Gutsy woman experiments with desi dolls in pandemic
Divya Tejaswi
Like most of the people it was just the same with Divya Tejaswi who used to do her day-to-day routine job, but pandemic changed her life completely which made her dare to get into the business.
Yes, when the world got paused most of the people tried their hands in business such as Lalitha dolls which got popular in a short span. Divya who used to work as a teacher in a school was worried about her income in pandemic, which made her to experiment with dolls.
"I was always into academics and coming from a farmer background we faced difficulties to get into another stream. I used to work for college and later after getting married I moved to Bengaluru and started teaching working for a school," says this 30-year-old.
"All thanks to my husband who supported me to start this business in tough time, starting a business is not easy and investment is must and should in any business, we had nothing but paused our house rent for two months and invested that money on business, thankfully we got supportive owners who also supported when we didn't pay the rent."
They have Astalakshmi dolls, Marriage setups, Indian Bride and Groom, Baby shower dolls and many more. They curate the dolls according to their choice. "We take orders at least one month before so that we can work on their concepts which our clients expect from us," says Divya, mother of one.
"I should thank my whole family who is supporting me in this journey; my daughter who was home due to the pandemic started learning this art, which made it easier for me to take orders apart from my daughter, I have given employment to a couple of homemakers which gave me more satisfaction."
Divya also make sure to customises the dolls according to the pictures which are sent by her clients, "I do lots of homework before getting the doll ready, I make sure to pick up the same cloth which they wore in the pictures and purchase accordingly and get the dolls ready, it takes at least one week to finish one doll," says Divya who is supplying the dolls to USA, Australia and UAE.
"It is more word of mouth which bought me clients, and big thanks to the vloggers who also promoted my products on social media," concludes Divya whose dream is to open a store in future.