Counselling Psychologist & Mental Health Coach for Women

My name is Richa, I’m a journalist and the founder & curator of Parenthesis.co, an independent digital magazine on life, the world and the human condition. By day, I work as an editor with the Hindustan Times. I like cats, books, good storytelling and making photographs! I’d always had very vague, generic dreams of what I wanted to do, as a child. I ascribe at least part of this confusion to the education process in our country, which seems to be more focused in training kids to fit into conventional roles than encouraging independent thinking and creativity. Thus trained and lugging along the weight of expectant parents, I ended up joining one of the better engineering colleges in the country. I spent two years there before realising that the constant gnawing discomfort I felt there was my gut telling me that programming, molecular biology and engineering weren’t what I wanted to do all my life. This got me thinking. I’d been making up stories and writing ever since I could hold a pencil. I’d been reading since even before that. As an 8-year-old, I had once proclaimed that I wanted to be “one of those people that wrote stories”, while pointing at a magazine. And the plan still made sense to me. I spent the next two years of my course weighing the pros and cons of journalism – a vocation that would let me merge my twin loves of writing and research. All this while, I had to field resistance from my family and battle my own doubts. Eventually, though, in the final semester of my B.Tech course, I took the admission test for the Asian College of Journalism — probably India’s best journalism school. I got in and for the first time in my life, I felt like I was in the right place. The next year, I did my master’s course in Magazine Journalism from Cardiff University, Wales, and then began working for the Hindustan Times in Delhi. I spent years in confusion, considering a variety of professions before realising that journalism was at the intersection of all my loves: story-telling, understanding the world and documenting it. The decision itself was easy and felt very, very right. The effort it took to turn it into reality hasn’t consistently been easy. It’s a lot of work, given I’m handling Parenthesis outside of my regular job. Exhaustion is common, but it’s all been worth it. I’ve always revered and been drawn to independent thinkers and innovators – people who have questioned the status quo, who’ve power through life to do what they believe in, irrespective of set norms. Initially, these were people I found through books: the fictional Howard Roark, Gandhi, Steve Jobs, among others. Later, over the past few years, I gained inspiration from brilliant writers and colleagues around me. But I wasn’t inspired to take up journalism by a specific person. That was purely a logical decision based on months of consideration. An uncooperative family was the biggest hurdle. I had always been fairly confident of my own abilities and work ethic, but it was difficult, as a then-teenager to choose to change the course of my career all by myself. The fear mostly revolved around “what if I fail?” and luckily, thus far, I haven’t. I would say I am happy. I love this profession with a passion while being aware that like everything in the world, this too has its negatives. Regardless, there isn’t anything else I’d want to invest my time in — and that’s a fantastic feeling to have, even on my worst days. Examine your intentions. You may often find that they are superfluous — you might want to choose a career based on how ‘glamorous’ or ‘fun’ it may seem, or to please your family or for any reason that isn’t based solely on what your soul wants. The best jobs are those that marry your passions with your skills and do something good for the world. If you’re sure your choice is the closest to fulfilling these, then chase it. And stay very, very strong. There will be bad days, but keep your eyes on the goal. I do believe in dreams! It’s important, both for one’s personal growth and mental health, to dream. You may have a streak of unlucky days sometimes, or worse, even weeks of it. But it always passes if you keep working in the direction of your dreams. Always keep moving. Social links: Instagram Facebook

SUSAN MATHEN Founder & Colour Strategist (Hue and Why) My name is Susan. I am a Colour Strategist & the Founder of Hue & Why. Prior to this I have been a Strategy Planner in advertising for over 10 years and my last stint was at Grey, Singapore as the Regional Strategy Lead on Pantene for the ASEAN markets. An alumni from SRCC and MICA, Colour Strategy was not the most obvious choice for me. But I stumbled upon it, I guess. In 2009, while I was working in Ogilvy, Bangalore, I took a sabbatical and did a beautiful one year course in Arts Management in DakshinaChitra, Chennai where I got fascinated with the world of colour semiotics. Since then I have been trying to understand what colours mean in cultures, what people associate with different colours, what consumers understand from brand colours, how we as people react to colours in interiors, etc. Was it your dream to become an entrepreneur? Honestly, I did not dream of becoming an entrepreneur. But I think I dreamt of doing something closer to the world of the arts, culture and psychology. I read about the concept of logos and mythos long back. Logos is the world of the logical and mythos is the world of the mythical (in simplest terms), I wanted a world where these two can be explored together. Please tell us about Hue & Why… Hue & Why is precisely what the name suggests – it is all about the why behind colours.. We believe that colours, like words, have meanings, and the more you are able to grasp these meanings, the better stories you can craft using colours. In other words, using the logic of colours, to create some magic. We are a colour strategy & design outfit, but we do not want to box ourselves in and say that we do only certain kind of projects. Some of the most interesting projects we have undertaken are those that we had no clue we would get into, when we began this journey. We study colour trends, research colour in culture and take