Why women should do something more than just being a home maker?

Yesterday I was traveling back in train from Kerala to Chennai. A middle aged lady boarded from Erode. I was half asleep in the cozy AC compartment. My kids were also sleeping. So I hardly noticed the lady in a pale yellow cotton saree.

Later on, the TTE came in to check for her tickets. She did have the ticket but she did not have the id proof. She had a  copy of Aadhar card though. TTE was not happy with her id proof and asked her to move to general compartment.

With the disturbance I woke up and saw her getting ready to move to the general compartment. I asked her what the matter is. She said:"I am traveling to Chennai as my daughter is not well. My son-in-law booked the tickets. But since it was in a hurry I did not take any id proof. And this is the first time that I am traveling alone and I thought the photo copy would be good enough."


I felt that something wrong is happening with her. She had that twinkle in her eyes, her shiny nose ring was complimenting her solid black complexion. I felt that she is saying the truth. Why even with a proper ticket and a decent id proof, TTE is asking her to move to general compartment.

To help her out, I went through her ticket and id proof, it was all real. Then why is she moving to the general coach? I asked her to wait. Let us wait for TTE to come back and clarify. I saw the helplessness in her face. I thought for a moment, it could happen to my mom as well.

I wondered, what exactly happened to her?

And then we started talking. She was talking about her life. She did a course in nutrition in the year 1985. Since the government was supporting nurtition related projects she got a very good job and worked for 4 years. But then she got married to a businessman and had kids. Bringing up kids took up the highest priority, so resigned from job and became a full time home maker.

She has 3 kids- 2 sons and a daughter. One son is an electronic engineer and the other one works with Amazon. Daughter is married of and she has a son. Daughter has done her clinical assistant course (something related to hospital, I did not get this completely) and worked with a renowned hospital for 5 years. But after kid, for the last one year she is not working.

She said she keeps advising her daughter: "Get back to job or else you will be like me."

She then added: "If I was with the service I would have been in a great post by now. Look at me now, I can't even speak in English. I don't know how to travel alone. I don't want the same to happen with my daughter."

She kept saying:" I even feel why should girls be taught such professional courses? To sit at home? Husbands feel that we want to work to make some money. It is not money that we look for in a job. It is just the pleasure of doing something more. The independence. To have a small world for ourselves that gives us fullfillment."

She is now in her late 50s or early 60s. She very frustratingly told that her husband keeps asking her: "What have you done so far with life? Other than bringing up kids. Why you don't know anything about the world?"


I just felt may be my life would be similar to her's after 15 more years if I don't do anything now - Low on confidence, scared to talk even if I am right, always dependent on somebody and easy target to blame for everything.

I really want to be the best of me! And ready to do whatever it takes!

Why women should do something more than just being a home maker?

I always feel, being born as a girl gives us equal opportunity to do anything like men. But when we have kids, our brain stops working and heart takes over. Which is very natural. And it should be that way too. Kids are the future. And nobody can replace mother to give them the best upbringing. 

Having said all these, I feel there should be something more than this. Just imagine that your kids have all grown up and started a family of their own. Except for yearly visits, you don't even get to meet them. Husbands will as usual be busy with their job, business or whatever. 

I as a woman foresee such a future; With lots of time, but no creative work. Low confidence and having no idea of where life is heading. Mega serials, spiritual books, illnesses will become best friends as we don't know what to do with so much of time. 

I really feel that to avoid such a future, I have to start doing something now. It could be big or small. It could happen hand in hand with household chores. But I can slowly keep working on it, so that my mind is always positive and happy till I die. 

By the way, to end the story, TTE came again but we (other co passengers) stood with her and she did not move to the general coach. 

40 short term courses that can launch you on a steady career even if you have never worked before

When I see working women talking about their work, I feel like rejoining for a job. Quite many times I have asked my 7 year old son:” Shall I go to office like papa?” And the response is always spontaneous:”NO! Then who will cook food for us? Then who will look after me and my little brother?” or sometimes sadly “Then nobody will be there when I come back from school if you also come home late like papa.”

