Ishita Bera

Ishita Bera, BE (Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering) with more than two decades of experience in hard - core sales; to be specific 'Industrial sales'. Born to ‘Bong – parents’ (Bong is a popular term coined for people belonging to West Bengal, India), and blessed with a girl child "Brishti" (means - rain). I have been often described as a 'wordy' person. I have been known in the industry to display an unconventional way of communicating. My emails, and memo contains unnecessary details. It lacks the crisp and cut-to-tone corporate style language. Over the years I have learnt the ‘rules of the game’, and almost perfected business-communication. I have hence always been prone to working out of my ‘job description’ to quench my literary ‘pangs’. I have created mailers, advertisements, communicated with exhibition stand constructor – just to be in touch with my creative side. One of my ex-boss once mentioned that ‘creative’ people generally do not have a knack for sales. He meant to say that maths and arts somehow represents the left and right side of the brains. It is a rare combination to get both the side of your brain working for you. Alas! he was unaware of the traditions followed in Bengali families. Anyone having a bong friend would know this. We are designated as ‘doctors’ or ‘engineers’ the day we are born (somehow the ‘tare zameen par’ movie resonates with our culture). Anything that does not fulfill these two criteria is a ‘mediocre’ career option. I begged to differ even when I was forced to sign up for science, and today also. But, I must mention that my parents are more empathetic now. They keep advising me not to make the same mistake with ‘Brishti’. Better late than never, and I am happy that the Bong culture has widened options now for careers of their offspring. Coming back to the ‘9 to 7 jobs’; they have only one and one motive: to extract ‘last of the juice’ available in a person. With all these years of ‘on the field’ job, and handling surmounting - targets, I was in touch with my intellectual part, and steadily climbing the ladder. However, my creative side was at a dead-stop. I decided to practice ‘writing’ one fine day when I was having a candid conversation with my husband about ‘my purpose of life’. It was meant to be a very introspective conversation, because I decided to take up my chances as an author for women’s web – and got accepted. I have a strong opinion about the dilemma that 'working women' of India goes through. I want to become the positive vibe & voice of all those who handle family and work with equal dexterity. We – ‘the working mums’ are the most commonly misunderstood and tormented race. We need a platform to explain our position so that the world empathizes and gets inspired by ‘us’!