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This is an archive article published on February 20, 2024

An engineer, a house sparrow & ajrak: Secrets of a free-spirited entrepreneur from Pune

Pooja Rajput was the quintessential Punekar with degrees in engineering and business and a great job. What happened when she began to think differently.

Pooja RajputNamed after the humble house sparrow that evokes a bygone era and has become rare in cities, Chidiyaa reaches out to women who like classic silhouettes, pure fabrics and prints and weaves made by artisans spread across India.

Koregaon Park-based Pooja Rajput could fit the Pune stereotype — engineer from Savitribai Phule Pune University and an MBA graduate who had an impressive job — but for that time eight years ago when she was bored with what she was doing and, worse, couldn’t see how anything was going to change in the future.

“I was like, ‘okay, what is it that I like that I want to do?”’ she says. The answer was that she liked to wear a lot of saris and have people complimenting her. She used to visit fairs looking for interesting designs. It is how an idea for her apparel e-commerce startup, Chidiyaa, was born.

Dragonflies and crescents

Rajput had discovered a gap in the market — there was little for women like her who wanted unique stuff that was also understated and not busy with colours and patterns. Named after the humble house sparrow that evokes a bygone era and has become rare in cities, Chidiyaa reaches out to women who like classic silhouettes, pure fabrics and prints and weaves made by artisans spread across India.

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Chidiyaa’s mainstay is ajrak, a block print form made with 18 steps involving washing, printing, soaking and dyeing. She developed her own style that did not take very long and created motifs such as dragonflies and crescents. “Eight years later, these designs are still popular and people are also ripping off, which I consider a compliment,” she says.

Chidiyaa has become one of the Make In India brands responsible for the country’s apparel market reaching $92 billion mid-2023 and expected to double by 2030. After opening a store in Delhi, Chidiyaa has another outlet coming up in Gurgaon, Haryana, in mid-March, and two-three more will come up later this year.

Warehouse in the house

Yet, Rajput, who creates all the designs, is not a fashion designer and is still driven by nothing more than a free-spirited passion. “The first one-and-a-half year to two years were more about discovering and product development and I made many mistakes. I did not have the experience, and nobody in my family had remotely done what I was trying to do,” she says.

A journey that involved developing social media profiles — she still handles her social media herself — and using a bedroom of her home as a warehouse would lead to her first pop-up in a Gurgaon club where nobody came, until 11 am when the place was flooded with buyers. She still doesn’t know what happened, but Chidiyaa was taking its first flight.

Covid would shut down the company’s new stores but turn it into an online success as online shopping became the norm. Today, Rajput has a 3,500 sq ft warehouse in Pune and 3.50 lakh online customer base. She continues to work with the same artisans she started with.

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Two weeks ago, Rajput was in Delhi, where she visited Humayun’s Tomb and a motif caught her eye. Rajput clicked a photo and sent it to her artisans. “There are a lot of quirky brands that want to be seen in a crowd. We don’t want to be noticed unless it is by someone who appreciates the art,” she says.

Dipanita Nath is interested in the climate crisis and sustainability. She has written extensively on social trends, heritage, theatre and startups. She has worked with major news organizations such as Hindustan Times, The Times of India and Mint. ... Read More


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