It is a fact that if my family members are not happy I cannot be happy at work either. Especially when kids fall sick, nursing them takes the priority No.1. Even working may not be as exciting as it feels now if things go for a toss at home. I’m sure there are many like me in such a dilemma. How glad will it be if we can take care of both with ease!  Say something like a part-time job or an opportunity to work from home.

How to get started with a work from home opportunity or a part time job?

And the good news is that I can very well have a happy family and a successful career side by side. Thanks to the handful of part time courses that enable me to re-launch my career without hurting my family responsibilities.  The courses range from Montessori training, medical transcription to more technical ones like animation and search engine optimisation. If you are also looking for training courses that enable you to relaunch your career, please read on.

The best part of these courses is that you don’t require any qualification like graduation or post graduation to join any of them. Following is an exhaustive list of such courses that equip you to have a career either at home or by sparing two-four hours away from home.  

List of 40 courses offering part-time job opportunities for women: 

To make things easy, I have classified the jobs based on the place of work – at home or outside home. Please check out the course information below.

Part time job courses with work place outside home:

1.       Montessori training : 

Montessori teacher training gives you all the skills to work as a pre-school teacher. There are many montessori teacher training courses available in each city. Check out on internet for the ones in your locality. The training course span for a year maximum. The course fee ranges from 10000 to 20000 depending on the quality of training. And once completed you can start working at the nearest montessori or school.

2.       Foreign or Local Language coaching:

My friend Saro, is pursuing Japanese lessons and she intends to be a Japanese tutor in some more time. Learning a foreign language will equip you to pursue a career as language translator or tutor once the course is finished. To master a foreign language you can enroll yourself at a language coaching center in your city. French, Japanese and German are the most sought out foreign languages. You will start at a beginner level and will get upgraded to further levels after clearing the assessments.

3.       Interior designing courses:

The short term interior designing courses enable you to launch an interior designing service. The course will teach you the about aesthetically designing a house or any space as such in a professional manner. You will also be familiarised with the softwares used to do interior designing. Once completed, you could very well be doing the interiors of a brand new house or a commercial space like restaurant or hotel or office. 

4.       Dubbing courses or voice over artists

Dubbing is a part time job that pays handsomely for your hardwork. Dubbing courses are usually offered in film schools and specialised dubbing institutes. Once you finish the dubbing course, you can apply for different sort of dubbing jobs.

5.       Subtitling courses

Subtitling is a good part time job. This involves adding subtitles to movies, videos or documentaries. You can enroll for a subtitling course online. Good course will charge for a fees of around 20000 INR. 

6.       Radio Jockey Training

FM stations have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. And getting a job as a radio jockey would be the easiest thing. Join a radio jockey training course and secure the most enthusiastic part time job ever. Radio jockey training courses are offered at different  radio broadcasting institutes.

7.       Magician course

If you love Magic, you can learn more tricks and make a career out of it. You could very well find job during kids birthday party or any such energetic events. 

8.       Library assistant coaching

If you are a bookworm, you can think of a career as a library assistant. The library assistant training involves the basics of book keeping. 

9.       Photography Training

If there is a photographer in you, professionalise it by attending good photography courses. This course will turn your photographs professional as well as you will get connected to a good network of professional photographers. You can attend events and get leads to photography assignments. Ultimately, build your career from your hobby.

10.   Beautician course

If you like grooming up a lot and love trying it on others, you can go for a beautician course. Once certified, you can start off your own beauty parlour at home or at a commercial space. 

11.   Pharmacy assistant courses

Pharmacy assisstant course teaches you the in depth details of medicine names and general know how of medicines. Once completed, you can start working in any pharmacy. Or in diagnostic centres to check ECG, take X-Rays and the likes.

12. Stenography course

Stenography training will give you all the skills to type faster. You will find jobs in book publishing houses and corporate offices who required skilled typers.

Part time job courses with work place at home:

13.   Candle making Craft courses

Once you learn the basics of candle making through a course, you can work on improvising it to make different varieties of candles. You can start off a candle selling business or start offering similar course once you master the art.