part in colour forecasting events. We apply our colour knowledge to different worlds – branding, design, paintings, cultural tours, interiors, fashion and even wedding décor. I am the Colour Strategist (in charge of the logic) and my husband, George Abraham (who was a Creative Director in advertising for several years and a Fine Arts graduate), is the Creative Director in charge of design and aesthetics at Hue & Why. How did you come up with the name Hue & Why? We spent a lot of time and energy on this exercise. We made a list of possible areas we would be focusing on, listed down keywords, discussed what certain words would imply or evoke, arrived at a list of words we should avoid. We invited our close friends and family to suggest names and then made a shortlist of the same, checked for website/social media handles availability, did a quick dipstick with a few people to check what they understood from those names, rated them on recall value and generally spent time with the names. After ranking the names on many parameters, we had a clear winner – Hue & Why. This name was actually my brother’s suggestion. Please tell us about your milestone journey, hurdles, etc. We are still quite nascent in our journey, so I cannot really claim any major milestones. Being invited to present our colour trends and palettes at the International Colour Forecasting Workshop in Singapore was definitely a high point. Hue & Why studies cultural trends and translates the same into colour palettes. We also consider the one-of-a kind curated art show (based on colour palettes) that we are currently having – ‘Blue Latte: Narratives of Today, in Colour’ – a milestone. It took a lot of effort and we are really happy that we were able to pull it off. The show is on from 1st – 30th November at White Walls Gallery in Kochi. It is accompanied by talks and workshops as well. A few other ventures that have been quite well received: our colour based heritage walks (again something that has never been done before, and which has been greatly appreciated by the participants), curator’s session on colours, colour lectures (we are collaborating with Kerala Museum on this in Jan/Feb 2018) and colour workshops (for students and professionals). Of course, we do branding, design and decor projects too. One of our personal favourites, is the wedding colour theme/palette creation exercises which we do with wedding planners. We are looking at having a few products based on colour palettes soon. I think we had two major challenges. One was to actually make the decision to do this. And this was really difficult, given we had to give up the security of monthly salaries and be ok with an extremely uncertain future. The other was the fact that Colour as a field of study/specialisation is very niche. Getting people to understand what we do is in itself a very difficult proposition. It is only after that, that we can think of getting projects 🙂 But well, its too early to say anything as yet. How is Hue & Why different from other brands available? I like this question. 🙂 I don’t know of any other Colour Strategy ventures in India. Jokes apart, it is different as the focus is always on colour. Our starting point is the logic behind colour. Colour is usually seen as an intuitive, creative aspect. We bring a more logical angle to this world. How would you describe your journey with Hue & Why so far? It has been full of surprises. We have met some really lovely people. We have embarked on some really interesting projects. We have been surprised by how much we can push ourselves. We have got help from the most unexpected sources. We have been pleasantly surprised at the immense support we got from some of our friends and family. We have also been surprised at not being supported by people who we were very sure would help us :). Hue & Why surprises people too. They seem genuinely fascinated by the concept. It seems to grow on them. Initially they do not get it, but once they get it, they almost react like why has this not been explored as yet? What was the best and the worst advice you got when you began your journey? Best advice: To have a financial backup which will ensure you can survive for a certain period of time while you start your new venture. Worst advice: Being told to reconsider living and working in Singapore, as I might regret giving it up for Hue & Why. If someone inspired by your story wanted a piece of advice from you, what would it be? Prepare and plan Be realistic Begin Hope for the best Be open to course correct Take breaks, be inspired and stay happy Do you believe in dreams? I guess so. I believe in some sort of destiny. That it’s all written somewhere. That there are signs that happen, and it’s up to you to see those signs and manouevre your life accordingly. I think we might not know what exactly we want to do, but we have a vague idea, and we work towards it, unknowingly. And when the time is right, we just need to act. Facebook – @hueandwhy Instagram – @hueandwhy Email: hueandwhy@gmail.com

Namaste! I am Puja Borker, Owner and founder of Juru Yoga. I am a certified yoga teacher in Hatha and Power Yoga. I have also learned Kalaripayattu (martial-art) and I am a freelance yoga instructor. With the blessing of my well wishers and supporters I have also written my debut novel “Masterji” (easily available on Amazon). The quest to find good mats started when I was pursuing my teacher training course in Yoga. I was struggling with PVC mats – facing the same problem that most of the yoga teachers and practitioners experience, flaking, mat smell, slippery surface, etc. As I advanced in my daily practice the need to find a good mat became the need of the hour; a mat that will not let sweaty feet and palms slip, a mat that can withstand years of practice and provide a comfortable surface to enhance alignment, explore the asana and find balance! I found international options pricey and found it really difficult to find a good mat locally. This lead me to research on what goes into making best mats internationally. Being a yoga teacher has also helped me get a lot of feedback from students and friends. In fact my very first business partner in JURU and also a good friend, was