Shadabahmed Siddiqui

Shadabahmed Siddiqui is based at CEPT University in Ahmedabad. Specifically, we are tied to the School of Planning and Public Policy. Being in a university setting gives the work a different feel. It’s not like a typical commercial office. There are students and faculty around all the time. It gets quite busy during the semesters. We have our space here and we stick to our schedule. Ahmedabad is a city that’s always changing, but the university feels like a steady place to be. We don’t have a corporate logo on the door or anything like that. It’s mostly about the research and the daily tasks related to planning and policy. The environment is academic, but the work we do is very practical. We spend a lot of time looking at maps or data. It’s a lot of quiet work, punctuated by meetings. We don’t use marketing buzzwords because they don’t fit what we do. Our focus is on the details of the projects we handle. Sometimes we stay late when a deadline is coming up. The building itself is interesting, as you’d expect at CEPT. We just go about our business and try to stay organized. It’s a simple arrangement within a larger institution. We don't have a big marketing budget. Most people find us through the university channels or word of mouth. It's a straightforward way to work.