Job Description

Personal Assistant — Long-term part-time role (research, grants & business support)

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Remote work — best if you're based in Benares (Varanasi) or Delhi, but open to strong candidates elsewhere in India. Some travel within India may be needed occasionally, fully covered.

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Pay: ₹25,000–30,000/month to start, depending on experience.

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Time: part-time, 15–20 hrs/week.

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Contract: starts at 3 months, but I'm genuinely looking for someone long-term — real chance of more pay or more hours after the first year if things go well.

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A bit about me

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I'm a Classics, Ancient Philosophy, and South Asian Philosophy scholar (Princeton), currently doing independent research in Varanasi. Working languages: English, Hindi/Urdu. You can see my academic profile here: and my dissertation/research work here: Alongside the academic side, I'm building two early-stage businesses, which is where the rest of this role comes in.

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What this is

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I need someone to work closely with me across two sides of my life that overlap more than you'd think: my academic work (grants, fellowships, applications) and two early-stage businesses I'm building — a specialty coffee export venture right now, and a fintech project around pilgrimage networks that'll pick up over the next year. This isn't a narrow task list. I want someone who can move between spreadsheets and scholarly writing without blinking, and who's in it for the long haul, not just three months.

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The range of work is genuinely wide — one day it might be calling a coffee estate in Karnataka to follow up on a sample shipment, another day it might be helping me put together a business portfolio to present to potential funders. I need someone equally comfortable with both ends of that spectrum.

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The two halves of the work

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Academic: tracking down grants, fellowships, and funding opportunities; drafting application materials — statements of purpose, bios,



budget narratives — from my notes and past work. I do the final review and any research content myself.

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Business: starting with the coffee venture — registration paperwork, supplier and funder coordination, trackers, prospect lists — then expanding to the fintech side once that moves past early networking.

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What you'll need

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- Strong English, spoken and written. This is the big one — you're drafting real documents, not just admin.
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- Real networking ability — comfortable making a cold call, following up with a supplier, or building rapport with someone you've just met
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- Some background in business, law, finance, or grant-writing — doesn't need to be extensive, but real working familiarity helps
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- Public speaking and a bit of natural charisma — there will be moments where you're representing me or the businesses directly
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- Good instincts for staying organized across a lot of moving pieces at once
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- Comfortable doing your own research — finding grants, figuring out eligibility, tracking deadlines
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- Can handle paperwork and bureaucratic portals without getting stuck
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- Decent with Excel/Google Sheets
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- Comfortable emailing and calling funders, program officers, lawyers, and suppliers on my behalf, professionally
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- Discreet — you'll see personal, academic, and financial information
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- Able to travel within India occasionally if needed (fully covered) — some meetings need to happen in person
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- Happy to use AI tools to proof and check your own work,



but I want you doing the actual thinking and drafting yourself first — not outsourcing the work itself
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Also good to have, not required

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- Some real interest in humanities, art, or creativity — a lot of this work is scholarly writing, and I'd rather work with someone who finds that genuinely interesting
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- Self-starter energy — someone who runs with a task instead of waiting to be told exactly what to do
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- Patience for a coffee meeting that goes nowhere practical. A lot of this is slow relationship-building, not transactional networking — I want someone who actually enjoys that kind of conversation
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What you'd actually be doing

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- Tracking grant and fellowship deadlines, flagging what's worth pursuing
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- Drafting from my source material — narratives, bios, emails — I handle final calls
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- Running the task tracker for the coffee business (and later fintech): filings, appointments, prospect lists
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- Making calls and setting up meetings with advisers, lawyers, suppliers, institutional contacts, coffee estates
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- Helping prepare and occasionally present materials — from a quick phone follow-up to a full portfolio pitch to potential partners or funders
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- Keeping everything visible in one shared tracker, so it's always explicit what's moving and what's waiting on me
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How we'd stay in sync

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A quick 30-minute check-in each week, plus a shared correspondence over email and phone so we're not guessing what's next.

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Where this goes

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Three months to start, so we can both see if it's a good fit. If it is, I want to build this into something ongoing — more pay or more hours after year one.

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To apply

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- Send your CV, a short writing sample, and your available hours to the following email: . Tell me a bit about yourself too — I want to know who I'd actually be working with.
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📌 Personal Assistant (India)
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📍 India