Of Admissions Consulting

Yesterday morning, I received a long-pending testimonial from one of my old clients who has gone to Harvard. The message was personal; so, I’m not going to repeat it here. What I do want to mention is a phrase he used – ‘Life Mentor’ – that reinforces the one thing I’ve always believed about being an admissions consultant.

Ours is a queer and demanding profession. For six months a year, and arguably, the most happening six months for an Indian (July to January), we forget everything. Family and personal commitments take a backseat resulting in missed holidays, rushed festivals, skipped meals, shortened storytelling sessions, and not to forget, the perpetually postponed beautician appointments J We plunge headlong into the mad rush of one deadline after another, innumerable brainstorming and strategizing calls, editing of countless documents, and fact finding and researching on numerous programs, universities, and professions. Nearly every season, we think, “That’s it! Next year, we’ll do something else!” But we still carry on beating all odds, working round the clock, living a lopsided life, prioritizing ‘clients’ above all.

Then, why? What makes us carry on year after year, dreading the ‘peak season,’ waiting for it to get over, and then missing it when it is actually over?

Sure, we work for money! But money alone cannot motivate the overcoming of such challenges as we do every year. Speaking for myself, there are three answers to this.

There are very few professions that give a person the ability to touch other lives in the deepest, most tangible ways. Ours is one of those. We deal with dreams. And we make them come true. We help people find their truest voice, uncover their greatest strengths, and take them where they want to be. It can be an undergraduate degree when they create for themselves a launch-pad for greater success; a research program through which they are capacitated for original contributions to any field of their choice; or advancement programs through which they build skills and knowledge that will take them to greater heights or on a new path they want to chalk for themselves. We stimulate thought and action and map them to the right direction, ensuring they are set for the success they have dreamt of. It is the attitude of the admissions consultant that makes all the difference here. You have the opportunity to be a ‘life mentor’ – as my client mentions J - and for me, that is the greatest motivation of all in being an admissions consultant.

The second reason – learning. Yes, it is perhaps the only profession where you get to learn about all other professions! The Arts, the Sciences, Engineering, Technology, Commerce, Management, and all the diversified interdisciplinary domains there are. We guide actors and directors, economists and scientists, leaders and path-breakers, social activists and entrepreneurs  – in that phase of their careers when they are waiting for their potential to unfurl and begin their journeys to their cherished goals. But that is not all. We learn about people and from people – enthusiastic youngsters, seasoned professionals, passionate researchers, men and women, dreamers, lost souls, and focused achievers. We deal with them all. We learn about cultures and nations. We learn about vocations, ambitions, and ideals.  We learn to articulate and to listen. And we grow in myriad ways (apart from sideways, in our chair, of course).

The third reason – challenges. (With due respect to all men in the profession), most admissions consultants are women! Does that say something? Yes, the gender that thrives on challenges of the most complex kinds. Those who know to push their limits, reach outside their comfort zone to bring out the best in themselves, multitask profusely both mentally and physically, be decisive under the most trying of circumstances, and nurture others. That’s admissions consulting for you! When twenty-four hours of the day are not enough and you got to decide between masala dosa or cheese sandwich (the latter giving you half an hour extra to finish one essay), a naamkaran ceremony or half-day picnic (where you can wear your jeans and carry your laptop or at least finish one brainstorming session!), and the children’s park or a badminton match (obviously the former because then you can think of your next application strategy while your child plays). But that’s not all! You have your clients – the ones who don’t talk and the ones who talk too much, the ones who can’t write and the ones who send 5-pagers for 100 words, the ones who don’t know a thing and the ones who know it all; and, the ‘best’ part, the nosy parents and the NRI sisters. For each one, you have a different strategy and it must come to you in the blink of an eye. Because there is just no time!

In sum, an admissions consultant is your ‘nutty professor’ – by which I mean she is going nuts herself but still knows to guide you with composure and tact. She is your mentor, sounding board, and jack of all trades, literally (aspiring to be your master….ahem, just saying!)

So there! Having said all that, I realize I have just had a cathartic moment! Now I feel so much better and well prepared for the coming season J Let’s rejoice then and believe that we are a lucky lot. Our job is tough but our job is more rewarding than many others. We see, we learn, we grow. With every season, we become better. And as we shape other lives, we shape ourselves too – becoming fiercer and stronger, versatile and focused, empathetic and energetic (and not to forget – more apple-shaped or pear-shaped, as the case may be).