a yoga teacher too. This helped us work extensively on feedback and launch our first made-in-India natural mat-over. Though it has been two and a half years since JURU Yoga has been in business, it has been only 6 months since JURU Yoga registered as a private limited company here in Chennai. My husband has been involved in the past couple of months overlooking digital marketing and we launched our online store and expanded reach across India. We will soon be launching internationally. Taking inspiration from international eco-yoga brands and from make-in-India campaign, I want JURU products to reflect the peaceful principles that Yoga embodies; thus all our products are environmentally friendly and we at JURU are constantly working on innovation and improvisation to give you best yoga mats, props and accessories. It is a lifestyle brand that draws inspiration from Yoga philosophy, which finds its roots in India but continues to be boundless, inspiring people world over. JURU Yoga mats, props and accessories, though made in India, are designed keeping in mind expectations, feedback and suggestions of yogis from around the world. STREAMLINING WAREHOUSE AND LOGISTICS OPERATIONS, INCREASING BRAND PRESENCE ONLINE, FINDING LIKE-MINDED RETAIL PARTNERS INTERNATIONALLY – The above are some of the main issues we had to address before expanding operations. Inventory and logistics can easily eat into your profits. We have experienced this before and are addressing this by outsourcing delivery operations to multiple service providers and understanding the zones and mode of transport they are most efficient in. For online presence, we focus strategically with analytics for digital marketing on all platforms. With regard to international sales, we are currently engaging with interested distributor & retail partners in markets like SE Asia, UAE and Europe and then eventually launch in USA. I am confident that we are on the right track. Having spent close to 8 years in family business, having experienced losses and failures, I completely understand how tough it is to stay motivated and inspire oneself to start all over again. So Yes, I believe in dreams – if by dreams you mean that one should never give up on their goals despite the hurdles. But dreams not necessarily lead to happy endings. A dream can also be completely misleading. Thus one also has be in a state of awareness to actually reap the benefits of one’s dream. I have experienced how the practice of yoga and meditation has made me more aware of myself. To follow your dreams you need patience and clarity and irrespective of the field you are in, meditation can really help bring clarity to your thoughts. They are interrelated. If you meditate you are so much more aware of what you have to do to make your dream a reality.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. -Maya Angelou Margazhi I’m Madhulika Kapilavayi, brought up in Bangalore, settled in Madras. With a Bachelors degree in Visual Communication, I had a pretty normal life well within my comfort zone, until I decided to give shape to my big dream in life. My brainchild Margazhi is a reflection of my character. Like any other girl I was clueless about what I wanted out of life, confused and all over the place. I was reporting long hours at corporate jobs, which I never fitted in, but also never stopped performing. I did the best I could and tried to excel in tasks to polish my unfamiliar skills, which was a great learning experience. Every firm I’ve worked thus far, I made sure I learnt something and made my presence visible. You can’t arrive at your best version over-night, can you? It took time and I learnt to sustain through those hard experiences to find a better version of myself. I took my work seriously and be held total responsible towards both my failures and success. I’m extremely devoted in what I believe and I set very high standards to myself towards achieving my goals because in secret I am a very competitive person, in competition with myself. Being a woman, I completely embrace the independence I’ve earned and that’s my success- myself, a stronger and bolder version of myself each day. Women don’t realize that they mask themselves to “fit” into to this “society” ,in process killing their true essence. Social media in my opinion influences our “boundaries” and block ourselves from accessing our core true self. Many of us go through a state of public facade without realizing how distant we move away from our true self. This realization helped me assess my core strengths and answer questions within me about myself better. Then the ‘this is what I want’ transition happened. I started Margazhi out of the faith I begun to have in myself, albeit with a few doubts. My thought bubble was exploding with questions and answers, and suggestions within myself and from others. One questions I have always gotten asked from the very beginning is why I don’t use actual models for my shoots. Somewhere amidst all the chaos, I knew I wanted to connect with other wonderful women with similar dreams. I didn’t want an unreal image of my vision of what I created. I challenged myself to deliver the essence of my dream, one that’s imperfect yet colorful in my head and looks beautiful to me. I believe we are what we are and there is no such thing as looking perfect, it is merely a state of mind. I think to be real is what we need more as a society. People begun to accept my work, started seeing their own reflections through my photographs, and the pace begun to pick up, one follower at a time. To sum up my journey, it has been a slow learning curve for a long time. I am sure this will continue to be one, because there’s so much to learn, share amongst ourselves and give back to our fellow entrepreneurs as we grow. I emphasize on being true to oneself and giving it an honest shot. With Margazhi, it has been a satisfying journey thus far – from the toil during the starting days, discovering the fight within me to survive, the love and support of so many lovely people around me, it has been an humbling experience. To make every woman feel comfortable and beautiful in their own skin defines Margazhi. After all it is about how you feel.