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14.   Glass painting courses

If you have an artistic hand, you can start with glass painting. The course will help you to know the basics of how to get started and avoiding the common mistakes. You can sell off your art works online or nearby art and craft shops. Also you can think of taking classes to people who want to learn it. 

15.   Leaf painting training

Everybody love handmade things and leaf paintings are very much in demand as unique gift items. A leaf painting course will teach you how to choose the leaf, what are the processes involved, what paint to use and everything related to leaf painting. On finishing the course you can start a small scale business with your talent. Start posting about it in FB and soon doors will open to you.

16.   Gift Wrapping training

Gift wrapping is relatively new but tremendously growing industry. You can enroll for a gift wrapping course that teaches you how to wrap different types of gifts. You could find jobs in corporate gift wrapping, hotel presentations, festivals, wedding, baby shower and other ceremonies. The course fee depends on who is offering the course. This could be any where from 2500 to 66000 depending on the depth of the course. 

17.   Jewellery Making workshops

Jewellery is something that is always in demand. By attending a jewellery making course, you can get started with many at home and showcase your talent at exhibitions or sales. This will give you that independence and happiness that you are looking for.

18.   Chocolate Making courses

Hand made chocolates are uber gifts these days. Everyone prefers them over packed chocolates loaded with preservatives. Chocolate making is an easy process and you can master it very fast. Once mastered you can start selling your delicious hand made chocolates to your near and dear ones. You can also expand sales by selling it in bakeries and other food joints.

19.   Jam and Jelly making courses

You can attend a jam and jelly making course and learn all about food processing there. You can make jams and jellys of every seasonal fruit. People will be ready to buy the home made jams as they come with hardly any preservative. 

20.   Baking courses

You can join a baking class and learn the basics of baking. Once you learn it, you can start baking for your near and dear ones. As you keep practising it, you will learn about more complicated cakes or bakes and soon you will master it to start off a bakery on your own. You can also supply to the various restaurants or food joints in your locality. 

21.   Share trading course

Share trading is an easy way to make money from home. Though easy it is a bit risky too. You can learn about how to do share trading by attending a short course on the same. Once done, you can start trading shares online or over phone. What a better way to make money?

22.   Stitching or fashion designing courses

If you love stichting, you can join a stitching or embroidery course and expand your skills. You can start taking orders from your near and dear ones. And thus get started with your fashion designing career.

23. Jute Craft courses

You can enroll for a Jute Craft course and start making unique jute items that sell like hotcakes. Be bags, purses, mats or other gift items. If are a bit more innovative kind, you will find a good bunch of opportunities once the course is over.

24. Knitting Courses

Knitting was considered as grandma's best past time. But now with people opting for hand made wonders, knitting is back to business. You can do a knitting course to learn the basics of creating different artifacts. Later on you can use your creativity to create your own niche market.  Learning crochets along with this will give you more space to work on. You can be innovative and make laptop sleeves, mobile pouches, newborn booties and what all!

25. Lampshade Making courses

With more and more importance on interiors, lamps with shade are in high demand. A lampshade making course will teach you all about the different designs and materials used in lampshade making. You can very well launch your own unique collection of lampshades and lead the niche market.

26. Lamasa Art Courses

Lamasa or clay art courses teaches you all about creating different shapes using clay. You will learn about how to colour them and paint and what not to do with the clay art. Once done you can launch your own creative section of artifacts - anything from fridge magnet to miniature sculptures.

27. Mehndi Design courses

Mehndi design courses will run you through different intricate mehndi designs. You can work as a Mehndi artist after completing the course.

28. Mosaic work courses

Mosaic work is an art on its own. This course teaches you how to cut, glue and apply your instinct to come up with mind blowing mosaic arts. Once completed you can set up your own small art shop that sells different sort of mosaic arts on coasters, photo frames, wall arts and much more. If you are really serious about it, you will find professional jobs like furnishing the interiors of a hotel or house using mosaic art.

Computer and Internet based courses:

29.   Medical transcription courses

Medical transcription is an easy way to make money from home. The busy doctors will orally prescribe the medicines to patients and you as a medical transcriptioner has to write down the entire prescription. The training teaches you how to do this perfectly. The courses are available online as well as offline. Once completed, you can work from the comfort of your home and earn 5 digit salary.

