HUNGER For SUCCESS

CHINU KALA GETS CANDID ABOUT HER JOURNEY WITH RUBANS THAT HAS BEEN FILLED WITH STRIFE AND STRUGGLE

- NAMITA GUPTA

1. What was your dream in your growing-up days?

How did you get into the jewellery business that you do? We all have many dreams when we are growing up but for me things were different. Since I left my home at the age of 15 at that time, for me the dream was earning three meals a day. With time everything changed but the only thing that remained constant for me was hunger for success. I always wanted to be successful, but I had no clue what I wanted to do in life and as they say "The harder I worked the luckier I got". So, after doing dozens of odd jobs for years, I finally started my Fashion Jewellery brand, Rubans.

In 2006 I participated in Gladrags Mrs. India and it was a wonderful experience.

When I got selected in the final 20 participants, I joined the boot camp where we used to practice for the final show every day. During these sessions. we had to dress up and it is here that I realised how important was jewellery to decide on the final look of a person whether it was a normal woman or a model. After the event I started my corporate merchandising company in which some of India's biggest brands were my clients. I used to work with many big corporate brands. Despite doing well in corporate merchandising business Fashion and Jewellery was always my first love and I used to read a lot about the Indian fashion jewellery market.

I always felt that the Indian consumer was not getting enough choice in Fashion Jewellery and a lot of them were buying jewellery from abroad or getting it through their family and friends who used to visit India. I believe that a perfect business opportunity lies in places where there is a gap. The Indian Jewellery market had that gap and I was confident that I would be able to use this opportunity and give the consumers what they had been longing in for a long time. Thus, in 2014 I launched my Fashion Jewellery brand Rubans with a humble investment of Rs 3 Lacs.