Bylanes of Tunjhu

31-Jul-08 is a day I would remember for some time. Had some wonderful experiences yesterday. We made our first prototypes yesterday… YES!!! And boy, they look good. Again as our concept goes, the products developed are a fusion of four art-forms.

I also got a chance to visit Tunjhu, a small village about 50 Kms from Ranchi on NH 33. This village was once known for its ancient technique of making utensils out of brass. Some years back about 80 families worked on this technique. However, sadly now, there is just one family who is involved in this. The rest have gone for an easier route to mint money, by either selling buns and bread or working outside the village. And as a result, the art is dying out.

We got a chance to understand the technique involved in making this. We interacted with the only family who is involved in making products using this process.



The ore is first heated in the furnace till it becomes liquid. It is then pored into Plaster-of-Paris moulds and allowed to cool down. Once the metal cools down in the mould, the metal piece is removed and then is beaten to form different shapes like plate, bowl etc… It takes five persons about a day to make 14 pieces of the product.

The technique fails to gather market when it competes with utensils made on readymade moulds. The utensils made of readymade moulds can be made quickly and with very little effort. Hence the market for this art form is dying down and so is the art form.

Updates

Am back with updates. The team has been busy with exams on and term almost screwed... We were busy doing our project submissions too... to ensure that we are not called Fraxers (Free riders)

But amongst all these, we have also been devoting some time to Parichay.
We are now a legal entity. That opens up a lot of avenues.

We were also a part of Buyers Sellers meet that happened in collaboration with NABARD and Kalamandir, where the new rural store was inaugurated. The same has been covered in Telegraph and other Hindi newspapers


We are also in process of roping in some experts from different domains. More on this later.

The team would disperse to various locations in India for their summers, we hope to get in more art forms on board as we travel across India this summer.

Till the next update.... Adios.

BTW Parichay has been news quite regularly. Here are some of the links.
In aid of the entrepreneur, Business Standard
Govt priority to rural sector loans, Telegraph
B-Schools turn venture capitalists, Money Control (CNBC)
and many more in Hindi (Prabhat Khabar etc...)

Parichay on Business Standard

Here's the excerpt

Likewise, XLRI-Jamshedpur has introduced a deferred placement policy this year, applicable to the 2008 batch of students and onwards.

Uday Damodaran, placements chairman of XLRI, notes: “From this year, we will allow students interested in starting entrepreneurial ventures to take the plunge and push back their participation in campus placements for a maximum period of two years. Our aim is to extend as much support as possible to students who wish to become entrepreneurs. A policy like this will provide students the emotional security needed while taking a risk during the initial years of a career.”

XLRI Jamshedpur has also decided to support a group of six first-year students with Rs 3 lakh for their entrepreneurial venture. These six have decided to start Parichay.co.in, a portal to link tribal artisans with the mainstream market and provide them a platform to reach out to connoisseurs of art across the world.

“As the six students put together the portal and decided on the revenue earning model, we at XLRI thought of supporting them with the initial funds required to put the project in place,” reasoned Madhukar Shukla, faculty at XLRI.

Read the full article here:
http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?leftnm=6&autono=317343

Team Photo

Team Photograph after we got the first funding commitment of Rs. 2.5lakh.

Parichay - So Far

Sept 26, 2007. Room No. 216. Here’s where it all started………

*ing

Chin “Blogger” tan – Yaar mera Wi-Fi nahi chal raha hai!!

Sid “Bad” Shah – You there? One sec.

DJ – Where was the art hidden all this while?

Kaka Kaushal – Jog. Blog. Slog. Run.

Introducing

Paaji – Don’t mix emotions with Business! Next destination. Sri Lanka!

Bond – What the %&^$#*&% do you mean by Bond?

-------------------------------

Room 216. Room 101. Room 224.

Endless Mosquito Killings.

Those endless F5 to get the Home Page at the Centre of the site!

Gears – can we have them go round & round?

Bishuda’s. Parathas. Happinezz. Sizzling “Double” Brownie. Chappan Bhog. Gajar Halwa.

How can we forget the Board? Can I erase this? Have you noted this down?

Parichay – Samarkan. The name. The endless search. Final find. Courtesy Sidbadshah.

The first downturn. Help! Vikas to the rescue.

Enter Bond. Coding. Coding. *%#&%^$^ Coding. Save. %#&^#%$^ Refresh. Change. Save. Refresh. #%^$#$%&

Tagline. Tagline. Think. Think. I want a punch. I want something to flow. Think. Pause. Introduce. Innovate. Celebrate!

Parichay night out. Darshan! You’ll fall off the chair! Go wash your face…!

Another Parichay night out. Case Study next day. Vikas’s extempore speech (have we spoken enough?). SMSing the contacts in class. Darshan! Aage dekh! Prof dekh raha hai!

Taking ideas from Fin Class – can we hedge our risk from all angles??

Giving a structure to Parichay during case discussions. What about our own case study?

Those endless #%&*@^ words from the Bond – our website designer.

I don’t mind working under anyone! We need direction!

Sit. Discuss. Talk. Scrap. Talk again. Consult. Deliberate. Decide. Act. Run! Stay Awake!!

Thanks to dear Shrikant “You may keep the TouchPad” Thank you thank you!

Special Thanks for our guides – Prof. Shukla. Mr. D’Costa. Mr. Ghosh.

Samajh gaye? Tu samajh nahi raha hain!

Bike kharid lete hai yaar!!

Photos. Brochure.

This is Just the Beginning of An Endless Journey!

And yes.... your comments are most welcome!!!

Updates

1. Next update on the website to come soon...
   
2. Paypal has just been added, wait for a better presentation of the website in that area
   
3. Improvements in the website primarily aimed to make it more user friendly
   
4. Our contact list is increasing exponentially
5. Lots of structures are being formed... lots of data collection
6. Getting in people for design
   

and the list does not end here.... each day there's something new, something exciting... I just wish I could document all of it.

Shall keep you posted though.

Sid

website

We're slogging ourselves and are tryin to get the website up ASAP!!!

Vivek Jain, Our CTO ( :) ) has been working like a bonded laborer for the same. While paji has been working on the content and am clicking pictures here and there. Chintu being the editor-in-chief.

The website should be up by 2moro. However, it would be devoid of many features that we intend to add which would be done in due course of time.

We would also be moving to our own blog soon.

Your feedback and comments on the website are welcome.