30.   Web designing courses –HTML, PHP, XML

You can launch your own web designing company if you are fluent with the common web designing languages like HTML, PHP and XML. A course on any of these will help you work either as a freelancer or as a web designer for some body. 

31.   Graphic designing courses

Graphics are used more than ever these days. Be it company logo, photo editing or fonts. You can enroll for a graphic designing course and get started with your freelance designing career simultaneously. 

32.    Blog setup – Wordpress online courses

There could be many who needs help in setting up a blog. You can do a course on blog set up and get certified as a professional blog designer. You can help others in setting up their first blog, product blog or company blog. 

33.   SEO certified courses

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the most sought out people in the internet. You can do a certified course on SEO and launch your own SEO consultancy service. This will give you the platform to embark on the most amazing career ever.

34.   Data entry training

You can complete a data entry basic course and get started with data entry jobs available online. What can be an easier way than simply entering data as prescribed and earn good money as reward.

35.   Animation courses

If you like creating short animated movies and is looking for a career in the same, then you should try out a course on computer animation, Animation course will familiarise you with the latest animation software and how to go about a project in whole. Once finished you can work for gaming companies, cartoon animations, 3D animation and other graphic rich jobs. 

36. Digital Marketing courses

Nowadays every company is turning to a digital marketing expert to improve their presence on the web and social media. This is the most exciting career opportunity of this age. You can finish an internet marketing course and launch your own internet marketing service on the web. Amazing business it is!

37.   Software testing training

The software companies require people to test the fresh softwares at every stage of production. By finishing a short term course that teaches you what software testing is all about you can get started with a decent job in the same field. Mostly, if you come across any job opportunity in software testing, the company itself will provide you with the training. 

38.   Instructional Design courses

Instructional Design is the trending job these days. Educators in school, with digital teaching methodologies need more friendly ways to present the information. An instructional design course will teach you how to put a piece of information in the best way - including images, written content and much more. 

39.   Image Editing/photo editing courses

Photo editing courses teach you all about enhancing the quality of images. Once finished you can look for photo editor job openings in media companies. Or you can start off as a freelancer from home providing image editing services on the web. 

40. Content Writing Course

The content writing course differs on what exactly you want to specialise in - be a web content writer, magazine content writer or a technical writer. Choose a writing course that you love to do and you will easily find career in the same. Writing doesn't come easy to everyone. With social media marketing on the boom all needs good quality content.

The good part of attending such a course is that once completed, you can straight away get started with your part time job in the same.  Thus you will earn for your work and enjoy a feel good time. You will need to spare only a few hours of your day to get things turn the way you want them to.

Wait! Check out in detail about the course before you sign up for one.

Before joining any of these courses do some ground work to assess who offers the course best. Go through the details of course curriculum. Have a fair idea of the fees charged. Talk to people who have already completed the course and get their views on the same.  Here is a snippet of the heads that need some thorough checking:

• Who is offering the course?: Go for an established or government institution for the course than a newbie.
• What is the Course curriculum?: Have a thorough know how of what all is covered. Analyse it to see if it will really help you out when you start a career in that.
• What is the Course span?: Have a clear picture of how long is the course and when will get the certificate of completion so that you can start with a job in the same field. 
• What is the course Fees?: Check out the fees of similar courses offered from different institutions. Who wants to pay extra bucks for the same stuff? 
• What are the Job opportunities?: Always check for the available job openings or career options once you finish the course.
• What is the possible return per month? Have a fair idea of the possible remuneration for someone in the same field. You can approach anyone in the same field to have a better idea of how much worth it is. 
• What is the Timing of the course?: You plan to take up a part time job or work from home career. So ensure that the course timing also fits your daily schedule. If you have a toddler at home look for flexible training times if possible. 

A part time job is a real blessing for women who have sacrificed their career for the upbringing of their family. Most of them offer you flexibility so that the family responsibilities are taken care of too. There are many non-trained billionaires who made it out with their passion. With a little bit of help from outside you can turn the world the way you want.

How to get rid of the distractions while working from home?

