It was a wonderful trip of friends and their families who have known one another for the last 18 years.
And the destination was Emerald Trail, created by another set of friends Sumit Datta and Leena Lele at Bhimtal!
Here, I tried to capture Emerald Trail in all its essence, along with its immediate contextual environment – socio-cultural-physical-natural milieu.
A beautiful creation through sweat and toil. It is home away from home, in the rustic, pristine environment to recharge and relaunch oneself.
Apart from the peaceful environs that rejuvenates you and can give you time to think and initiate yourself in many a creative pursuit, you can
– Walks into the woods,
– go on trekks if you are adventurous
– taking off the skyway with parasailing if you are adrenaline-umped
– drenching yourself in nearby water streams
– go boating in so many lakes nearby
– if you love nature, then good-friend Peter’s butterfly research centre is a great place to invest for half a day
Sumit, an alumnus of IITD and IIML, is a multi-faceted personality. He is very passionate about preservation, revival and promotion of Indian musical instruments and Indian art forms that are on the verge of becoming extinct. He enjoys playing more than a dozen instruments. Apart from music, he loves photography. He works in the strategy group of BOC.
He has spanned small businesses in the space of exclusive TEA retailing, exquisite candle making apart from revival of Musical instruments – one of the endeavors is Didgeridoo makers. He is one of the prime movers behind the popular Delhi Drum Circle that meets every fortnight at the Deer park, Hauz khas in Delhi to jam.
Sumit not only shared his journey with the young entrepreneurial leaders but also jammed with a few DDC regulars at the IWSB Drum Circle. The young members, ranging from 3 year-olds to 10 years-olds, at the school run by Society for Empowerment through Education, on the IWSB campus really enjoyed the drumming circle.
India is bestowed with such a variety of musical instruments each from a cultural milieu.
In Manali – we have seven day long festival of Diwali
– Jab we met song was pictured in manali
– I picked up Tibetan peace bell
o Rotating around will give a long resounding sound
– Science behind is amazing
North-east – yak and rhino horns used for making a few instruments and precious artifacts. We need to be careful not to promote poaching. As long as they are made out of dead ones, it is fine.
When we see a gap, why do not we do it?
Corporates are paying a lot for outbound, team building. Can we extend it to rural travel, arts and culture? Experiencing them through packaging is the key. Didgeridoo makers on facebook have about 1000 fans. About 15 of Didgeridoo are being made at any given time. These are made in the Haridwar-Rishikesh belt. Each artisan working gets about 30-40K. This revenue funds their livelihood.
could you share a little about the TEA business
There are five grades of tea
– white tea – Rs. 80 K per kg – organic is Rs. 1.5 lakh a kg
o Herbal is infused kind of tea
– Yellow tea – sun dried
– Orange peco – 5K per kg
– Black tea and green tea – almost similar : How it is processed
o Liquor formation
o Furnace
o Anti-oxidant
– CTC is the cheapest tea
We package exclusive herbal tea.
Where do all these things fit?
I am good at sales. We need to do a fair trade Tea channel. Tea is always auctioned. India from being a net vegetable of exporter has become net vegetable importer. We see that the middleman is the investor.
I need to understand the psyche of the vendor in chawri-bazaar. Get the deepest insights. You are dependent on his knowledge.
Relationship building and customer delight
Wax cannot withstand the July temp. We had to change everything – blends. Once, on order, I sold 6 candles at 6000 each. I had to be redo and send again, since the receiver received broken candle
If you build the relationships and be trustworthy, he is more than happy to help. Local level officers and linkers you connect and make them happy facilitators…
