-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Add your name to the CLEAN GOA INITIATIVE | | | | by visiting this link and following the instructions therein | | | | http://shire.symonds.net/pipermail/goanet/2005-October/033926.html | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Say it with Nirvana -- tee-shirts with a made-in-Goa brand
By Reema Kamat Have you heard of Nirvana? Of course you have. Or more expectedly, seen it. Because the Nirvana brand of printed tee-shirts is all out there; everyone's wearing a Nirvana. And behind the goodness is a good old Goan boy. Raj Bhandare. He's passionate about is of pride to him. Nirvana, whose printed wisdom and offbeat graphics have caught on like wildfire among youth, is the brainchild of Raj who is the designer as well as the brand holder. Making him spill the beans wasn't difficult, given the passion and enthusiasm with which he speaks about his creation. "Nirvana came about in 1999; this was during the Kargil War period. Everybody was thinking of doing something for the soldiers in their own way, and I being an artist, was inclined to think artistic. So I thought I would pick up some tees, paint on them or have them printed and have an exhibition, so that I could donate the proceeds to the war fund. A lot of people were in favour of the idea but for some reason we could not hold the exhibition," recalls Raj. "There I was, stuck with 500-odd tees and nothing to do with them, so I started randomly distributing them among my friends." That was when Raj started getting positive feedback on his creations. People took notice of his tees and liked the projection of ideas, the graphics, the captions etc. "And so the idea of a brand of tee-shirts which could be a medium for projecting Indian culture and ethos in various forms; a tee that portrays Indianisms came about. Thus at its core, Nirvana is a very Indianised t-shirt." As time went by, Raj also introduced various issue-based graphics, like on AIDS, smoking, drugs, etc; then came humour and other things. "But at heart Nirvana remains Indian; a tee-shirt that says, I’m proud to be an Indian." So passionate is Raj about his creation that up until about three to four months back, he designed every T-shirt personally. "Now we do have other artists too, because I have diversified in my other areas. I'm into international trading. This has thus basically been a hobby which just caught on with other people and during the last five years, it has established itself." Nirvana has about 200 outlets all over India in cities like Bombay, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and even has a distributor in Europe. "The best thing about Nirvana is that it gives a sense of satisfaction, because the whole thing started off with an idea. An idea which had so much passion behind it, a passion which drove it to the success it has attained today. That passion saw nothing to the hardships, or the effort required, or any other aspect needed to make the idea a success. What I have learnt from Nirvana and want to tell everybody is that if you have an idea and have the passion to pursue it, you can make it a success story." There you have it from the horse’s mouth then. The path to your very own nirvana. [Reproduced on Goanet courtesy Panjim Plus. CONTACT: Ilidio de Noronha (Editor & Publisher) [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 2464687 or 9422058131] --------------------------------------------------------------- Investor Plus is a freesheeter from the Panjim Plus group. The writer has worked with this group till recently. GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. We share quality Goa-related writing among the 7000-strong readership of the Goanet/Goanet-news network of mailing lists. If you appreciated the thoughts expressed above, please send in your feedback to the writer. Our writers write -- or share what they have written -- pro bono, and deserve hearing back from those who appreciate their work. GoanetReader welcomes your feedback at goanet@goanet.org --------------------------------------------------------------- Goanet, Building community, creating social capital since 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------