A taskmaster with a passion for life

BUSINESSWOMEN OF GUJARAT/ Asha Dave

At the age of 39, Asha Dave, director of Abhyuday Synthetics, has absolutely no regrets in life. A strong believer in hard work, she looks forward to each day.

"My father was working in a company in Delhi. He was transferred to Surat in 1987, so I too had to shift here. I always wanted to start my own business, and since my father was connected with a yarn company, I decided to set up a yarn manufacturing firm," Asha said.

Abhyuday Synthetics was started at an investment of Rs 34 lakh, with an initial capacity of five tonne per month, in 1989. Within eight months, the capacity was doubled, and in three years it reached 20 tonne per month.

A few months back she set up another business, which again is doing very good.

"I started an agency, which deals in specialty chemicals and paints, manufactured by a Chennai-based company, in September 2004. The agency is getting good orders from the industries in Hazira, Gujarat State Fertilisers Corporation, Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad and others. We expect to achieve a turnover of Rs 1 crore in the near future," she said.

Other than business, Asha is also interested in sports.

"I was an adventurous person, and naturally sports attracted me. I was the table tennis champion of Haryana in 1981. Life has got a bit busy now, so there is no time to go out and play the sports. But I try to make up for it by watching a lot of sports on TV," she said. Her favourite sport is cricket followed by lawn tennis, and motor racing.

Like any other ambitious person, Asha too believes in setting up goals for herself. "I certainly set goals for myself, but I do not get disappointed if I am unable to achieve them. There is always the next time around, and one should move on," she said.

On the reasons for her mental toughness, Asha says, "After we shifted to Surat, I could not get admission in M. Sc as the admissions were already closed. So I opted for the B. Sc (Tech) course from Mantra. There were around 2,000 students in the college, but I was the only female. I was nervous and scared to such an extent that I wanted to quit within 10 days, but my parents persuaded me against doing so. I spent two years at Mantra, which made me tough mentally, and convinced me that I could face just about anything in life." Despite achieving a good amount of success, Dave is still unmarried.

"After I completed by MBA, my parents could not find a suitable match for me. And I could never find the Mr Right on my own," she chuckles.

Does Asha have any regret in life. "Well, there is a small one. I wanted to meet top industrialists and interview them. So far I have not got a chance, but hopefully I might be able to do so in the future," she says.

"I have set goals for achieving more professional success in life, but I have always been wanted to be associated with education. That does not mean setting up a college or a school, but to be connected with education in some way, so that I would be able to pass on my experience to the younger generation," she says, adding, "I also want to do something for the old and the destitute people. It is not yet clear in my mind as to what and how I would go about it, but it is certainly on my mind, and would take shape in the coming years."