From personal care to professional store

Ataasii, an online conscious store that houses body care essentials such as varieties of soaps, scrubs, salts, etc, that are conscious in nature. The founder of ataasi Suhani Dewra says that all the products are manufactured with a conscious on nature and every material used in it is a natural ingriedient. Suhani, in a conversation with "The Hans India" shares about her starting days and journey with ataasii. Let's have a look into it.

What do you mean by 'conscious in nature'?

Meaning these products are made of natural ingredients – say if it is a foot soak, the ingredients are various kinds of salts such as epsom salt, pink Himalayan salt, essential oil etc and these are all procured from nature. Even the fragrance used is natural. That was the first part. Packaging is the second part where we use eco-friendly materials. There are times when I am forced to use non eco-friendly elements such as plastic cello tape during the shipping of large boxes. Given the ubiquity of plastic, it seems almost impossible how not to get it involved now and then.

There are so many such brands with such body care products made of natural ingredients, what made you want to run the race? You have been a communications professional and then entrepreneurship. Not in line

As a teenager, I indulged in self care. During the initial outbreak of acne, I would go to bed with a nutmeg mask on my face that I washed off only the next morning. I have inherited the gene of self-care the natural way from my maternal side. The initial idea was an online magazine about such conscious self-care practices and the store was part of the revenue model. However, the store took precedence.

And that was how the two aspects – writing and self-care - I found fulfillment in, merged. So, it is now that I am in line with what I must be doing.

And what if, in the future, another aspect you may have inherited surfaces up? Would you again make a switch?

That could happen. I will include it as an extension of ataasii.

What's the best part of falling in line with what you are meant to do and what's the worst about it?

The best part is that it is easy to carry out an activity, the desire to fulfill which springs from within. And the worst part is the interference of economics. The need to stay profitable can, at times, dim the joy of fulfillment. I am always mentally calculating. Every damn activity takes place with calculation.

So, how do you plan to ensure business doesn't kill pleasure?

I don't think there's any way out, given the establishment of the world. What I could probably do is get into a mental zone that even while the constant calculation is on, I don't get affected by them.