Vogue India Article Otara

1. 1
C H A N G E
Guardians
of the galaxyIn a world full of outraged armchair Tweeters,
these superheroes are getting things done.
Vogue meets nine creative entrepreneurs who
are re-engineering communities in South Asia
to make them the champions of tomorrow.
By MEGHNA PANT
in
Anand Gandhi
35, MEMESYS
CULTURE LAB, INDIA
Building India’s first and biggest
virtual reality studio
From the team behind Ship Of Theseus
comes Memesys, a new studio that is geared
to create intelligent content—a majority of
it in virtual reality formats—to transform the
conversations around cinema, literature,
technology, art, research and social
impact. “This medium will allow people to
experience the self and the world from the
vantage point of the ‘other’,” says filmmaker
and co-founder Gandhi.
With its US$2.5 million
funding from private equity firm
RoundGlass, Gandhi brought a
group of filmmakers and thinkers on
board. And in less than a year, Memesys
has made indomitable progress. The biggest
virtual reality studio in India, it produced
Proposition For A Revolution, a crowdfunded
documentary on the Aam Aadmi Party,
which won the Sundance Documentary
Fund and IDFA Bertha Grant, among many
others. Now, Memesys is set to release its
quarterly virtual reality magazine and a unique
education initiative called the Travelling
University. Memesyslab.com >
My Kind Of
Wonder Woman
(2016) by
Nimisha Bhanot
260 VOGUE INDIA OCTOBER 2016 www.vogue.in
Gandhi (right)
with his team
from Memesys

2. ininin
Triple Optics wall
art by Rock in
Bandra, Mumbai
3Dhanya Pilo
35, THE WALL PROJECT,
INDIA
Sprucing up Mumbai’s public
spaces with graffiti and art
The Wall Project (TWP) started on a
white compound wall of a house in an
old East Indian-Koli village in Bandra,
Mumbai. Pilo says she had a burning
desire to do “something to the wall.”
With a start-up capital of
20,000, TWP soon became a public
instrument to motivate artists to
showcase their art, to enhance the
uniqueness of a particular area, and
to inspire residents to
take ownership of
their surroundings.
“With TWP we had goodwill from
every locality and support from
the city administration,” says the
NID graduate.
“When we painted The Great
Wall Of Mumbai at Tulsi Pipe Road
in 2009, over 300 people—friends,
neighbours, families, fellow artists—
came together over a weekend, with
the support of the BMC. The energy
was something like Woodstock minus
the drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll!” says
Pilo. Thewallproject.com
4
Pema Choden Tenzin
28, YEEWONG MAGAZINE,
BHUTAN
Boosting the happiness index in Bhutan
with its first and only women’s magazine
Tenzin co-founded Yeewong magazine,
Bhutan’s first and only women’s magazine,
in 2008, a time when glamorous photos
of women and stories on fashion were
considered “fluffy and superficial” in Bhutan,
she says. “On top of that, due to the small
market size, most magazines failed.”
“Not having any predecessor or mentor in
my country, the initial years were painstaking,”
says Tenzin. “I had to take care of the editorial
aspects, designing, marketing, printing and
distribution of the magazine single-handedly.
I would work alone in my parents’ garage,
while breastfeeding my son,” she recalls.
Tenzin would print in Kolkata to save
expenses without compromising on
quality, which meant that every quarter
she’d visit the border customs office and
“stand in line with ogling truck drivers.”
Covering everything from the royal
wedding to AIDS victims, Tenzin recalls
her best compliment: “His Majesty told
me that the magazine is ‘well done’.”
Yeewongmagazine.com >
Tenzin’s Yeewonghas more Facebooklikes than any
other Bhutanese
publication
262 VOGUE INDIA OCTOBER 2016 www.vogue.in
2Otara Del Gunewardene
52, EMBARK, SRI LANKA
Using fashion to help canines receive love,
respect and rehabilitation
Gunewardene is regarded as one of Sri Lanka’s most
powerful women. She started her first business,
Odel, with merely US$150, from the boot of her car,
and scaled it to great success, during a war, without
knowing anything about finance or business.
Despite—or perhaps due to—her extraordinary
rags-to-riches story, in 2007 Gunewardene sold
Odel to launch Embark, a fashion brand that
supports animal welfare projects. “The work we do
with street dogs is funded by Embark’s merchandise
sale, as well as donations from individuals,
organisations and myself,” she says, adding that
Embark has treated more than 80,000 dogs so far.
“Behind every saved dog is a human,” she adds.
“None of our work would be possible without the
efforts of volunteers, fosters, staff and vets.”
Her biggest challenge has been to make street
dogs fashionable. “Sadly, even though there are so
many dogs that are unwanted and mistreated, many
people still choose pedigree,” she says.
The former model has always blended business
with improving lives. No wonder her work—
which combines passion and fashion—is called
‘pashionable’ in Sri Lanka. Otaradel.com/embark
Gunewardene
has opened
three Embark
stores in Sri
Lanka; (inset)
Embark’s
Colombo store