Before I conclude, in case you’re wondering what Po and Shifu are doing in my post, that’s what my client calls me – the Shifu to his Po – and that’s no less than the crown of lifetime achievement sitting ‘fat’ on my head (though I have no intention of retiring anytime, soon or late)!

What’s your take on admissions consulting?

The Pursuit of Making Shoes Taking Myriad Shapes

Can the intricate winding streets of an Indian metropolis carve the career of an explorer? How can a city that has been the focus of the satirical outpourings of numerous authors become the fancy of an archetypal small-townie? The quest for the answers to these questions can be cut short if one turns his or her attention to the journey of Pooja Thakur, CEO, Praefinio Footwear. 

It was a little, brightly-coloured radio in a colourful cover that caught my attention as I sat next to Pooja, elegantly perched on a couch in her home in an army cantonment, away from the cacophony of the metropolis. The second thing that caught my attention was a shell, which she told me she had collected from a beach long ago. I concluded my observation with the realisation that hoarding antiques was one of her favourite leisure activities. As we sat discussing the invaluable endnotes and the creative dexterity of Chiragh-e-Dair (The Lamp of the Temple), one of Ghalib’s long epochal poems, she sipped her tea thoughtfully and plunged into a reverie, going back in time to 2016, when she began her journey of designing shoes with just two shoe-makers.
Without a degree in footwear designing to fall back upon, the only thing she had to go by was the numerous pairs of shoes she had bought as part of her preliminary research, to dissect and observe their anatomy. Adding to her woes was the distance that she had to cover frequently between wherever her husband was stationed to her prospective factory. Her travails eventually paid off when she established a manufacturing unit in Delhi with twenty workers that produced footwear for almost all major e-commerce portals for children such as hopscotch.com, firstcry, and babycouture.

Her first brand was a sole-less shoe for infants called Bootie Pie. “Kids usually absorb the world through images. Hence, I wanted to make something that would engage and hold  kids’ attention while being affordable for their parents.” She recalled how as a child, all she did was drawing and painting. “I vividly recall my favourite characters from stories such as Peter Pan, Matilda, Heidi, and The Secret Garden only through their caricatured imagery. I aspire to bring this unique imaginative quality of children and its delicate nature into the entire range of my footwear.” She confesses that she felt deterred on several occasions when she had to wander about alone late on dark winter nights to collect sampling material for shoes from unsafe, ghetto-like localities, while her own home in a distant cantonment waited for her lifelessly. Today, as she launches a new brand of footwear called Pabla for kids, all these recollections bring a smile to her face.
Pooja’s road to being an established children’s shoe manufacturer now begins with sketching random designs, synchroninsing her idea of a pair of shoes with that of a shoe-maker, extending to copy-writing taglines for her brands and attending unplanned meetings with buyers. She confides with a child-like smile, “My grocery lists at home often end up becoming my idea journals for my shoe designs.” 

Apart from her work and the passion of collecting antiques, painting still occupies most of Pooja’s leisure time. This was evident from her paintings ranging from scenes at a fish market in a coastal town to the profound face of Buddha in meditation that adorn the walls of her home. She adds, “I am a quintessential small-townie and love accumulating designs and colours from small markets, preserving pickle and papad recipes inherited from mothers and cooking at home. Art to me dwells in the colourful paraphernalia of the small towns and villages of our country.” Does she have any favourite small-town markets? “Difficult to choose one, but I like Aminabad in Lucknow, Kinari Bazaar in Agra, Lakkar Bazaar in Shimla and the likes,” she adds quickly. 

She reverts to being her meditative self, emphasising that the privileged section of society should realise the significance of giving back to the economically weaker sections. Earlier, her efforts were confined to the welfare of her workforce, but now she has decided to focus them on financing the education of as many girl children as possible. I tried to delve into further details, but she was reluctant to reply because of her belief that an act of kindness should always be silent. Elaborating a little, however, she said, “I draw my inner strength from my hard-working and dedicated team who work non-stop during tough phases of production. To honour their perseverance, I started a salary system of payment in my unit because there is usually no salary system for the unorganised workforce in our country.”

And who or what is the inspiration behind her zen-like attitude while she handles the crazy commotion of the production floor and the demands of being an army wife? This has always been her father and her husband, she replies-- while the former always believed in her dreams and ideas of doing good for others, the latter stood by her unfailingly through all the ups and downs, every peak and trough, of her journey. 

