My Profile - Part 1

I was born in Kerala State of India. Following High School and two years of college I cleared a series of exams equal to that of a Chartered Accountant. Immediately I was promoted to an officer's position in a central government audit office.

Five years later in 1975 I quit the job to pursue my passion for arts and handmade items. I designed articles like ladies clutch purses, cylindrical pencil boxes, coin purses, screen printed and hand-painted wall hangings. A three dimensional home decoration item that I created using peacock tail feathers on natural beige reed mats became a big hit in the 80s.

My business employed over a fifty fun loving young men and women to assist me in production needs.  Sales volume grew. Markets grew. We appointed regional sole distributors. With the aid of fast selling gifts and handicrafts from our organization and their own hard work, two of our distributors became millionaires.

When revenue showed regular increases, my firm entered a real estate partnership. Due to lack of knowledge and experience of the partners, the venture failed in less than four years.

Diversion of funds and lack of sufficient personal supervision of my craft business for four years became disastrous. Production suffered, innovation came to a halt and competitors took over important market segments.  I ended up with over a million rupees in debt.

It took another sixteen years of hard work to wipe out the liabilities. I made several short trips across the length and breadth of India to promote and sell new artifacts I made.

During those years I might have met over 500 retailers to know their purchase preferences. One stock question I invariably used to ask was what type of gift or craft they would love to sell. 

I had also visited over a hundred artisans at their homes or production centers in search of items and processes from which I could ignite my creative instincts. I came out with new products. Some had short lived successes while roughly four out of five experiments ended in failures.

Nationwide contacts developed with craft makers during those years helped me organize a few state level exhibitions. By that I could help many artifact producers. I too benefited from all those activities.

In the year 2000, I took an interest in production of artistic home furniture. Without any special training, I became an interior designer.A few friends who trusted my abilities and their friends entrusted me with complete furnishing of their apartments. Most of those early customers loved my work and recommended and sent new clients my way. This continued until 2008 when I came to USA.

Life in USA from 2008 to 2014 clarified purpose of my life and provided me with <a href="Top 4 reasons to start Global Crafts Buddy"</a> a window to the world of handicrafts, its makers, markets and you the consumer.

Hobbies

Book lover - Reads at least a book a week

Chess Player -  On line & OTB

Other Interests

International Travel

Long Road Trips

Drawing

Painting