I am an engineer turned jewellery artist. I started my career as a jewellery artist a bit later in life and it was quiet a journey. I did my engineering in electronics and communication. During my course of engineering I got into jewellery making as a hobby. I was self taught and made a lot of costume jewellery. Growing up I was always drawn to creativity, to telling a story through an expressive form and jewellery just happened to be the medium.Having loved fashion for most of my life I was always intrigued by the creation process. I wanted to create a different outlet for women to adorn themselves. So decided to take jewellery making seriously after completing my engineering. I applied for a jewellery school in London(London Jewellery School) and underwent a professional training in jewellery making and designing. I can work with ten different mediums of jewellery now. I used my passion as a foundation to start a business of my own. ROIA as label was born in London. I was doing my jewellery course in London and had to come up with a brand name for my graduate collection. I chose ROIA which is a combination of letters from my name.Unlike most of the designers , I was not keen on naming my jewellery line after my name.Hence the combination and it feels equally personal. ROIA means “a dream or “a vision” in Persian. After completing my course I came back to India and officially started ROIA in October 2014. I opened a Facebook page and used that as a platform to showcase my work and its process. As a brand you’re a story teller – that is one of my most favourite things about the business – the branding and communications. I grew up in an environment that was very encouraging towards my creativity and it was accepted that I would do well as an artist in a creative field. I wish everyone was given that opportunity to follow their dreams. There is no such thing called a right time.If you have an idea , you should just act on it. I believe in the saying “Live the life you have imagined”. www.facebook.com/roiajewelry Instagram : @Roiajewelry e : hello@roiajewelry.com Stores: MAAL GAADI , Chennai TIMRI , Bangalore OMO (ON MY OWN) , Mumbai & Goa www.Tjori.com www.thepostbox.in www.lovethistuff.com

I am Gokulraj GK. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from SRM University, Chennai. Post my under-graduation I pursed my Masters in Engineering Management from University of Texas, USA. I am the CEO of Hazel Notebooks and MadCap Stationery and Merchandise . We are a design focused team of people with a goal to design products in the stationery and merchandise industry that emulate the ego and emotion of the consumer. Q – when did you begin your company? I started MadCap in November 2016 and Hazel in September 2016. MadCap and Hazel is my third venture in my entrepreneurial journey. I run another venture in the name MyCopie wherein we design and retail notebooks targeting college students with our unique twist to the design, value proposition and the content of the notebook. Q – who or what inspired you to begin this company? My dad is my biggest inspiration in life. My goal in life is surmount him in being a successful entrepreneur. He is the most educated of 9 kids to my grandparents. At one point in time due to rifts with his parents and brothers, he was thrown out of their house when I was few months old. He and my mom stayed in a hut on the roof of a friend’s house for a week. With rain pouring down and the fact that they didn’t have any furniture, they were standing throughout the night swinging me in a temporary swing made from my mom’s saree. From there he went to build multiple businesses in the fields of Finance, Automobiles, Textiles, Chemical and Computer Training. He retired few years back after selling his businesses since I wanted to create my own lineage. My drive is to surmount him in being successful since he has given me a platform to grow upon. I want to leave a legacy behind and make an impact in the industry that I operate in. Q – What separates you from the other stationery companies out there? The way we approach design and product development is what differentiates us from other stationery and merchandise companies. We develop our products keeping in mind the ego and emotion of our target consumers rather than the price point or the competitors. The positioning of our brand and the language we use to communicate to our audience is unique to us. Q – What were the hurdles you faced when you began this company? your milestone journey. I believe life is a marathon with hurdles of different sizes and shapes throughout the length of the marathon. The biggest hurdle I faced was to sell my vision and dream to my parents, relatives, wife and in-laws. In a cultural society like India, there’s still huge social pressure that every entrepreneur must overcome. He / She must answer not only his / her parents but also their relatives etc. The intertwined cultural stigma is slowly reducing but, for me that was the biggest hurdle. Even though my dad was an entrepreneur, he and my mom wanted me to work for someone and settle down in life while I wanted to be a better success than my dad. I failed in my first start-up venture during which I learned loads of things that help me till date. But, that adds to the frustration for the family. Entrepreneurship sounds cool from the outside, but it’s a pain, struggle and a hard journey which reaps great benefits if done the right way with common sense. Q – What was the best and the worst advice you received when you began your company? The worst advice according to me might be something that everybody else might say as a good advice. It’s was being played around by all investors, successful CEO’s etc. “Follow your dreams and work on your passion to achieve success”. I have realized that it’s complete crap. If you can live without food and money you can just go by that advice. My mantra these days are ‘Dream about your passion, it might come true at some point in time in your life, but grab the opportunities at hand to lead a good and self-sustainable life