Not such an eventful day today but an important one anyway.
There was one funny incident when i pulled into the garage in a tut tut. The driver needed to open the bonnit as it were, but had left the key at home. No problem, he stopped every tut tut driver in the road and tried using their keys, eventually after about the sixth he succeeded!
At 11am i find myself in a dusty old shop in Madras near the Sari factory, in the search for my colleage Prasad. The shop is owned by Prasad's uncle-Shantanu. The term Uncle is used a lot in India it doesn't neccessarily mean your mother's or father's brother, it can be used in an affectionate way for an older family relation or friend. Uncle promptly ordered some tea and told me to sit. I did and half an hour later Prasad turned up. We went through the numbers and it seems everything should be alright. At least i was assured of this but i know that over here things aren't always so smooth. This is why i am staying here for such a long time, so i can follow each step personally.
The next step is to arrange the workers to make the Sari Bracelets, for this we will have to go out of town and being such a large order we will need to look around a bit more. You can find these bracelets in two different parts of India that i know of, quite simply, but if you want quality in numbers it is an entirely diiferent thing. Prasad will make the initial contact and then i will go and see things over. Fingers crossed.
I have been talking to Prasad seriously, saying that we've really got a great product here and trying to impress on him the need to continue to find more good people to make it.
I would like to eventually start up a proper factory here and make it a solid sustainable business for all involved. This is however all in the future and that's why we've got to do our very best now.
Tomorrow should be a great day. My very good friend Manoj is coming from Pondicherry three hours down the road, it's a lovely colonial French town right on the coast of South India. Manoj is a lover of life and an entrepreneur if ever there was one. He owns and runs four guest houses aswell as a chai (tea) shop. Speaks five languages and works on average eighteen hours a day. First and foremost though he is an artist and a very successful one. He exhibits in several places in India and is now starting to go further afield. If you want to have a very good insight into India, he is your man, he knows everyone and does everything with a massive grin. If you fancy buying some contemporary Indian art or going to Pondicherry itself then look him up on facebook, his name is Manoj Dixit. The painting above is Manoj's.
At the moment i'm sitting on the communial veranda looking out onto the garden writing this.
A very beatiful white cow just strolled by and the grandmother of the guesthouse is singing.
Good night from India.
dominic
There was one funny incident when i pulled into the garage in a tut tut. The driver needed to open the bonnit as it were, but had left the key at home. No problem, he stopped every tut tut driver in the road and tried using their keys, eventually after about the sixth he succeeded!
At 11am i find myself in a dusty old shop in Madras near the Sari factory, in the search for my colleage Prasad. The shop is owned by Prasad's uncle-Shantanu. The term Uncle is used a lot in India it doesn't neccessarily mean your mother's or father's brother, it can be used in an affectionate way for an older family relation or friend. Uncle promptly ordered some tea and told me to sit. I did and half an hour later Prasad turned up. We went through the numbers and it seems everything should be alright. At least i was assured of this but i know that over here things aren't always so smooth. This is why i am staying here for such a long time, so i can follow each step personally.
The next step is to arrange the workers to make the Sari Bracelets, for this we will have to go out of town and being such a large order we will need to look around a bit more. You can find these bracelets in two different parts of India that i know of, quite simply, but if you want quality in numbers it is an entirely diiferent thing. Prasad will make the initial contact and then i will go and see things over. Fingers crossed.
I have been talking to Prasad seriously, saying that we've really got a great product here and trying to impress on him the need to continue to find more good people to make it.
I would like to eventually start up a proper factory here and make it a solid sustainable business for all involved. This is however all in the future and that's why we've got to do our very best now.
Tomorrow should be a great day. My very good friend Manoj is coming from Pondicherry three hours down the road, it's a lovely colonial French town right on the coast of South India. Manoj is a lover of life and an entrepreneur if ever there was one. He owns and runs four guest houses aswell as a chai (tea) shop. Speaks five languages and works on average eighteen hours a day. First and foremost though he is an artist and a very successful one. He exhibits in several places in India and is now starting to go further afield. If you want to have a very good insight into India, he is your man, he knows everyone and does everything with a massive grin. If you fancy buying some contemporary Indian art or going to Pondicherry itself then look him up on facebook, his name is Manoj Dixit. The painting above is Manoj's.
At the moment i'm sitting on the communial veranda looking out onto the garden writing this.
A very beatiful white cow just strolled by and the grandmother of the guesthouse is singing.
Good night from India.
dominic
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