Even the bonds closest to our hearts need nurturing. The sibling connection always remains special. 22nd August, 2021 extend your bond with the environment also.
As we approach the festival of the sibling ties, SUBURB brings you a thought-provoking idea by Aha Plants to celebrate the festival of Raksha Bandhan this year.
Absolutely organic, 100 per cent bio-degradable “Do Good Green Rakhi” by Aha Plants are ready to rock the market for people who think of the planet.
It is not just about simply manufacturing organic Rakhis, but a larger commitment is the focus of the brand, “Our Rakhi range is curated, keeping the environment and farmers our primary consideration. Each SKU is biodegradable and is made with potent seeds and flowering bulbs,’’ says Preeti Advani enthusiastically, the Founder of Aha Plants that did a brisk business during the days of the pandemic last year.
The special Rakhi range is completely environment friendly and also symbolic of ‘nurturing the bonds’. The seeds & the bulbs of the product are meant to be planted after the festive revelries are met, to see it grow and flower in times to come. “Similarly as we remember and cherish the sibling love by giving it little time, some moments of care and attention and with years see a strong foundation that stands strong even when winds of time are strong,’’ speaks Preeti explaining the concept metaphorically.
Aha plants, through its organic Rakhi range, aims to give more employment and spread the skill of Rakhi making amongst the unemployed women to make them financially secure. The company is extremely upbeat about supporting the farmers in their own way by buying high-quality seeds from them for the purpose of Rakhi making and also for its business needs.
Some of the exclusive features of Rakhi include
· Use of biodegradable materials and re-usable packaging.
· Lightweight and small packaging
· Fair Trade – seeds bought from Farmers at Market Price.
· Respect for Human Skills – Hand made Rakhis
· Gratitude to Mother Earth – Flowering bulbs and vegetable seeds that will grow into an aide-memoire of your love for your sibling.
Customized solutions
Talking about Aha Plants, she says passionately, “we not only sell plants, but we are also into the business of bringing people close to nature.’’
A considerable part of the company catalogue consists of fruits and vegetable plants. “Through our journey from inception, we would hear concerns from our patrons about seeds that would bear only leaves and no fruits / vegetables or the plants would get infected halfway before fruiting. The brand thrives on the idea of playing along with the requirements of the patrons, understanding their pain points and curating solutions. Unlike other business models in this category, Aha Plants gives personalized services to its patrons- including answering queries about how to take care of their terrace garden, seeds to plant in a particular season and giving first aid quick fix recipe to the customer for a plant that is not doing well.
For Preeti, plants are like babies; they need to be nurtured, touched and cared for each day. Giving a tip of the beginners into gardening, she says some plants need less water, some require more water, and some plants grow better if we change their pot placement every other day. Plastic pots, in the long run, are not a healthy option for the plants. “Keep one category of plants close to each other; one helps us understand their watering cycle, and also I believe that plants connect and bond with each other, so they grow better this way.”
Bloom & boom during the pandemic
“During the first year of pandemic and through the first lockdown, we were as dazed as anyone, for all this had never happened before. However, after one week of lockdown, we were up and about selling the key immunity-boosting plants. It happened when the Ministry of Ayush issued the health guideline with recipes of “Kadas.”
‘’To our amazement, people did not have the key immunity-boosting ingredient Tulsi plant also at home. As the winter had just come to an end and with nature by our side, we could get a constant supply of Tulsi (basil), Mint and Ajwain Patta (carom seeds). These three plants sold like hotcakes each day in hundreds through the lockdown.
Each day came with a different set of challenges: workspaces were shut; there was no conveyance and labour. We have stories of how we did packaging in gardens and at the homes of our worker teams. As we think about all of it today, those were also the most fulfilling days. Despite the circumstances, we could deliver immunity plants to hundreds of homes every day, employing many women who became unemployed as the schools got physically closed.
Nurture your garden for your health, or better said, let your garden nurture your health. Aha Plants can be ordered from Milkbasket, Atcost, Frugivore, Grofers, Amazon, Flipkart, and at the Atcost store near HongKong Bazaar.