which might help you in the future to achieve your dreams with ease” The best advice I have rec’d until today is from my Professor in University of Texas. He told “99% of the people that you will meet in your life time are A-holes. If you aren’t smart enough to find them and move away from them, they will make you one of them”. I live by this and I believe that it has helped me forge an amazing team in my venture. Q – Was it your dream to start a stationery line? No, my dream was to be a racing driver competing in International level. Stationery and Merchandise was an opportunity that I came across. I am a design oriented person. I believe that things that aren’t designed well aren’t worth buying. When I was exposed to stationery industry, I found that the designs and the products haven’t changed for ages. That’s why I wanted to jump in to make an impact in the industry. Q – Do you believe in dreams? How would you motivate the people who wanted to follow their dreams but are afraid? I believe in Dreams. The more you dream about your vision or passion is when you will work towards it sub-consciously and finally achieve it. I tell folks who are afraid to follow their dreams to be sensible. I tell them to think about the cost of following their dream. That includes, monetary cost and emotional cost keeping in mind the risks involved. If all of them combined is something that they can live with at that point in their life, I tell them to follow their dream. If not, I tell them to think sensibly and build a base infrastructure in their lives so that after some years they don’t have to worry about these costs. At that point, they would be in a better position to follow their dream. But, it’s never going to be easy. Q – How do you feel about your company at this point? I feel that we are in the cusp of achieving something great. I believe we are moving towards building MadCap.in and Hazelnotebooks.com. Our design and product development team is strong and we are expanding to new markets within India and abroad.

KESHSA & SHIVANI I am Keshsa Vasant and my partner Shivani Patel, together we started Arture in November 2015. Arture was started with the aim of providing good alternatives to leather. A common problem that a lot of conscious buyers was the lack of sustainable, eco options that are durable. Stemmed from the love for art and nature, Arture was born to bring to light a fashion accessory that is eco-friendly and vegan. With colour schemes that reflect the theme of Earth and Mother Nature; the look and feel that literally brings you one step closer to your roots, the vision and mission of the brand is choosing a life over luxury – fashion does not have to come at the price of a life. Arture aims at giving you the whole package – a stylish and fashionable accessory brand for men, women and also unisex, but with the bonus of being totally organic and totally ethical. NV – Was it always your dream to become a designer and an entrepreneur? Shivani : I always had an inclination towards design, from the time I was a kid. That’s what led me to join NIFT, and I was particularly interested in accessories. By the end of my four years, I was sure that I wanted to start a brand that I could proudly call my own. Keshsa: Well, when I was young lot of people asked me if I was going join my dad in his business and I always answered saying no. I did not want to join him because I always knew I wanted to do something on my own, something that I was passionate about and something that would make me get up in the morning and say yes I can do this! Being an entrepreneur was probably in my blood because i come from a family of entrepreneurs where everyone is doing their own thing. NV – Was it an easy decision to start your own brand? Shivani : It was definitely a scary decision, but I can’t say that I doubted it for even one second. It came as a natural move for me and I had a lot of support from my friends and family. It’s their belief in me that pushed me and gave me the courage to put myself out there. Keshsa: Yes and No. Yes, because I had the support from my family who always encouraged me to think outside the box and do something on my own. There was also this urge in me to find something to do on my own. I found an amazing partner, something I was passionate about so it was easy. No, because I was enjoying the place I was working for before I started Arture. I had a lot of learning experience and some wonderful people I was working for, so leaving them was the hard part. Sometimes being your boss is not the easiest thing. NV - What/who inspired you to take up this field? Shivani : My dad’s background in the leather industry is what gave me a lot of exposure from the time I was young. All my summer vacations spent at his factory led me to be very interested in accessories, and I learned too much by just being there. That’s how I ended up studying accessory design. The world is growing to be more sustainable and conscious, and that entire shift in mindsets is very beautiful to see happening. That was what made me move away from leather and start looking for more sustainable alternatives. Once I found cork, there was no looking back. Keshsa: Before the thought of co-finding Arture, I only knew I wanted to start something on my own just wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I happened to re-connect with Shivani after several years and we started talking. My conversation with her inspired me to take up this field. My crazy love for bags just made it easier to jump in. NV – On your way to becoming a brand, did you face any hurdles/difficulties? Please tell us about your journey Shivani: Funding is always a hurdle when it comes to starting up your own brand. That was Arture’s challenge as well. I knew I wanted to do this, so I decided to crowdfund Arture. That was one of the most wonderful learning experiences that I have had and I’m so glad to have made that decision. It helped kickstart Arture, and also helped me find my co-founder in Keshsa, so I am very thankful for it. Post that, we have had a wonderful