A Day In The Life: Anurag Saha

InVenture Fellow: Portfolio Management
Location: Madurantakam, Tamil Nadu, India
InVenture NGO Partner: ASSCOD
Timeline: Summer 2011

You were introduced to our India fellow, Anurag Saha, last month. Now catch up with him as he gives his impression during his time as an InVenture fellow in Tamil Nadu, India

In Anurag’s Words:
It is said that “time and tide wait for none,” but when I arrived in Madhurantakam I was sceptical of this saying. Today a month has passed and I have realised the truth of this saying once again. Honestly, I have no idea how the time flew by. The first few days were spent adjusting to the new environment, but then I got totally immersed in the work which was exciting and satisfying at the same time. The last couple of days were even more hectic because we had to cram all the remaining work into two days. I had visited around 12 beneficiaries and most had got their investment from InVenture. It was wonderful to see how much of a positive impact InVenture was having on these entrepreneurs. Some of the beneficiaries had stopped their business because they simply couldn’t continue due to lack of investment. We had helped these entrepreneurs restart their businesses and livelihood. On the penultimate day of my stay here I had to visit 4 more beneficiaries.

The first of them was Mrs. Thulasi who ran a tailoring business. She wanted the investment to expand her business and increase her revenue in the process. She explained her business and also her plans for expansion. I visited her shop too. After that, riding with Mr.Loganathan we went to another town to visit two more beneficiaries. One of them, Mrs. Thulasi, wanted to move from their vegetable vending business and take up a dealership of cements since they had worked in the cement industry before, and wanted an investment so that they could go ahead with this. The next beneficiary was Mrs. Thilagavathy, and she ran a computer centre with her husband. They currently had internet surfing, printing, desktop publishing, Xerox and other facilities at their shop, but they wanted an investment so that they could start a computer training centre in another shop. The last beneficiary was Mrs Lata who had a fancy store and wanted to increase her stock, especially of stationery items, because it was the school reopening season and she was confident of good sales.

Most of these beneficiaries had very little money to work with and had to depend on greedy money lenders who charged exorbitant rates of interest to keep their businesses going. InVenture is helping them keep their sources of livelihood going as well as helping them improve their standard of living. I feel proud to have played a part, albeit small, in this process of InVenture helping these people. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with InVenture and I will always be grateful to them for giving me this wonderful opportunity. It was an invaluable experience and has given me many memories that will last a lifetime.