Homepreneurial opportunities: Age old concept, before the (i)nternet age.

It had been awfully cold this winter at Bangalore. I was down and out with a severe bout of cold – sore throat and breathlessness on account of blocked nose. Yet another time of the year, to remind my waking soul, about the “goodness”(read convenience) of being a homepreneur. This also gave me enough time to think about the crux of this post.
If you are someone who grew up watching regional cinemas (..regional movies from India..), I am sure you would agree that its rather easy to identify the plot of a movie, when the first few frames depict a frail woman (single parent) with malnourished kids trying to feed her children a decent meal, without trading her dignity & honour. In the next frame, you would see her hard at work on a sewing machine / Tanpura … the camera zooms in (.. to indicate passage of time…) , and soon she is an old lady & ( those malnourished) kids are now all grown up, and want to “give a life of dignity” to their mother…”Oh! Mother…. I salute thee… !”.
Plots such as these used to be the staple of almost all regional cinemas from India ( Hindi – Malayalam – Tamil – Telugu – Kannada – Gujarati – Bhojpuri.. and many more) from 1970’s – to- fag end of 1990’s. May be its the same with other regional cinemas such as French / Spanish / Italian movies. I wouldn’t know.
But, cliché’s & the theatrics apart, this does seem to make sense one way or the other. Here are some of the characters that make me re-think about homepreneurial opportunities. Teachers being predominant on the list

1. Neighbourhood Music Teacher: We used to gang up at her place every day after school at 5:30 pm for an hour of music lesion, vocal / instrumental.
2. Tuition Teacher: We used to see all kinds of tuition teachers, All subjects, Math only, Science only, College level Chemistry tuitions undertaken, etc. Some teachers start as early as 5:30 am, so that we kids have just enough time to come home – have breakfast – rush off to school. Some tuition teachers earn a reputation that is envied by schools & their employed staffs.
3. Summer crafts: The same teacher would be teaching us painting, wax modelling, knitting, embroidery. These classes would typically start at 11:00 am and continue until 2:00 pm, keeping them engrossed during the whole of a (boring) afternoon.
4. Home-made condiments: – Sometimes, womenfolk would try to supplement their family income by making condiments such as pickles, chips, pappads, snacks, sweets and savouries at home, and sell them in the neighbourhood. The fact that these are prepared at home-by-someone known to us ( ..or known to someone known to us..) add a bit of credibility to the product. Based on the response, they would call in help from their family members to increase production during festive times. Soon, a cottage-industry is born.
5. Pico work on sarees: I have never seen my mother in salwar kameez, trousers or skirts. I am not sure if saree was her attire of choice or the lack of any other choice. Pico, is getting the edges stitched in a rather special way, so that the threads would not “peel out” from the corner. Sewing machines used for regular mending work cannot do this. (May be the fashion maker of today can do this as well). When a new saree is purchased, she would diligently visit the “pico aunty”, and only after the pico work, the saree is ready to be worn. “Pico aunty” will be in great demand during Diwali / Shakaranti when textile shopping is at its peak.

These are some of the few women I grew up watching. Little did I realise then that, these are the people who were practicing homepreneurship without even realising it all along. Unsurprisingly, I realised this myself just as I was drafting this post…. So much we see around us … yet so little we look at …..
That said, would this explanation convince “Work from home”- wannabes, I guess not. After all, we belong to the i-age… anything from the pre-internet era is Spartan….I am not passing a judgement, just an observation as it is on the face-value
So, for all those minds with -willing to try-attitude (…& with a stable internet connection & basic internet usage knowledge..), I will be coming up with homepreneurial opportunities that can be performed from the comfort of your home; one-per-week. I will try my best to give you an indepth information on the technical expertise needed, the (unwritten) code of conduct to follow, warning signals that might help identify scammers, so an on so forth.
PS: The above list stands true even today, emphasising the fact that, internet is a mere tool, its up to us on what we choose to do with this tool.