Sansri Basumatary:Journey of the girl who refused to give up

   

 Life is not always as easy as that is in fairy tales, but when you have strong determinations to do something nothing can stop you. That's what  the story of Sansri Basumatary tells us all about.

 "When you plant a sapling, the way it grows healthy and strong, instead if you plant a grown up plant it does not grows that healthy and strong. So we should start from small", she says.

      Sansri Basumatary a young bodo girl from Bhakatpara village of Udalguri district of Assam is a budding Entrepreneur and rapidly gaining popularity in social network sites like facebook, instagram due to her handcraft skills of creating wonderful decorative products, ornaments and others which are gaining attentions from peoples all around. Schooling from Bhakatpara H.S School and graduation from Tangla College with major in Bodo (MIL) life was not easy for her. The riot of 2008/09 had severely affected her life and she had to appear H.S Exam from a relief camp. And she thinks those affected her marks which in return created problems in her higher studies. After her schooling and college she could not do stop there and still wanted to pursuit her master's degree. But her parents had to look after her two younger brother and sister, and as her parents ware from a middle class family, supporting her for a master's degree became a real problem and so they asked her if she wanted to stop there. But as a determined brave girl it was never enough for her and she always wanted to do something big for herself and the society. And thus with her dreams and hopes she reaches Guwahaty after a lot of requests to her father for higher studies, all by herself. As she always wanted to do something different she chooses master's in Mass Communication & Journalism. She says that it was a good decision for her, and as she started her classes she started meeting new peoples with broader minds from different fields like Arts, Psychiatrists, Professors etc. She started attending different workshops, meetings where she met more peoples where they disused about different social matters, giving her more knowledge of different things. She also at the same think took different internship in knitting, table cloth designs etc. It was fun for her as it was always an hobby for her, as she grew up in a family where such works of handicraft ware common. She says "I had always good interests in that work, i even made a lot of such materials during my college life but i never thought that some day i will take up that hobby as a commercial. But i wanted to make business in Hand-loom".
 
     Life was new for her in new city and it was all exciting with new peoples, but at the same time it was hard for her as she had to deal with economic problems. She worked in radio channels for 150 rupees per day and it was only for 3/4 days per week, and it was not enough pay for her. So she had to look for another jobs, she even worked in a school for 2700 per month but still it was still not enough in the costly city life. So she left the school and worked in companies like Oriflame. She had also interests in drama so she had also worked in different NGOs did different street plays. Due to her drama once she got a chance to work in a project of  NRHM and she had to travel to different places like Goalpara,Dhuburi,Nogaon,Tezpoor, etc where they had to aware peoples about different issues and so she lost a lot of classes during her final year of master's. But sadly NRHM did not payed the total amount after the completion of the project. Than she left drama and appeared in different interviews for jobs. Finally she got selected for international call center and newspaper at the same time, leaving her in a state of confusion which one to choose. Call Center had better facilities where as News Paper is related to her subject of study and also had reputation. She then chose News Paper and worked there as sub-editor cum page-designer where she worked for two years, later she got promoted there as a designer instructor . Working there was really busy and hard as the field was totally new for her. "I did not even got time for myself, during exams i had to work after exams", she says. But due to her busy schedule  she couldn't submit her project and couldn't complete masters. She finally left newspaper after two years.

     After leaving newspaper she stayed at her room for about 20 days without work, but she still used to think about starting a business of her own, "Some nights i couldn't even sleep thinking about it, but i had no one to support me", she says. As she had to pay room rents and she needed money for daily expanses she needed work and so she again worked in NRC(National Register of Citizens) where she got the boost and motivation she required. She tells that she always liked to look for something related to handcraft during her free time, she even used to spent her free time during lunch break for this while she was working at NRC. Thus the add about Silk thread and Handcraft which she saw during her such free time changed everything. As she was always excited about such handcraft, she wanted to try making it by herself, and so she searched for materials at online stores and made those items. She found it fun and easy, she made more such items and showed those to her colleagues, who all appreciated it and the HR also liked it a lot and he bought it for her wife. She even got more orders for such items which was more than enough to motivate her. They even asked her to keep doing that and also agreed to give her a helping hand, they made her realize her true talent. " I made only 160 rupees per day and i made 350 rupees from my first order, more than double the amount i make working at office", she said. So she decided to resign and dedicate her time in the work she loved the most. She started posting photos of her handcraft in social networks, which gave rise in the orders she received for her products.

