Girendra Persaud always wanted to be involved in a field that was exciting, challenging and creative.“I was always fascinated with technology and I love to discover how things work. My parents always had problems with me taking the toys apart in my efforts to see the inside,” he reveals in an interview with Sunday Times Magazine.
With a degree in Computer Science and an MBA; owner and founder of web development company GxMedia, university lecturer and hobbyist photographer who has made his hobby into a business,it may be safe to say he has found several such fields.
Persaud was born in Georgetown in January 1980, the only child of his parents. He wasn’t very keen on his early academic studies however.
“At the beginning I was not too good at school,”he confesses, “but in 1994 my life changed when a teacher invited me to return to school and to attend his Math lessons. I felt that he perhaps saw something that I didn’t see and I decided to pay attention. A few ‘distinctions’ at the CXC level followed, and in 2001 I graduated “Best Graduating Student” in the field of Computer Science at the University of Guyana. Forever I am thankful to my teachers, especially Sir Danny Persaud (Aka Beard Man). I believe that their efforts to impart knowledge is directly responsible for who I am today.”
It is this sense of appreciation that led him to choose to lecture at the university’s Department of Computer Science. “I became a lecturer in 2006 and I am committed to my work only because I want to carry forward my experience and make a positive difference,” he states of his motivation behind 10 years of teaching.
His passion for photography though, seems innate.
“As long as I can remember, I always had a passion for the camera,” he reminisces, “In early 2000 I acquired my first digital camera and I began a series of upgrades over the years from point-and-shoot to now professional DSLRs.The spark, I guess, would be that photography allows you to preserve the moment.”
His online portfolio, which he says he isin the process of populating, states, “The simple joy of preserving a moment is what makes photography so exciting. My intention is to let my pieces speak the likes of love, joy, success, intelligence, peace, happiness, excitement and bliss.”
It is perhaps his intention to let others share his experience through the camera that made his hobby into a business.
“After a while I started to receive requests for my images,” he recollects, “and at first I was literally giving copies to whoever asked, but then I decided to charge a fee to help pay for the hobby. Today you can find my work in books (book covers), magazines, websites, calendars etc.”
On his online portfolio (http://girendrapersaud.zenfolio.com) which, he notes, you can “find a healthy selection of images on the website”, you can also purchase prints, download, order greeting cards, apparel and speciality items, among others. His photos are suitable forcommercial/editorialuse, and also feature nature/wildlife and landscape images.
“Good photography depends more on the artistic mental facet of the person behind the camera. You can have a good camera but if you don’t know where to point it then your images won’t be good,” he maintains.
The 36-year-old believes“you have to like what you are doing and have a true passion for it. If there are any other motives then it [the business] is not going to bloom naturally – it would be a steep uphill climb.”
Hi company GxMedia (http://www.gxmediagy.com), established July 2007, offers Website Design/Development, IT Consultancy, eMarketing and IT Training services. His clients are many and include GTT, Jags Aviation and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
“In early 2007 I saw rapid growth in my computer repairs business and a few of my close clients started to request website design services. As a computer scientist, it was easy for me to now focus energy in this area. We started by doing websites for small businesses but then the larger companies came on-board. Website design/development became more lucrative than computer repairs so eventually that service was phased out. In 2014 I acquired my Master’s Degree in Business Administration and as a result, more focus in now placed in offering complete web marketing solutions to my clients,” he says.
He finds his hobby and businesses very satisfying and rewarding.“I enjoy very much what I am doing and perhaps that is a critical ingredient for our successes,” he says, and plans to “keep loving what I am doing, and traveling.”