I have been working from home since 2006. Having worked in a corporate sector the idea of being my own boss thrilled me. Even better, working with my pyjamas on excited me.  But once I started the so called ‘working from home’ things were not looking easy.

Some relative or long lost friend would call at the time of their convenience.  Plumber, carpenter, gas guy, or somebody for that matter would come and eat up atleast half an hour of time. Moreover, that will be the time when my neighbour wants to ask ‘how are you doing’. Then the conversation can last for an hour more.

Or a relative would be visiting our city and would want to have lunch with us – it will start with a tea plus lunch plus again evening tea so on and so forth.  And when family expanded, getting quality time seemed next to impossible.

Like these, the reasons for getting away from my work were always a lot many more. And it seemed like work turned to be of the least priority –which I never wanted to be. I started thinking on how to change this, so that I can be a home maker at the same time be independent and enjoy healthy working hours as well.

In that thought process, one thing that I realised is that, time is the only thing that is shared equally between all of us – be it me ‘a work from home mom’ or my friend who is still working with infy, or the Infy founder Mr. Narayanamurthy! So if I manage my time effectively I can manage everything under the sun.  

So here goes the way I manage my work from home stuff:

How to work from home in the most professional way?

What follows below is how I started making more money from my work from home jobs just by following more discipline at work. These are the methods that worked the best for me, you can also work on this on a similar fashion to make it work better for you.

1) Time management: 

I started analysing my day – what all activities I am doing and how much time each is taking up.  I did this for around 3-4 days. This actually gave an idea of planning my day.  I got to know cooking takes up around 1 and half hours, washing takes another hour, cleaning takes another half an hour every morning.

What I also realised is that I can actually club a few of the activities to save time. For example, cooking can go hand in hand with washing (washing machine provided). Similarly calling home and talking to friends over phone can happen when I am dusting or cleaning. The power of multi tasking showed that I can devote some more good time for work then.

One more thing I realised is that I can finish off all the household stuff faster if there is no disturbance around. So I decided to wake up early and finish off all cooking before my kids and Veeran woke up. That actually ensured that I finish my cooking, starting from breakfast till lunch in one hour or one hour 15 minutes maximum. Had I not done this, something or other kept delaying cooking and I always ended up trapped in kitchen till lunch time.

Ironically, I would be doing this day in and out if I were working outside for somebody else. This in turn made me feel I should treat my work from home as good as or in fact better than working for some MNC.  I know down the line, I will be contributing a lot to the Indian economy when I become more successful entrepreneur.So I started following a daily plan like this:

This actually ensures that I finish up my work in allotted time itself and very rarely extending for half an hour, but definitely not beyond that.

2)      Plan my day everyday

Did you notice that I do some ‘plan my day’ in the early fresh morning hours? This is all regarding the work that I will do in my ‘working hours’.  This helps me to stick to my work schedule. This also helps me not forget the work that I intend to complete that day.

I use a notebook and a ball point pen to jot it down. And whenever I am done with a particular job, I tick it as done. This gives me a sense of satisfaction. And the urge to tick everything helps me focus on my tasks and finish them by end of day.

I ensure that the tasks are cut down in to small ones so that it is easy to do as well as the pleasure of completing it pumps me up. For example, if I think of updating my blog with an article, first I decide on the subject from the list I already made. So the first day my job list will look a bit like this:

Day 1:

1. Finalise the next topic
2. Do research on the web, note down good references
3. Create a skeleton of the article

The next day my plan would be like:

Day 2:

1. Write the intro and rearrange the skeleton of the article to give it a better flow
2. Expand the article with the re ferred content
3. Be ready with the draft

And the third day I would be doing this:

Day 3:

1. Edit the draft
2. Do styling
3. Add images
4. Upload it

So every single job makes me feel I have done something today. This indeed makes me feel good.

This example just covered updating my blog, but I am into some other ventures as well. So I do this sort of planning for all of them. This is something that helps me to have a healthy discipline at work.

3)      Review the day every night before I go to sleep

I review my day by looking at my ticked daily plan. I go to bed feeling happy that I have done so much today. Sometimes, some work get carry forwarded to next day and the review helps me to put that first in the next day’s plan.