journey with Arture and our complementary skill-sets really adds value to the brand. We do face challenges along the way, but that’s just what makes it even more exciting. Keshsa: Working for somebody and working for yourself is completely two ball games. Starting Arture was different from working for somebody else. Taking some very important decisions is sometimes a risk because any small step could bring the brand down. Each step has to be taken with a lot of caution. Also, the difficulty of limited financial resource just makes it sometime difficult. But hey! Limited resources gives birth to creativity and innovation. Each day is different and the thought of overcoming each of these challenges is a fun exercise in itself. NV – Reaching this point in your career, are you happy? Shivani : I am definitely happy, but I have a long way to go. I have a lot of plans for Arture which I hope to be able to execute in the near future. I also have a lot of personal aspirations. All of it keeps me going. 🙂 Keshsa: Of Course, I am super happy. It always feels good to have a few accomplishments. This is probably just the start. NV – Do you believe in dreams? If you were to motivate people to believe in their dreams, what would you like to tell them? Shivani : For sure! I’ve got a whole bag full of them. Haha. I think I’d always just tell people not to be scared. If you want something, and you have the skills to make it happen, go for it! Keshsa: I am still like the girl in school that has dreams every night and falls asleep thinking about how everything will always have an happy ending. Just follow your dreams, don’t ever let anyone stop you. You believe in something for a reason and always trust someone above because he has got a plan. So continue dreaming because only when you dream will you find ways to achieve it. Any further comments? There might be times that are frustrating or there might be times where you have to put your foot down and say a no and there also me a time where you have to do something that might take you away from you dream. Just believe in yourself and take that one step, it will be worth it one day!

Hi, I am Anupama and in my current role, I am the Co-founder of Unfactory. Unfactory is a marketplace for independent artists who make handcrafted & handmade products. As the name suggests, we are everything that’s not mass produced. We launched Unfactory (the beta version) in June, 2016. Q – Who or what inspired you to begin this company ? The concept and the thought of a ‘people-to-people’ marketplace had been brewing for a while. The biggest inspiration was to know that there were a whole lot of people who were creating and making things that have a socio-cultural value through their own independent ways and resources. Apart from this, as a team, we all shared a passion for all things indie – daily needs, books, films and music. In a nutshell, this is how Unfactory took off. Q – Was it your dream to start a pop up collaborative? What separates you from the other pop-up companies out there? Our focus was to create a ‘people-to-people’ marketplace. A platform for independent artists, designers & makers to showcase and sell handcrafted and handmade products. There’s so much talent and so many beautiful products being made out there and it was the right moment for us to embrace and support the development of independent communities. We aspire for more and more people to embrace handcrafted products. At Unfactory we constantly search and curate things that are rare to come by. Products, that are high on aesthetics, quality and adds value to the consumers lives. As part of our journey, we want to create a sense of community forming meaningful relationships between the maker and the buyer. Q – What were the hurdles you faced when you began this company? Your milestone journey. Being on your own is a different ball game than being employed in a setup. You are not restricted to a role. You are not an ‘account manager’ servicing a client. You are the CEO and the intern, and everything in between! You are the key person maintaining relationships between artists, the team and the customers; You are the sales executive making calls to artists; You take care of all finances of the company, making sure that all payments to artists are done on time; you are the service executive clarifying to end customer, and answering to customer queries on social platforms and mails; you coordinate between the logistics company onboard and the artists, making sure that the orders are delivered safest and fastest; you are the photographer for a couple of the artists and end up having a shoot on your terrace when your baby is asleep and also you sometimes end up modelling for the artists because you are bootstrapped and can use all resources on hand! 🙂 When you are not restricted, you experience creativity and makes you discover your own talents you never knew existed. Pushes you to stretch the limits. The end result can be something that’s beautiful. There will be times when there’s just way too much to be done and it can get overwhelming. What works for me is to focus on key tasks and one task at a time. I strongly believe in making notes, strike them off when done. I always knew that time management is going to be a challenge particularly, being a first time entrepreneur and a new mom at the same time. Lot of times I resume work when my daughter falls asleep at night – I call this my second shift! ☺ I also experienced that one of the biggest challenges anywhere is expectation vs reality. You expect certain things to happen at a certain pace. But in reality, they always end up the way you didn’t expect it to. So, it becomes critical to review and redefine expectations move forward with renewed goals. Q – What was the best and the worst advice you received when you began your company? I heard this quote from another entrepreneur that one must run a business for a minimum of 1000 days and whatever happens, not quit before that. This is something that I strongly believe in too. Q – Do you believe in dreams? How would you motivate