Power of the Human Spirit - 7

"Having a vision and actually fulfilling it are two different things. In this very difficult time our organization has helped the women working with us economically, socially and emotionally. This really makes me proud of being part of the marketplace team". - Amisha Patil

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AMISHA PATIL

The MarketPlace and SHARE staff in India are carrying on business as best they can during the COVID-19 lockdown. This means lots of phone conferences and texts to keep in touch with suppliers, fabric dyers, students and the artisans. It also means even more juggling of work and home responsibilities. Below is a glimpse into a typical day during the COVID-19 lockdown for Amisha.

Amisha has been with MarketPlace for over 2 years and is an integral part of the design department. She previously worked in commercial clothing merchandising, so she brought to the job relevant experience and skills. While she is involved in all stages of design, her main focus is on fabric sourcing, passing of production fabric and quality.

Amisha lives in suburban Virar with her husband, Santosh, Panshul 10 years, Prisha-5 years and her father-in-law. Like everyone else, Amisha has been working from home, balancing her work and home responsibilities. She has developed her ability to multitask, such as cutting vegetables for dinner while she handles team calls.

6:00 AM - 7:30 AM
On the days that her husband goes to their factory, which he does 2 days a week under current restrictions, Amisha gets up at 6:00 AM in the morning to make his breakfast and a lunch to go. On other days she gets up by 7:30 AM and begins preparations for breakfast for the family.

8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
The next two hours are devoted to housework. She cleans the house, washes dishes and does laundry. Her daughter is responsible for taking the clothes out of the dryer. After the children are bathed and settled at some activity, Amisha gets ready for the first round of work calls and coordinating tasks.

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
The morning calls are mostly with group leaders, supervisors, and fabric suppliers. In addition there are weekly team updates. This takes up 2 hours of her time. With the lockdown, everything had to be restructured and redesigned. Instead of looking at fabric and samples in person, Amisha must inspect the samples via video calls and then assess, correct and finally pass the piece remotely. This is challenging and taxing because a small difference in measurement could lead to returns from customers.

12:00 PM - 3:30 PM
When she is finished with her calls and notes, Amisha prepares lunch. The midday meal has become the major meal of the day in her house, because there are many work calls scheduled for the evening, to coordinate with the calls from MarketPlace Chicago and the American time zone. The family enjoys a full meal, usually dahl, vegetables, rice and chapatis (Indian bread). The preparation, lunch and then cleaning take up the first part of the afternoon. Afterwards there is a little down time, when the family can rest and chat, perhaps watching something together on TV.

4:00 PM - 6.00 PM
The rest of the afternoon is devoted to quiet work and study. While the children study, draw or otherwise occupy themselves, Amisha sits with them and reads through her emails to sort and prioritize work messages. She makes a mental list of all that needs to be done in the next hour and then later at night. She makes sure that the children have something to snack on to keep their energy up. It is a bit of a challenge to come up with something new to pique their interest, but that also does not take too much time to prepare. Once or twice a week, she also visits one of the groups nearby or the sub office. On this particular day she visited the cooperative, Jivdani Mahila Mandal, where they were having problems getting the work done and dealing with the atmosphere of fear and panic in the community. Though Amisha had spoken to the artisans on the phone, she felt that it required physical assurance and strength to help them cope up as a group.

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
At this point Amisha takes a tea break with her husband and father-in-law. Amisha enjoys a close relationship with her father-in-law and she praises both her husband and his father for helping with all the household work as well as taking care of the children. Her husband has now started doing the grocery shopping.

7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
At 7:00 PM there is usually a zoom team call covering various updates and planning. Most calls last an hour, giving her time afterwards to prepare a quick dinner. Sometimes the calls run longer as the matter at hand requires more time and attention. In these cases, the family helps out and Amisha manages to get the dinner ready in the shortest time possible.

9:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Dinner is followed with the nightly ritual of getting children ready for bed. After they have brushed their teeth and are in bed, Amisha stays with them until they fall asleep.

10:00 PM - 11:00 PM (Some day's even later)
It is the time of day when all is quiet and everything has been taken care of on the household front. Amisha finds this period is the best time to finish her reports and updates for the day. The last thought before she sleeps is planning the menu for breakfast. And then as the clock ticks and the hours change into daylight another day begins and the cycle starts again.

CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO SEE MORE FROM THE ARTISANS.
Power of the Human Spirit - 1
Power of the Human Spirit - 2
Power of the Human Spirit - 3
Power of the Human Spirit - 4
Power of the Human Spirit - 5
Power of the Human Spirit - 6
Power of the Human Spirit - 8