Source : Entrepreneur.com
It is said that spaces have tales. Around eight kilometres from Mussoorie, in an obscure hamlet called Masrana, a tale of love for nature, history, art and tradition is being weaved carefully. And it is being written by a feisty couple, Patricia and Dr Ghayur Alam, who had settled here about 12 years ago as they found Delhi too crowded and raucous to understand their artistic sensibilities.
While on a drive in the Himalayas, the Alams spotted a piece of land, bought it and settled in the village on the Mussoorie-Dhanaulti Road. The tradition of weaving, an intrinsic and intangible cultural heritage of the villagers living in the neighbouring hamlets, provided the couple with essentials for entrepreneurship that suited their way of life. What started as an endeavour to provide a market for the handmade products of the local community has now grown into a full-fledged business enterprise, providing livelihood to local weavers of Mussoorie.
Dr Ghayur Alam, owner of Himalayan Weavers, enumerated his journey as an entrepreneur, in an elaborate interview with Entrepreneur India. He spoke about his vision of initiating a green venture, engaging the local community in gainful professions and building an art-based livelihood.
Adding Clean Energy to Green Venture
Great care is taken by weavers to make sure that production is environment friendly and energy efficient. As the area is one where water is scarce, they try to reuse as much water as possible.
The enlightened couple is also planning to introduce solar water heating system so that the dye bath is heated only with solar power. “We are considering installing a vacuum tube solar water heating system with a heat exchanger to circulate hot water through the dye bath. We don’t know of anyone doing this for dyeing on a small scale,” enthused the erudite entrepreneur, who disagreed that weaving is moribund as craft.