    "After resigning from job i did not had courage to tell that to my family, because they wanted me to do job, as i had to look after my brother living with me by then. But after one month while everything was good with my small start up and i was able to support myself and my brother, i got confident in my work",she says.

Our conversation with her was something like following:

* How long its been now, since you started that commercial?
  - Its now about 3 months. And everything is going in right direction, and i feel my business is growing, as wished.
* What is the uniqueness in your product, and what do customers like most in it?
  - The designs i make in my products are unique, most of the designs are my innovative creations and as i received feed backs from my customers they say they liked my finishing.
* Do you work alone or you have taken employees?
  - For now i am working alone, sometimes my sister comes to help me with my work while she is free. But i am thinking of expanding my work so i could help others too.
* What was peoples reaction towards your work when they first heard about it?
 - When my villagers at home first heard about my work, it seems like they ware not happy. They used to buzz around like,Hah! now she works in such jewelry company, which my parents felt ashamed and wanted me to do job again. Then i talked with my parents and made them believe in my work.
* How many products do you produce per day?
 - About 3/4 pairs.
* How do orders and their deliveries are made?
 - Most of the orders comes through social networks, they choose the color of their item, sometimes they show me dresses and asks me to choose something matching. Even abo(sister) Kiran Boro buys my products, only through this work we had known each other,And she also promised to help me. About deliveries near about customers comes personally to take their items,and far away orders are delivered through speed post, and they make payments through online transactions.
* What are the price of your products?
 - Price of the products depends upon the price of items they are made of and their designs. Generally their price starts from rupees 200.
* Wheat is your future planing?
 - I am hoping to expand my business and help my community through this.You see we have a lot of peoples with such talents but they never show up due to lake of opportunities, i want to help them out helping myself. For now i am starting from only jewelry but in future i will include more items like traditional wears, hand looms, handcrafts etc. Once an online marketing store approached me but I denied, because i want to start my own e-commercial site in near future.  
* What do you expect from peoples around you?
- I want nothing much, i want only their positive response and appreciation. Because I see one thing very less in our community, peoples don't appreciate such works much instead they try to degrade. Everyone wants job. But every such work is better then a job. Whatever it is small or a big idea as far it is not illegal we should do it.              
* How is the market of such products.
 - Market is really good, when you say its handcraft peoples are attracted to them only you need to have good design and good finishing. As a start up everything is going on good better than i expected.
* What kind of peoples do you want for your business. Peoples with skills?
 - Yah peoples with skills will be good, but its ok if they are not much skilled as far they have interests they can learn them.
* What is your brother doing?
 - He is taking medical coaching classes, after his exam I am planing to concentrate in my work because now I ave to take care of him.
* If you had one piece of advise to someone just starting out, what would it be? Any message for our society?
- I just want to say that, peoples who have such skills they should take it as their professions and we should not hope only for job. Because through such business you can help other peoples too, we have a lot of government schemes and projects, we can also take help from them and start modern farming with new technologies. Instead of going far away from home for work we can work at home through these. Even it develops the area,  peoples here thinks such works small and feels ashamed to do, but no work is small or big. Peoples here forgets to appreciate such works.When you plant a sapling, the way it grows healthy and strong, instead if you plant a grown up plant it does not grows that healthy and strong.

  So this is the story of the girl who refused to give up on her dreams and always wanted to do something different, apart from all the obstacles she had seen. When you have a dream and a firm strong determination you will truly succeed, is what her story tells all about. Indeed it was an inspiring journey, if you are inspired too and have an idea of such business feel free to share.

 If you liked her products and want to contact her you can contact her through following facebook link
    handcrafty : https://www.facebook.com/Sansris9to9shop/