PURKAL STREE SHAKTI
The Founders
- with no good profile pictures and say hello's to all four legged friends -
The Dreamer
The Busy one
The Sleepy owl
Meet Astha Giri, the all-doer of Purkal and responsible for delegating all the orders. She literally has no time in the day to sit and chai. Her worst nightmare is missing out on orders and yet she manages to stay calm in all the chaos. She says be positive to which we say tea positive.
Sprite Animal: Friendly Mouse
Favorite Smiley: 😊
Personality type: Bhalla
Found surfing: Jeevansaathi on Jeevansaathi
Meet Aiswarya Enolla Patri, the one with the tragic misspelled name and a sucky 2020 spotify report card. She says no to everything before her 'morning' cuppa and believes in slow living. She loves tinkering around with everything in Purkal and is responsible for all things goofy. She says leap before you think and to that we say wohooo!
Sprite Animal: Wise Owl
Favorite Smiley: 🐣
Personality type: Teja
Found surfing: No, just stalking.
Meet Banee Batta, the doggo and plant mom of Purkal. She lives in the parallel world and can be bought back with a cup of tea. She is animated half the time and can be found chanting Bollywood dialogues voluntarily. She's the involuntary face of Purkal and we love her for that. She screams Hakuna matata and to that we say - Yolo.
Sprite Animal: Social Llama
Favorite Smiley: 🌝
Personality type: Robert
Found surfing: Latest Bhojpuri tracks
Mrs. Chinni Swamy
- the Founder of Purkal Stree Shakti Samiti -
The Iron LAdy
Mrs. Chinni Swamy started Purkal Stree Shakti Samiti in Dehradun with the sole aim of empowering the women of this area. The Samiti helped to create economic stability for women and their communities by providing skill training and workspace to produce handmade home and fashion products. After 16 years of its existence, Purkal Stree Shakti Samiti made a positive impact on the lives of 170+ women who come from more than 40 villages. Unfortunately, due to the disruption of operations from the Coronavirus lockdown, most of the 170+ women had to be dismissed during the period of February and March 2020. During the process of being dissolved, three young entrepreneurs (Banee Batta, Aastha Giri, and Aiswarya Enolla Patri), who have been closely connected with the place and the artisans, came forward to preserve the legacy of the place. Aspiring to be self-reliant, the place now runs as a Social Enterprise - Purkal Stree Shakti. The cause of the business remains the same and the immediate goal of the brand is to rebuild sales and eventually re-employ as many women as possible.
“I am very happy that the cause and ideology of our organization will be carried forward by these talented girls. They will continue to be associated with me and have my blessings for their new beginning. This way it is a happy ending (or should I say - new beginning) for my dreams. I can now retire in peace."
Meet The Team
- the people who do the actual work while we pretend to look busy -
Sangeeta Didi aka wonder woman
Radha didi aka Sherlock
Sangeeta Didi is our pattern master and quality checker. She takes a lot of time to create the new samples but that's only because she is a perfectionist. She says she can only concentrate with music in the background. She never fails to make us laugh and is our support system at Purkal.
Quality Inspector @ Purkal Stree Shakti
Pattern Master @ Purkal Stree Shakti
Radha Didi is one of our early artisan partner and now our quality inspector. She is highly skilled with a keen eye to detail, which helped her become one of the best quality inspectors here at Purkal. She can be found humming old Bollywood songs while working and her eyes lit up every time we talk about her pet doggo, Sophie.
🦸
🕵
Ammo aka Amit Bhaiya
Operations Genie @ Purkal Stree Shakti
Amit is our Operations Manager. He handles our daily operations, inventory, stock as well as sales. He loves traveling and managed to explore Badrinath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri last year. This year did not go as he had planned and instead of road trips, he made it to the kitchen and has aced cooking! His rotis are yet to be round but it's all edible as per him.
Saaaachinnnnnn (in a sing song voice)
Sales Ninja @ Purkal Stree Shakti
Sachin is the guy who always helps us maintain our sanity. From dealing with vendors to managing orders and dispatch, Sachin is very organised and helps us get through the day, one order at a time. A large part of it is because he always volunteers to make chai and maggi for everyone at the workshop. His favorite hero is crime master gogo and he says he never listens to sad punjabi songs but his playlist suggests otherwise.
