Yes I was fairly busy with my full time job, kids and family. Yes I worked very hard to go up the ladder in my career and was enjoying every bit of reward I was getting from my position. Then what prompted me to take this extra step creating a website, creating a brand, setting up a blog? Yes my job and family was taking 110% of my time. Fitting anything extra around it meant sacrificing that half an hour of late evening “me” time, or cutting down on my early morning laying on weekends. So after sacrificing so much and giving in so much of effort am I setting up the same kind of e store selling few popular items?

Being born in India, the second most populated country in world, that also in an urban middle class environment, you grow up experiencing constant pressure on resources. Nothing is abundant: land, jobs, food, natural resources. Such environment makes you overly competitive. Such competitiveness definitely helped me in my career and life. But what I lost was the ability to appreciate what ever I was having, appreciate my surrounding, appreciate my lifestyle and culture.

Today being in western world when I hear so much about recycling, I look back and remember how we used to recycle literally everything we used. Dresses will change hand and be passed on to several cousins before being exchanged for some goods (mainly kitchen utensils). Toys, books, electronic items. When world is talking about using biodegradable items, I remember use of paper pouches, paper bags which we used to get from shops to carry goods we bought, tiny clay pots used in tea stalls for drinking tea. Jute sacks and jute shopping bags were part of daily life.

As world moved on, India also moved on to the use of synthetic items and plastic bags. At the time following progressive and advanced world brought us more pride. Irreparable damage that all of our synthetic and plastic lifestyle brought, makes me repent of my naivety and ignorance.

Through my website, brand and blog I hope to bring out the best India can offer to the world. It’s not only the “Taj Mahal” or Goa beach. India has everything modern world need to survive and thrive. All the buzz words like “biodegradable”, “natural”, reusable are in her blood and vein. It’s the matter of recognizing and appreciating her lifestyle.