I have always defined my personal independence in terms of the ability (and attendant scope) to do things on my own terms, without being answerable to anyone. My father, a very humble doctor has always guided and supported me. However, he also encouraged me to make my own life decisions. Despite the fact that he was a well known surgeon, he did not pressurise me to study medicine or engineering.
Right from my graduation days at Wilson College, Mumbai, when I was just 17 years old, I had started doing part time promotional jobs and earnt my pocket money. After graduation, I relocated to Assam and got married. Soon I became a busy mother of two. This sudden change in my life itched me to do something that would lend me my own identity. I decided to go for the audition of Mrs North East India when my son was just a few months old. I won the title of Mrs North East India, which kickstarted my modelling career. Thereafter I shot for a lot of print ads and catalogues in various parts of India.
The skills inculcated from my mother like stitching, embroidery, knitting and craft got me enrolling into a fashion designing diploma course, where I learnt the art of designing garments. In the year 2013, I and my sister launched our brand Design Ideas wherein we started catering to a range of women's attire ranging from traditional to contemporary etc.
As Design Ideas picked up I also kept doing my modelling assignments. In the year 2017, i won the title of Mrs India Universe, Most Beautiful Skin. Just as things were going fine, covid struck.
During covid our garment business touched rock bottom, although now it is recovering gradually. I then started working for a TV channel as a voice over artist for about 1.5 years. It was a great experience for me as it was something that I had never done before. After completing Visharad during my school days, I have always somehow been in touch with music.
Meanwhile in the year 2020, I met Pankaj Gogoi who among other important roles, heads Startup Assam as its President. We discussed work in relation to North East Hackathon. Essentially we brainstormed on how to make things work in favour of the festival. In the year 2021, we managed to hold the event online, amidst covid restrictions. We were very happy to see the numbers and response of the participants.
While we were working together for hackathon, we discussed the various prospects of our state and its various resources which need attention. I had been inclined towards the bamboo ecosystem for a while then. Coming from an apparel designing background I wanted to explore sustainable clothing and thus was looking for a way to create bamboo fabric. I started my research on the subject. Pankaj Gogoi had incidentally worked on setting up an ecommerce platform in Northeast India in 2013 to sell handloom and handicraft products. I realised he was also trying to work on the same vision like mine which was to bring the local products of Northeast India to global markets through a proper logistics network.
We noticed that there is not even a single successful online shopping website which is focussed on bamboo products of the Northeast. Identifying this gap of demand and supply we introduced a platform for bamboo products called.
As we know post covid everything from food to medicine to grocery was made available online. So we designed an online store only for bamboo products to cater to customers across India. On July 25th 2021, we co-founded and launched the website of bambusa creations www.bambusacreations.com This is an exclusive e commerce site for bamboo merchandise. The journey of Bambusa creations journey had been a big roller coaster ride and we are overwhelmed by the response of the projects undertaken successfully.Currently, we are working on an artisan model where an artisan can sell his/her products from their location to anywhere in India. This is supported by an efficient logistics network channel.We also have been selected for incubation under NEATEHUB, Jorhat.
Bambusa Creations at an expo at Cotton College
We have bootstrapped the startup. It is always difficult to bootstrap a startup initially when your expenses go higher than your profits. We started to work each day and night understanding customer behavior through our data analytics which is run by our tech team. This team has been able to resolve much of the concerns and started achieving targets.
While working with Bambusa Creations, I have also been actively involved in organising the first and second phase of the Northeast Startup Festival 2022. We are also coming up with the South East Asian Connect which is to bridge the Startup ecosystem between Northeast India and countries under ASEAN including Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal
Also Read: There are Many Shades in the Glass Ceiling
Also Watch: