that connected me and Aji.