3. in
5Kavita Shivdasani
58, ART FROM BEHIND BARS, INDIA
Developing a prison welfare programme
that is better than jailhouse rock
It is with a stroke of nonchalance that Kavita
Shivdasani speaks about Art From Behind Bars
(AFBB), the flagship initiative of NGO Dagar
Pathway Trust, which rehabilitates prisoners from jails
in Maharashtra using art. “We believe that although
a crime was committed, an opportunity that is
remedial and not retaliatory must be given,” she says.
Shivdasani, who has a BA in psychology, started
AFBB in 2007 with the intention of promoting the
artistic talent of those serving time in prison. It has
resulted in a successful exhibition of paintings—
including charcoal portraits and surrealist art—made
by inmates. In the past, Shivdasani’s projects have
included a colour therapy workshop at Arthur Road
jail and greening the space around Byculla jail.
“After the artists complete their paintings, we
have them framed and exhibited at an art gallery.
The income generated is given to the artist or
their family, so on release from jail they have a fund
to fall back on until they find suitable employment,”
says Shivdasani. This has also proved to be her
biggest challenge as “it took prisoners a while to
believe that no one was out to monetarily profit
from the sale of their work.”
Untitled (2013) by
Sunil Bhaviskar,
an ex-convict at
Nashik Jail
Pant’s East India Comedy has
donated money for the J&K
floods, among other causes
6Sorabh Pant,
34, EAST INDIA COMEDY,
INDIA
Raising funds for social
initiatives with a chuckle
“Anybody who reads news in the
subcontinent will realise that you have to help
out if you’re in the public eye,” says Pant. The
company this stand-up comedian co-founded,
EIC, which owns one of India’s most popular
YouTube channels, makes influential videos
earmarking social issues such as rape, gay rights
and student suicides. Its most popular videos, like
those on rape survivor Suzette Jordan, the Kota
suicides, sex education and the one titled ‘I’m Not
a Woman’, garnered close to a million hits each.
EIC has donated 50,000 to each cause they
have undertaken in the past, like the Olympic
Gold Quest, the Chennai, Maharashtra and J&K
floods, and Marathwada farmers. In addition, EIC
has garnered lakhs for many schools by doing
free shows for the foundation Round Table India.
Through its EIC Outrage videos, the group
has helped raise money for many projects,
including Indian athlete Shiva Keshavan. “We’re
going to keep raising social awareness and
engagement, while maintaining our careers
as touring comedians,” confirms Pant, a
commitment demonstrative of the fact that
comedy can be serious business.
Youtube: East India Comedy
264 VOGUE INDIA OCTOBER 2016 www.vogue.in

4. in
7Thinlas Chorol
35, LADAKHI WOMEN’S
TRAVEL COMPANY, INDIA
Debunking misogyny with Ladakh’s first
woman-owned trekking agency
“I was upset and angry,” admits Chorol, after she was
rejected as a trekking guide by tourist agencies on the
grounds that she was a woman. Not one to give up,
she converted her angst to resilience and established
Ladakh’s first woman-owned travel agency: Ladakhi
Women’s Travel Company (LWTC).
Chorol’s passion for traversing mountains was
cultivated as a child when she accompanied her
farmer father to tend to animals. After a course in
mountaineering and wilderness, she harnessed her
trekking skills by participating in expeditions.
This experiential training has come in handy
for LWTC. Chorol’s trainee guides comprise
young Ladakhi girls, who undergo a rigorous
and holistic training process that includes classes
in Ladakhi history, English, religion, first aid,
trekking, ecology and cartography.
Not only is she challenging patriarchy, she’s also
helping Ladakhi women generate income by hosting
homestays for trekkers. By pushing the status quo,
empowering women through jobs and developing
ecotourism, Chorol is moving many a mountain,
one trek at a time. Ladakhiwomenstravel.com
Chorol is also
encouraging
local women to
host homestays
266 VOGUE INDIA OCTOBER 2016 www.vogue.in
8Tasaffy
Hossain
32, BONHISHIKHA,
BANGLADESH
Scandalising and
entertaining
Bangladesh
society one play
at a time
Bangladesh is at
a tipping point in
many ways. Under
the heavy hand of
fundamentalism,
its society is
undergoing a certain
sort of regression. It’s
then inspiring to hear
about Tasaffy Hossain, who
is breaking taboos and shackles
through her NGO Bonhishikha,
which means ‘flame’.
It was Hossain who introduced
Bangladesh society to Eve Ensler’s
pathbreaking play The Vagina
Monologues. “I wanted to open up
conversations and break taboos by
putting some topics
out in the open,” says Hossain, who
intends to keep raising awareness
around gender and violence using
many instruments of change.
“It’s about getting rid of the
concept of gender, of pushing men
and women to shed the constraints of
proving how masculine or feminine
they are, and becoming more aware
of themselves as individuals.”
9Dhimant Parekh
37, THE BETTER INDIA, INDIA
Serving news in India with a
twist of optimism
Over one lakh people watched
the video on Bakey’s edible cutlery,
bringing them orders worth 10 crore
within 10 days. This is just one among the many
heartwarming stories that go into The Better India.
“The Better India was born out of a personal quest
for positive stories,” says Parekh, an ISB graduate who
co-founded the website with wife Anuradha Kedia.
In two years TBI has gone from a personal blog
to India’s largest positive-news platform, reaching
40 million people every month. “Amplifying good
leads to amazing results... It inspires us to solve the
problems than crib about it.” Thebetterindia.com ■
Hossain’s NGO
introduced
Bangladeshi
audiences to The
Vagina Monologues
—With inputs from Jahnavi Kothari