Rarely, I end up choosing some wrong job, for example, an article which needs more research and cannot be done in 3 days. This review helps me to switch that job with something better so that I have some output at the end of the day.

4)      Do planning with household works as well

I usually check the veggies in the vegetable tray and mentally decide on what is the menu for next day. This indeed saves a lot of my time with cooking. When I know what to cook, cooking become easier and faster.  And food turns tastier too.

I also keep ready the dress to be worn next day. This I do for everyone in the family. This helps me save a good amount of time. By ensuring that all school stuff is ready the previous night, there is no hurry-burry in the morning while getting my son ready for school.

Similarly, I keep laundry stuff together the previous night so that I can give it to Dhobi when he appears in the morning. Earlier, I used to look out for more apparel when I see him. By keeping it all ready the previous day, a big headache is over, and gives me some extra time.

5)      Announce everyone that I am working from home and busy

I am still working on improving the habit of saying ‘NO’ when required. When somebody calls me even if I am in the middle of work I used to feel that I should attend the call because they might have something important to share. Or some emotional stuff like, ‘see she thought of me now and so I should speak to her’ and so and so.

But now I don’t entertain such ‘hello, how are you’ calls when I am at work.  I reply with a text saying: ‘I am busy right now, is there anything urgent? If not, I will call you at so and so time’. And I do call back at that time. They have started respecting me even more these days.

I started announcing all relatives and friends that I am working seriously from home. So they also don’t call me that frequently during my quality time nowadays.  No distraction means better focus at work and able to finish it fast.

I have told my friends also that I am busy at these times most of the day. You guys go ahead with shopping plans; I will join you guys some other day.

6)      Keep heavy shopping for weekends

I know it is fun to do shopping together with friends. But since I am serious about my work, I kind of restrict myself from that daily. I usually keep heavy shopping for weekends. I do the household shopping monthly so the major shopping list is over in one go. I do keep my weekends a bit light as I value spending time with my family. I make a special dish on weekends, go out for movie, or generally hang out to have fun.

7)      Hire an expert rather than learning it from scratch

Earlier I had a feeling that I should do everything- cooking, cleaning etc. I assumed that this will keep me fit and house will be super clean. But very often it ended up the other way. Fact is that, I don’t enjoy doing the household cleaning and stuff as much as I enjoy my work. So if I do everything one day, the next day I feel lazy and things start piling up. This in turn becomes a monstrous task the third day!

I know I am not an expert in many of the household stuff. So I delegate a major chunk of such jobs to an expert.  Keep a maid, I know it is a big nuisance waiting for them, but you are helping them earn their livelihood as well. Similarly, I hire people to clean ACs, chimneys, cleaning fans etc. I believe that I will enjoy ‘Do It Yourself’ stuff like this when I have lot more free time. Say once my company starts clocking a billion in revenue!

So these are the things that I do to make the best out of me. Do try something similar to chalk out more quality time for your work from home jobs. This is no rocket science, but adding a bit more of discipline to the lives.

When I started with my family life, I often wished to have 10 hands like Goddess Durga. But that is never possible, because I am a human. Over the years, after working on managing my day efficiently, I get the same result as having those 8 extra hands! This works big time. Start doing this if you plan to make it BIG in your life!

How to become a Subtitler?

Long long ago, back in 2008 during a family get together in Gurgaon I met an aunt. She was wearing a salwars kameez  and it was a new thing for me to see aunts in their late 50s wearing something other than saree* (I do come from a conservative narrow minded family. I follow the same tradition, but my mind has opened up a bit over the years). She asked me 'are you working?' I said: 'no'. Then I asked her back ' are you working'. And she said 'yes. I work as a subtitler'.

Thanks to my brother who showed me how to watch movies with subtitles. Because of which, what she said made sense to me. But honestly, I wasn't sure about how could someone make a career out of writing subtitles.

When I started this blog, I had subtitle writer as a career option. So I started researching more about it.

I found Nandini Karky's explanation the most realistic. She herself is a subtitler in the Tamil movie industry. (Please go through it, as it explains in detail the beauty and intricacies of crafting a subtitle.)

