Growing-up in an Indian Business Family-A Daughter's Perspective

Having grown in a family that manufactures perfumes and other related products, fragrances have been an important part of my childhood. There were a few years (from 6years of age - 8 years of age) when I used to go to papa’s store (Sugandhco) everyday directly from school. My lunch came from home packed with papa’s lunch. I used to sleep in the afternoon in the tiny office in store and my bed used to be 2 small benches joined together. ( I was only six years old, didn’t need more)

I learned handling cash, selling perfumes, talking to customers, teaching english to the store staff, doing homework sometimes and making a drawing almost everyday.

I had a lot of friends there. Almost all the shopkeepers in that area were my friends and my evenings were spent hopping from one store to another, chatting with all the uncle-friends.

You must be wondering why at all did this happen when I had a big joint family and loads of cousins at home. Well, I was a non-speaker. Sort of an introvert. Never talked about my problems, didn’t have friends in school and got bullied a lot. All this was an effort by papa to make me talk to unknown people and develop some confidence in me.

Though this exercise did little at that point, But believe me, I have grown up to be a confident, independant person. Someone who can easily make new friends. That time spent in the store with papa has taught me in abundance. I can talk to strangers and know that generally people are helpful. Even if I do/say something wrong, if I accept it and learn from it then I gain even more trust and respect from people. I can handle customers, all kinds of them. I can manage inventory and do stock taking without computers. I can handle the cash drawer too. I know a bit about perfumes, oils, agarbattis and aromas. And I know a lot about being creative, innovative and drawings. 

Thanks to papa for giving me his valuable time in a unique way while helping me grow to be the person I am today.