The Hindu Business Line : ‘A name that evokes trust’

Karpagajotheeswari, all of 22, sits across the table at a meeting room within the Nokia plant, a picture of calm confidence. The daughter of a small-time grocery vendor, she joined Nokia fresh out of school at the age of 18. Growing up in Madurantakam (a two-hour drive from Chennai), education was never a given for this youngster but a hard-earned privilege. Understandable, when one considers that her father’s annual earnings barely came up to five figures.

Two-and-a-half years into her job at Nokia, she is happy to be shouldering part of the family expenses thanks to her salary, which, after deductions, comes up to a take-home of Rs 4,900. “After I joined Nokia, things changed a lot for us. My father used to ride a bicycle earlier. Now, I have bought him a two-wheeler, and he is expanding his business,” she says, checking her emotion.

She joined the company after reading an advertisement inviting applicants for the newly set-up plant. “The name is one of trust,” she says about her earliest impressions about the company and what eventually saw her applying for a job with it. The nature of her job she found out only after joining the factory.

Apsara, her colleague, who also joined the company around the same time, is a graduate from the city. Joining as an engine operator, she has moved up the ranks and today works in the supply operations section. Asked what drew her to Nokia, she says it had been her ambition to work in an MNC and Nokia presented her the opportunity.

Apsara acknowledges the support and spirit of teamwork at the organisation. She is all appreciation for her supervisors and considers her workplace a thoroughly professional set-up. Both girls are also appreciative of the relative lack of hierarchy that enables the employees’ ideas to be considered and adopted if they are found viable.

Apsara’s struggle for independence has also had its share of hurdles. One of five siblings brought up in a strict Muslim household, she is the only daughter to have completed her graduation. Her elder sisters completed their schooling before being married off. She recounts the opposition she faced when she decided to complete her graduation and take up a job.

However, things changed around after her parents got a glimpse of the work conditions at Nokia. Now, she says, she keeps her friends and family informed of vacancies arising in the company.

Nokia, the world’s largest producer of cell phones, has a range that spans the entire gamut from the very basic phones equipped with torch lights to those that can function as hand-held computers. The sheer variety means that Nokia is a highly accessible brand, with models to suit every taste and every pocket. But far from the world of stylish mobiles that make lifestyle statements for the user, this Finnish company is touching the lives of people in an entire industrial belt that cuts across the districts of Kancheepuram and Chinglepet. Ever since it set up its tenth factory at Sriperumbudur (50 km from Chennai) in 2005, the company has transformed the lives of the poor people living in these regions.

The opportunity to work with a global name has opened a new world to these girls. They display a new-found confidence and have progressive plans for their future.

While Karpagajotheeswari is focussed on completing her graduation through correspondence, she is also pursuing a course in computers during her off hours. Essentially, the girls are keen to sustain the chain of learning and working. “We don’t want to face the trials and tribulations that our parents did,” says Apsara.

Asked if marriage was on the horizon, they were both unsure, Karpagajotheeswari saying she will consider marriage only when her pay goes up to Rs 10,000. She hopes she will meet that milestone next year, a statement that brings smiles to the faces of the managers present there. But of one thing the girls are sure — they will only marry a person who would be open to their continuing to work. Evidently, their experience at Nokia has changed them in more ways than one. Far from financial wherewithal, it has bestowed on them a degree of confidence and calm.

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