Well, now let me share what all I found out about the subtitling industry.

What are subtitles?

I am sure that most of you have noticed the written text (in English) under each scene while watching movies. These are subtitles.Yes, it is such a simple stuff that explains movie dialogues in detail.

Subtitles are important because:

1) Subtitles explains the dialogue which would be missed or not interpreted otherwise,
2) Subtitles enables us to watch foreign language films, thus increasing the number of audience
3) Subtitles helps deaf people to enjoy movies better

And the person who adds it to the movie is called a subtitler. You too can be a subtitler, if you love watching movies and can follow the dialogues with out fail.

So, how to become a subtitler?

The most important prerequisite is the love for language. A true language lover can play with the nuances of the language. You need to be proficient in atleast any one of the Indian languages or any international language to be a subtitler. And of course, fluency in MS-Word and good typing skills!

What I found is that subtitling is a field that involves some learning before you get started, You can enroll for subtitling course at SubtitlingWorldWide. This subtitling course spans for 3 months - covers familiarising with the subtitling software, learning the basic subtitling skills and mastering the art of subtitlting. Please note that the course fee is approximately 20,000 INR. What I liked most about the course is that, the only skill required to complete it is proficiency in English language and the desire to learn subtitling.

Apart from Subtitling World Wide, that offer courses online, you can look for short term courses in your location. This you can attend in person, and allows you have a fairer approach on subtitling. This will introduce you to the real world of subtitling and get started with demo projects. To know about such courses in your city - internet Zindabad!

If you want to learn it on your own, that is also possible, I found the online tutorial at Miracle Tutorials also explaining how to create subtitles in detail.

How to create subtitles?

Subtitling is not all about transforming the spoken text to written one. But it actually summarises the spoken text without losing any of the expressions. Also song lyrics as well as other sounds played in the movie needs to be texted down.

But while doing all these one should let the viewer enjoy the movie or otherwise he will end up reading line after line. The director also has put in a lot of effort to put those images absolutely stunning. So a subtitle should not appear when the viewer has to enjoy the scene by itself.

I found the article at Proz very informative on what all need to be taken care of while creating subtitles. To create subtitles for a video file, you can use specific subtitling softwares like Visual SubSync, ELR studio, Subtitle Workshop or Spot.

To try out how to create subtitles for a sample video you can use DotSub. 

What I liked more about subtitling is that, the convenience of working on the language that I am comfortable with. It could very well be my mother tongue - Malayalam! I will be really proud to be the subtitler for  a Malayalam movie.

Different types of subtitling projects that you can do

I have seen most of the subtitles in movies. But nowadays all documentaries and some tv programmes also come with subtitles.  You can take up a subtitling project in any of the following:

1. Same Language Subtitling (SLS) - This involves writing subtitles in the same language as the program audio.

2. Voice over subtitling - This is for programmes like documentaries where there is no visible speaker, but audio is played as voice over the video .

3. Closed Captioning - Providing subtitles for deaf and people with low hearing capabilities is called closed captioning

4. Subtitling live speech - Yes this is done after becoming an expert subtitler. BBC live programmes usually come with live subtitles as well.

What is the earning potential of a subtitler?

As a subtitler you can earn from Rs.5000 to Rs.20000 per film depending on the project. Isn't that a good amount?

How to get subtitling jobs?

To get your first few sub jobs you can do the following:

1) Project yourself as a subtitler on social media - Create a Linked In profile that says that you are a subtitler. Also use Twitter effectively to publicise your newly learnt skill. Basically update and use up your social media profiles to get some work.
2) Look for freelance subtitling jobs offered individually
3) Look for subtitling jobs at companies like Red Bee Media
4) Email your resume to companies that offer subtitling job openings. And tell them you are interested to work on subtitling projects.

Everything takes time till you get started. Once you start off, you will find more jobs. So get started with that initial steps without waiting. Subtitling is a wonderful career option who wants to have a good work-life balance!

- yes I mean it -

How to start a career in content writing?

