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Artist-entrepreneur Priya Krishnan Das of Purple Soul says she finds it joyful, liberating, and almost stress-free to pursue art for a livelihood.
Since I was a little girl, I had always been in awe of artists, but somehow I did not end up studying art. When I quit my job as an HR professional in December 2011, I decided that I would do only that which I was passionate about, art. That’s how Purple Soul was born in August 2012. Now that I pursue art for a livelihood, calling myself an artist gives me tremendous joy and satisfaction, because it comes from the heart!
The best part about being an artist-entrepreneur is that I have no fixed schedules. If there is work (which never feels like work!), I stay up late into the night. There have been times when I’ve got ideas in the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning, and I’ve got up all excited at 2 am or 5 am and worked on the idea! There are times when I’ve got up at night to scribble down ideas on a notepad so that I can work on it in the morning.
It feels so liberating that I can have a ‘Sunday’ whenever I want to even in the middle of the week. Being an artist allows me to be in the moment and soak in the simple pleasures of life, like looking endlessly at the sky or hearing the birds sing. These are the simple things that fuel ideas for creativity and my work. Wish I could tell William Wordsworth that I do have the time to stand and stare!
The best part about being an artist is that whether I’m traveling, or watching a movie or listening to a song, I don’t have to worry about anything else, because I derive inspiration from everything around me. So when I’m not creating anything, I may be watching movies back-to-back on a Thursday, knowing that somewhere it will contribute to my art. In June this year, I went on a solo trip to the Himalayas for 16 days, and that became a major source of inspiration for a series of illustrations. Being an artist has enabled me to see the world in hitherto unknown ways, soak up the colors of nature and has opened up new avenues of thought and creativity.
Since I’m a one member team at Purple Soul, I’m an all-in-one. Right from conceptualizing, creating, marketing, sales, inventory management, handling accounts and logistics and my website, I handle the entire gamut of business. Each experience is unique and I’m learning more every day. The only stress that I’ve experienced since I started my enterprise is coordinating with vendors, because having worked in the corporate sector where you take deadlines seriously, it’s annoying when your products are not delivered on time. But every moment of everything that I do is totally worth it, because Purple Soul is my baby and I do whatever I do because it makes me happy.
Mark Twain put it beautifully, “The secret of success is making your vocation your vacation.” I can happily say that I’m always on a vacation!
Are you a woman running a business in India? Would you like your story to appear in our Day In The Life Of An Entrepreneur series? Email us at admin AT womensweb DOT in with an interesting account of a day running your business, and we may publish it! (For example, what was the one interesting thing you did that day? Did you meet someone new/had a conversation with a customer? What thrills you at work? What are some business challenges you’re currently grappling with?) Also send us a few pictures of you at work – with your team, at your desk, at the factory, meeting a customer…
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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