Meeting women entrepreneurs in Chennai

CHANDAN KUMAR MANDAL

Since I have been here in Chennai, reaching the reporting site has been the real problem for me. Even today, it took an hour to decide how to reach today's venue. After consulting local friends and those who have been in that part of city, I reached the location C.P. Art Centre in Alwarpet of Chennai. This afternoon, I was covering Textiles and Handicraft Exhibition being held at the centre.

As soon as I reached there and started interacting, the trouble of reaching the location was forgotten. The first person I approached for my story was Mallika Venktesh, a 63-years-old woman entrepreneur. She has been running her family business of manufacturing and selling cotton and jute items for last 15 years. Her energy was infectious. Even at this age, she is energetic and enjoying what she is doing. Her software engineer son lives in London so if she wants then she could adjust for a normal life. But she is not only independent but also providing income opportunity to four other persons of her same age group. Her frankness and expressive nature made it easier for me. She was responding well to my each and every questions during interview.

Mallika Venktesh at her stall.

After finishing interview with her, I approached the organizer and the executive director of the C.P. Swaminathan Aiyar Foundation. I went to her office and introduced myself. She agreed to talk and I interviewed her on camera. It was not just a print story for me. I captured everything on my camera as I always do so that I can make a video report on the issue.

As a whole, the day was full of learning experience professionally. I was confident while talking with my interviewee. I didn't hesitate to ask for help when there was language problem. I asked a lady to interpret when one woman (Vijay Lakshmi) was not comfortable speaking in English.

I am satisfied with the way I approached the story. Not to mention, peer review helped at the end where I could find out some silly grammar mistakes.

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