When I left my job in Infy I was not very sure of joining a new company in Cochin. At that time my brother asked me, 'can you write content for my websites?'. I was not sure of saying yes to him either. For my only experience in writing was updating my personal blog whenever I felt like it. And writing for websites should be a bigger responsibility. All I have is a B.Tech degree! Had it been a BA in English it would have been easier I felt.

Yet I took it up as a challenge. 'My brother is offering me something means he feels I can do it :-). So I should not worry.' That is exactly what I felt at that time, And slowly I started working on one article after another.

It wasn't as easy as updating my blog. For an article has a proper skeleton without which it will not be interesting to read.

How to write a good article?

The skeleton of a good article has:

1. Title
The title has to be very catchy, so that the reader feels like reading the rest of the article by reading the title. The title should convey what the article is all about in a single line.

2.  Intro
There has to be good introduction para, that arouses the curiosity of the reader further to read. This could be story or a question or your own experience. People like to peep into other's lives. So I feel personal stories are the best intro ever. This article also owns one of them :-).

3. The Content
Then comes the actual content that is really informative. This part has to be engaging well. Asking questions, sharing examples and pictures keeps the reader hooked to the article.

4. Subheadings and Styling
Web content are mostly scanned by eyes than reading word by word. So I have to emphasis the main points with the help of subheading and stylings like bold, italics or underlines. Using lists and bullets can give the article more crisp and clear feel.

5. Sound grammar
Each and every grammatical mistake can actually diminish the credibility of the author. So I have to ensure that the sentences are all grammatically correct and readable. Thanks to the review tool on MS word.

6. Conclusion
Reading an article is a feeling in itself. So the article has to be ended properly. This can be done by summarising the keypoints, and making the reader to take a step ahead.

Of course, most of the skeleton of the article except for 'the content' is actually writer's creation or talent. The content has to be the real juicy stuff of the article. And content cannot be written from air. Thorough research on the topic gives you a fair idea of what all you have to cover and convey.

How to come up with 'the content' for an article?

I and my brother used to brainstorm for what all content to be put in. We used to first list out the keywords and do google on those. The best articles on them were our references. I read those articles one or two times and create a draft of my new article from the information I gained. The draft then went through many self edits and enhancements to be a final draft. This was then reviewed and uploaded. And that is how an article originates on the web.

So this is what a content writer does?

Yes a content writer basically does the same. Some jobs will provide you with the title, keywords and references where as for a few you have to do all the research on your own.

How to get content writing jobs?

As a content writer, you can look for work from any known person who has many ideas but desperate for a writer to give it life, Also freelancing works are available at craigslist, textbroker etc.(Honestly, I have not worked for any unknown person yet due to the fear of not getting any money) But I do know of a few friends who have received payments from unknown clients. You can also look for content writing jobs on job sites like monster.com.

Well it is true that I as a content writer do basically this. But there is one more thing that makes each article read by many. It is something called SEO - 'on-page SEO' to be specific.

Why should a content writer know about SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is all about optimising your content so that it is liked by Google uncle. Before I jump onto more of SEO, let me tell you why SEO.

Have you ever wondered what happens to the article that you just wrote? Well, it will get published as a content for some website or blog. I had this idiotic feeling that if I search for that keyword on Google, my article will come up. But it hardly does!

There are thousands of webpages written on the same keyword (few of which were my reference links).  And for my article to come above them all requires it to have that unique content which is not available anywhere else. Well, this is not something that you learn overnight, but takes good amount of time to master, And let me admit, I have not mastered it yet. For me, some comes up where as some obscures into void.

As a content writer, having the basic knowledge of SEO like, using the right keywords, adding the relevant keyword phrases and referring to relevant outgoing links can be an added benefit, These are the basic stuff to start off your content writing career.

So how much money can one expect to earn from content writing career?

You can expect a payment of 30 paise to 1 Rupee per word as a beginner depending on the quality of your writing. For example, I just checked - If I had written this article for somebody it is around 1000 words and would fetch me 500 rupees :-). And one such article per day will give me 15k per month. That too with a time of two to three hours!

Good way to earn money from home right? What are you waiting for? Go ahead and get started!