the people who wanted to follow their dreams but are afraid? All things begin with a dream. But I believe in the saying that ‘You get what you work for’. You may have the grandest of the dreams. But it will not translate into reality if you don’t work for it. So here’s what i would say – Start small. Begin somewhere. Many a times when we have an idea, we tend to think about the idea as a whole and dwell a lot of time in analysing all the possible obstacles that we don’t start at all. The key is to start somewhere. Start small. We get a lot of clarity when we sink in our teeth and get going. Prioritise. Focus on one task at a time When in college, life is not like how it was in school. And when you start working, life is not like how it was in college. Life keeps changing and so does our priorities. So it’s important we don’t look in the past and always move forward. Prioritise the tasks that we have on time, focus on one job at a time and get things done. Have goals. Short term and long term. Many a times, it’s easy for us to get carried away with the sheer number of things to do. So it helps to have daily tasks and to strike them out when it’s completed. Have tangible goals. Keep an eye on the numbers. Make life a little easy on yourself! We all tend to adorn different roles – mother, wife, working professional, friend, daughter, daughter-in-law. And it can get hectic, trying to juggle all those roles. So it helps to build a support system around you. Get some “me” time It’s important to spend some time with ourselves too. So there’s nothing to feel guilty about getting some “me” time. So go out there and get an evening of guilt-free fun, not worrying about home, work or the baby! Q – How do you feel about your company at this point? We are still at an early stage. The experience so far has been wonderful. Response to what we have to offer and how we want to run our business is very encouraging. I am very thankful to that. Everyday is an inspiring day, because we come across so many talented artists who share a common purpose with us. And this leaves us confident in contributing to the overall handcrafted sector in our own little way. Here’s to exciting times ahead!

Half Baked Beans Team My name is Chetan Soni and the name of publishing house is Half Baked Beans. I am an MBA by education but always had interest in storytelling. My other interests are sports and experimenting with food. HBB is primarily a publishing house where we publish books but along with that it is a reading and writing platform as well where one can showcase their writings. It was always a dream to do something on my own. Publishing house appeared to be a platform for telling stories and thus it was started. It was an easy decision to start but difficult to sustain it and continue with it due to several reasons. I am very thankful to my parents who have supported me at each step and never stopped me to pursue what I wanted to. There has been no particular individual who inspired me but I would get inspiration by artists, creators, entrepreneurs who took up a challenge to live life their own way. The major inspiration was not to have regrets in life later on not trying to do something which you wanted to. The biggest hurdle has been financials and the general attitude/mentality towards start-ups in India. We started with an aim to bridge a gap that exists in the writing industry and it has been smooth as well as a tough ride. The publishing industry in India is disorganized and that is one of the major problems. Also the environment around start-ups is not much favourable in our country and we are forced /suggested to take up the safe option and not pursue our dreams. In my opinion the hurdles lie more in the mind of people than actual. It gives us happiness to see somebody else’s dream of getting published, come true. When somebody appreciates our efforts it makes us happy. Personally for me happiness means satisfaction and we are not yet completely satisfied. We have a lot more to achieve and explore. I do believe in dreams and if I have to motivate somebody I would just say two things :- “Life is all about making choices and there is a lot to choose from.” “We live by the choices we make.” I would like to conclude by thanking you for providing this opportunity to showcase my thoughts and considering us worthwhile of getting interviewed. If you wish to get your dream book published, you can get in touch with us on either of the social media sites. You can also get in touch on our website, and while you are at it, please do check our services and published books! 1. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Half8akedBeans/ 2. Twitter https://twitter.com/halfbakedbeans 3. Instagram http://instagram.com/half_baked_beans 4. Website http://halfbakedbeans.in/

I am Mona Biswarupa Mohanty. An introvert, small town girl who dares to dream. My dream has taken me out of my comfort zone many times. But still I dream . My dream is finding the state of true happiness and spreading that happiness to million others through my creative expressions. Be it on paper, canvas, fabric or any other medium. By training I am a fashion designer from IED, Milan and NIFT, New Delhi. I left my 20 year old fashion career in the middle of my life to start my career allover again from square one.. and this time , as an artist. Q – Was it always your dream to become an artist, if not how did you make the choice? The earliest memories of my childhood are the memories of me painting with my father’s ink and my mothers Aaaltaa. Whenever I had time, I painted, scribbled, drew. It didn’t matter what was the medium. Charcoal scribbled on the floor, brick pieces on the wall, smashing fallen flowers and leaves and painting with their color and even etching with iron nails onto wooden fixtures, mostly the back side of few doors which elders hardly noticed 🙂 I dreamt of having a profession that is my passion. And I am lucky to have parents who supported my decisions every step of my life. Despite fairing well in academics when I decided to leave my general