Today I was invited in Red Hat,Pune Office to celebrate International Women's Day with them. There was a panel discussion regrading different roles of women in the society and how difficult or easy it is for a woman to create her own brand.
The following is my journey how I am creating my own brand.
There are broadly three ways of creating your own brand :
First a very difficult way to behave so as to make it appear that something is the case when in fact it is not. Basically to show that you know 100% when the fact is that you know only 20-30% of the matter. Though it seem very easy but unfortunately it's not because you always have a risk of exposing yourself. And it is an art, a god gift which does not come naturally to everyone. It is not easy to present yourself as porsche when in fact you are nano.
The second way is to imitate the person you look upto. This seems quite safe because one with normal level of intelligence will idolise someone who is exceptionally good in the said sector. Therefore by idolizing her even if one does not be as good as her but surely will reach upto a level. But in this case there will be no you in you. you will be that person no you. you will be as clueless as Arnold Schwarzenegger will be in Karan Johar family drama.
One thing is important to mention here that image and/or individuality and/or brand can be divided into two parts as a whole one is core or generic and the other part which is fluid part. But in no circumstances the fluid part should not overtake or in conflict with your core. One’s brand as you say does not only limited to her professional field but also it has its extention on the personal sphere.
The third and the easiest way is to be you, yourself. you may be wrong may be right but it's you, that is your brand. You must aim to be you. You are your brand. I personally am a follower of path.
My journey is basically a journey from the world of prim and proper, black and white to the world of torn jeans and faded t shirts sometimes as ancient as Aloknath.
I used to practice at High Court Calcutta, specializing in mortgage and land. I had two dedicated stenographers who use to be my personal speech recognition engine. I was so illiterate and lazy that they used to type the emails, update orkut, facebook status for me. My relationship with computers was as nice as it is between Linus Torvalds and Nvidia.
Then one fine morning of October 2011 I first heard of the word Fedora from a person, who now happens to be the father of my child.
After the commencement of the world war 3 on January 2012 suddenly the words of discussion changed from act, section, article to bug, patch, Gnome, Kde etc.
Around this time I had no plans doing anything related to FOSS. I was happy at my own space. I was busy doing my master in laws with a specialisation in business law, attending dance workshops, learning to cook and increasing the revenues of Indian Railways cause my University was in Orrisa (a state far away from where I live).
2013 August I joined a mortgage firm in Pune as an Associate Attorney. Again new Acts, Laws and a language. I started learning them. I read the Acts started to learn Marathi, then only December 2013 we moved back to Kolkata our hometown.
I got a job their at a famous law firm as the Mortgage Attorney . But before I could join there I got into the world of wash basins and couch for the next 9 month.
November 10th 2014 I joined the biggest job of my life, I became a mother. As everyone knows it is the most demanding job anyone could ever imagine. It's a journey of new learnings, experiences,a lot of good and bad times, highs and lows, fun and fear, frolic and phobia ... but the most accomplishing identity of my life. I made by companionship with her my little Py, though you don’t sleep.
Then time just flew I didn’t have notice I have dark circles, look like a zombie, talk without having any clue as our daughter do not sleep. 2015 June I again moved back to Pune.
Kushal, wanting to have his normal, sane wife back dragged me out and gave a book and some blogposts to read.
As soon as I started reading them suddenly felt wind blowing, violins started playing around, everything became slow motion just like a Yash Chopra movie, thankfully Kushal didn’t appear in a chiffon saree in front of me.
I got an open sky above my head and new grass beneath my feet. I started digging into it more.
Over the last few years I met a bunch of passionate people who by the common terminology are called nerds. One may feel these people unshaven, long hair, faded old tee shirts, big glass always working on their laptop with their one eyebrow lifted almost like Madhuri Dixit dancing pose are so different therefore unapproachable but trust me they are not. They will appear as most friendly and helpful if you approach them with a technical problem or any question. They won't judge you may judge your code/contribution.
It was a complete new planet for me. where people share, want to grow as a community. People while dancing, drinking their 3rd can of beer can discuss the patch they never committed. The only thing they flaunt is their knowledge and not their branded atair. The people who are extraordinarily intelligent, knowledgeable, successful at the same time friendly and humble. One example is Lennart Poettering.
I was surprised to core because I came from a field where individual growth is the only concern, where no one would share anything even to the closest friend.
To be a part and moreover to understand the discussions with my new found friends and the enemy I started inquiring about open and closed source, FOSS, vim, ABI, linux, openstack… the list is to long.
I started using twitter, writing blog posts, listing to talks. I am in a heavy learning phase right now. But I have a very limited time as allowed by Py.
Most of work I do is after 2:30 am when she is not active. That reminds me that anyone who has any contact related to empty flat for rent please pass me the same cause when I read or write at 3 am its ok but when I practice my dance on 1st floor flat it's sufficient for making me homeless at any given point of time.
Therefore now I am creating my own identity, individuality as you say brand by way of knowledge. Moreover being truly passionate about what I do.