“Our duties transcend us and develop a heightened awareness about our capabilities”, she concludes like a Tao monk.  

About the Author

Gunjan Joshi is a Delhi-based editor of a monthly, a part-time columnist, and an art and literature critic. An ardent lover of books and nature in general (and the Himalayas, in particular),  she admires classics in every form.  Bliss for her is psithurism emanating from old Deodar trees, reading a fine literary journal in a quaint village in coniferous surroundings and a display of archaic military chivalry.

NOTE:

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May 1: International Labour Day

“If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains; Every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains. Every wheel in the creation, every mine and every mill; Fleets and armies of the nation, will at their command stand still.

“There is power in a band of working men, when they stand, hand in hand. That’s a power that must rule in every land.”

Joe Hill

May 1 is marked as International Labour Day, also referred to as May Day. It celebrates the struggles of the working class and the efforts of labour unions. Labour Day is an annual public holiday in many countries. In India, Labour Day is referred as AntarrashtriyaShramikDiwas or Kamgar Dinand was first celebrated here in the year 1923.

It is also referred as International Workers' Day or just Workers’ Day. 

For most countries, Labour Day is synonymous with, or linked with International Workers’ Day which occurs on 1^st of May. For other countries, Labour Day is celebrated on a different date, often one with special significance for the labour movement in that country.

For example, this year China is celebrating May 5 as International Labour Day as May 5 happens to be the birth date of Karl Marx, who propounded the economic theory of labour and capital so closely associated with communism.  In Canada and the United States, this holiday is celebrated on the first Monday of September and is generally considered as the unofficial end of the sunny days, with summer holidays ending and students returning to school around then.

Labour Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken.

Bill Dodds

During industrialisation, in beginning of the 19th century, the industrialists used to exploit the labour class and made them work for up to 15 hours a day. The workers rose against this exploitation and demanded paid leaves, proper wages and workday breaks for the workforce.

The eight-hour day labour movement advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. The Labour Day annually celebrates the achievements of the workers.  

While the day has a different significance in different countries, the main reason for Labour Day is unfair treatment of the labour class.

What does labour want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; morejustice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures.

Workingmen are at the foundation of society. Show me that product of human endeavor in the making of which the workingman has had no share, and I will show you something that society can well dispense with.

Samuel Gompers

Labour is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labour, and could never have existed if labour had not first existed.Labour is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Abraham Lincoln

 

May 1 was chosen to be International Workers' Day to commemorate the 1886 Haymarket affair in Chicago. In that year, on May 1, there was a general strike for the eight-hour workday. On May 4, the police acted to disperse a public assembly in support of the strike when an unidentified person threw a bomb. The police responded by firing on the workers. The event led to several deaths.The incident is remembered as the Haymarket Affair, or the Haymarket Massacre.

International Workers’ Day was officially recognized in 1889 at the International Socialist Congress in Paris to commemorate the Haymarket Affair.  Following more violent protests in the US, the Socialist Congress of 1904 made it mandatory to stop work on May Day, calling on“all Social-Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on May First for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class of the proletariat, and for universal peace.”

Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains, demand your rights. All the wealth you make is taken, by exploiting parasites. Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave.Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave?

Labour Day or May Day has been a focal point of protests by various socialist and communist groups and is an important holiday in communist countries like China, North Korea, Cuba and the former Soviet Union countries.

 

Here’s wishing that you are finding happiness and satisfaction in the work that you do. Happy Labour Day, everyone! (particularly, housewives)

This day is a reminder to housewives not to despair.  Do not lose hope thinking that this world does not remember you and your endless slaving (Labour by any other name would still mean the same, right?).  Here is a whole, entire day, actually a holiday, dedicated to you.  It’s celebrated all over the world in honour of workers and their right to the eight-hour workday.  So stand up (no, actually sit down) for your right to rest, relax and recharge.It’s a reminder every year that 

“There is power in a band of working (wo)men, when they stand, hand in hand. (when they sit with their feet up). That’s a power that must rule in every land.”

Let’s paraphrase (with due apologies to Joe Hill):

If housewives took a notion they could stop all their speeding husbands; Every office upon the earth they can tie with mighty chains. Every wheel in the creation, every mine and every mill; Fleets and armies of the nation, will at their command stand still.

So come on!  You only need to believe in yourselves and take the notion.  Any takers?

Image credits:

destinyconnect.com

hiveminer.com 

freepressjournal.com