education halfway and join fashion design, they didn’t object even once. I always dreamt of having a profession that lets me draw and paint. Fashion design provided me with exactly the same opportunity. I have worked with many big brands in India as well as outside India. Life was flowing like a placid river.. But slowly with the introduction of digitization in design (No hard feelings here. I love Photoshop and Illustrator as much as you do 🙂 ) , I started missing the human touch in my work. I missed playing with the paint and brush that I did early in my career. That’s when I realized probably it is time to bid a farewell to the stylus and get back to my paint brushes . On 14th Feb 2016 I left my job to start my new career as an artist. Though I have left behind my fulltime job as a fashion designer, I still continue to work as a fashion illustrator, educator and textile artist. Q – who or what was your inspiration? My father , Sangram Keshari Mohanty, who is a renowned poet and lyricist in Odisha has been my constant source of inspiration. As a kid I wanted to be a poet, just like him. But probably I was too young to write. So instead of alphabets, I chose lines and dots to express the poetry that flew in my heart. I have got motivation from my mother. She is an extremely soft but rock solid persona. She taught me the art of faith, belief and never giving up. My strong motivators are my sisters, my husband, my in-laws, my Guru Shyam Prasad Pattanaik, my family and many of my friends and mentors. I possibly can’t mention all their names.. but I am sure when they read it they would know. I thank them all, from the bottom of my heart. They constantly inspire me, support me, challenge me and in the process polish me. I have an eight-year-old boy who is my biggest fan and the toughest critic. At times I am amazed and totally taken aback by his observation and comments on my work. Q – Please tell us about your milestone journey, especially the difficulty you faced? When I look back, I see a beautiful road that I have covered. Every time my family’s eyes gleamed with pride and every time a stranger commented on how much joy my work has given them, they are my milestones. Awards and recognitions are not something I desire to chase. My endeavor is to touch as many lives as I can and giving them few moments of true happiness and joy through my work. When my art is appreciated and people welcome them to their homes and make them a part of their everyday, those moments are not only my milestones, but are as precious as gemstones to me. Talking about struggles and difficulties, yes. The most difficult call for me was to let go off my Fashion career in the middle of my life and start allover again as an artist. Every day is full of challenges as well as opportunities. I remember one quote from one of my mentors – “You can never take out your car from the garage if you wait for all the lights in the city to turn green”. There would be challenges and struggles which would make you grow stronger and better. I have faced many failures and numerous rejections.. But I always look at them with a smile. It is the failures and struggles that would make my success story more interesting. So I believe in marching ahead and welcoming struggles and challenges with open arms. Q – As an artist, what is your favorite subject of illustration (model or form etc) Nature, within and outside is what has been my inspiration and subject. I see nature as a woman as well as I see nature within a woman. Depicting her emotions has been my eternal quest. I have grown up in a little town in Odisha, which is culturally extremely rich with a huge influence of tribal culture on it . . Those influences have become a part of my art. My choice of color swings between two extremes. At times it is a Zen like approach with simple black and white and yet another time it is a potpourri of thousand rainbows. My art has never been a thoughtful endeavor .. Most of the time I only trace the forms that I see on a blank canvas. Q – What was the best and the worst advice you received when you started your career? The only advice my father always gave me is, ‘if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well’. All my life, that is what I have tried to do and that is what I aspire to do for the rest of my life. Doing something right has always given me the joy and satisfaction. I have been lucky to not have received any negative advises from anyone or probably they gave me and thankfully I never acted on them 🙂 Q – At this point in your career, are you happy ? As an artist my career has just begun. I have no idea where the road will lead me to. But I am extremely happy with the path that I have chosen and it is a beautiful journey. I have a long way to travel and a lot to learn and more than anything else, I have a lot to paint. Each stroke that I have painted are the moments I have truly lived. Whenever I sketch or paint, I derive a strange sense of happiness, which is quite meditative. And many a times when viewers have come back to me expressing the same, I get really thrilled. Being happy is a great feeling.. but creating happiness is euphoric! Q – If someone read your story and wanted to follow your footsteps being inspired by it, what advice would you give them? We all have different goals and different paths in life.. If you can follow something, follow you heart and your passion. My only advice would be that many people would point out many of your negatives( lets admit, we all have negatives ) , not with a wrong intention, but with the intention of improving you.. Listen to them, but don’t follow every bit of it. Life is too short to work on our weaknesses.. find that one strength and work on it.. and yes, if any of your weakness is coming on the way of your strength, slay it !!! Q – Do you believe in dreams? I am a dreamer. Not only I believe in dreams, but also I live in my dreams . Dreams are desires and visions with wings. You cant fly before your dreams are airborne.. If you wish to see Mona’s work follow her page on Facebook and Instagram.