Every company needs publicity. I’ve written to so many popular blogs asking them to feature CraftCanvas on a guest post. And since you haven’t read any article on CraftCanvas anywhere else on the blogosphere, you know I wasn’t successful! However the good news is that I’ve been successful in the print media. Can you imagine 3 articles in a row, all in the month of April. Of course, this has nothing to do with fooling you. It really did happen! Falguni (my lovely friends who runs AppleBlossom) started it all. She went out of her way to persuade a journalist that CraftCanvas is a good enough story to cover. So when the journalist called me (on a super busy weekend when I had friends visiting), I was sure that it was a one-off thing, a back up story. I wasn’t so excited and was going to spend barely half hour on it. One of the friends who was visiting forced me (she’s like a pseudo mom, always pushing me to do things!) to spend a day on it and I ended up sending the jounalist loads of stuff. And I waited…..
If you are someone who’s been regularly following up on CraftCanvas, you’d remember the workshop that we conducted on Warli painting. It was pretty good success and I am working on making it a regular feature. So ‘the first of it’s kind in Ahmedabad’ workshop was featured in DNA on the 2 nd day of the workshop. I was ecstatic. It was 80% craftsman and 20% CraftCanvas article, but I was happy with the results. After all, they are the integral part of CraftCanvas.
I have a very kind friend VV (not sure if I can name her), who’s been smitten by CraftCanvas. I love it when people say such things. CraftCanvas is definitely not a profitable venture (not yet!) and such goodwill is all that I can cherish for the moment. VV contacted her friends, shared the workshop photos on almost all the relevant Facebook walls and finally there was someone who landed up at the event. By now, I was a pro. I knew all that I had to say and I even posed in all the pictures. You can see a tad bit of my dress in the photograph. All this reaffirms my basic principle of just working hard, doing what you can do. The rest just happens.
So after the week long workshop, I was off to Delhi on a personal visit. When I came back, I was still basking in the success of the previous workshop and got into planning another one. The first article was off my head, I’d decided that it was a back up story and wasn’t meant for publication. So like all dramatic events in life, Falguni called one morning to tell me the news. I had not one, but two articles in the current issue.
This happens to be their anniversary issue, so the issue was full of thoughts from various women. I was glad to be a part of the group that followed their heart. Small perks that come by for giving up on a lucrative career! 😀 And thanks Girish for the photo and for sending it to me at lightning speed.
I think in the end, this post is about the people in my life. People who’ve helped me, recommended me, pushed me to excel without a second thought. I hope to live up to their expectations and better still, be able to reciprocate. Thank you guys. I am terribly moved by these actions.
