Retirement Has No Age! - Debjani Mishra

"My memories of school life are linked with my fondness for my English teacher, Ms. Nalini who inculcated in me the love for English language and literature.  I was sure that after I passed out from school, I would pursue my higher studies in English Literature only.

 And I did exactly that. After completing my M.Phil in Linguistics and then getting married, I had the opportunity to travel a lot. Seeing new places, meeting people, understanding various cultures is actually real education. When we returned to India in 2003,  I started teaching. 2012 was when I thought of retiring, having done enough of teaching and travelling. 

That was when I took to baking and I started my home baking business, called Sweet Truths. Initially, I started doing this for close friends and family, but with a lot of encouragement, I put up a Facebook page, and gained recognition in the community. I started without any training and struggled quite a bit.  I upgraded my skills myself and I continue doing that even now. I do everything single handedly, right from baking to decorating.

I soon started another venture, Pawlicious, which catered to pets. Having been a pet parent, this is something very close to my heart and making pet birthday cakes and treats for pets gives me immense satisfaction.

What feels special about all this is that, at a stage when people retire, I decided to start a new career. This keeps me busy and happy, because I do not have to take orders if I don’t want to, and I have the freedom to travel if I want to.

When I started this venture, not many people were happy about this, because they thought I was throwing away a secure job to pursue something else. However, my husband and children have been my biggest support. Leaving a good and secure job wasn’t easy either, especially when I didn’t have all the skills to start my new venture. The excitement to know something more, to do something better, to take the risk of doing it all on your own, drives me further."–Debjani Mishra.