Your Makers

Chitharanjan KR

Chitharanjan  worked as a manger in Mangalore city for a while before he came back home and setup his six machine assembly for a small sized unit. He spent time in workshops, training programs and understanding the machinery so he could fully benefit from using the best technology in the market. He lives in a joint family with his mother, grandparents, brother, wife and children. The venture was successful and the local market has given them enough exposure for their dream of investing in the international market. But his business had to take a stop when his ailing mother was hospitalised and he had to tend to her care.

As his mother makes recovery he’s slowly getting back into production and slowly inviting orders. The path to a full recovery is slow but one that in the long run proves to be useful and provides better results. His own story of losing his father at young age and being moved from Kerala (his father’s homeland) to Karnataka (mother’s homeland) where both linguistic and cultural changes didn’t stop his achievements, he shows potential of being a successful businessman. These opportunities for growth have been available to him because he shows dedication by following his interests till the end of the road.

His goal at the moment is to make a full recovery from the break and pursue his plans of expansion. They have been fairly successful in the past and a good year has left them storage full of plates and the new harvest of leaves seems to be bountiful. Therefore his stage is set and he’s ready for action.

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Harish K

Harish is the younger son of four children. His father passed away when he was young and he worked on the farm. He is now married and the couple have a beautiful girl child, with a dotting grandmother following the child and taking care of her. Harish took up the opportunity of investing and working with the by-product of Areca leaves since they always ended up as mulch. The opportunity was available when many other locals were trying to invest, build and grow with areca leaf plate production opportunity to make money with a waste product from their own farm. They currently use raw material from other farms as well because of growing orders for more plates and running out of raw material in their own farm.

Harish took a loan to set up his five machine workshop that is located right next to his hose and offers a view into the vast areca nut plantation. As the afternoon shift slows down and the employees take a break his wife serves them with tea she prepared at home. He largely manufactures for local vendors and aggregators who buy and sort the plates for local and international markets.

The employees at Harish’s unit also work on the farm and harvest the leaves. So their jobs aren’t seasonal and they are employed throughout the year but their wages vary based on the task they are performing. The employees also take turns in working on the farm, harvesting areca nuts, their leaves and manufacturing the plates. Harish now wants to expand his business by setting up more machines to increase production of plates. The earning for his business has increased so much it can offer comfortable cushion even if his harvest fails.

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