The past few weeks have been surreal. and we had to showcase at yet another stall this weekend. And this particular association came from a surprising and unexpected quarter. Obviously,we were overjoyed and excited at the opportunity.
I still remember when me and my partner had discussed after seeing Kamakshi Nursery’s page on Facebook and exclaiming that these were amazing people doing the things we had hoped for as well.
And few days later… Surprise!! My partner announces,”you’ll never guess who just invited us to co-host a gardening event”. And that marked the beginning.We were fervently trying to tie up all loose ends and get everything ready for d-day. It was to be a three-day affair.
Posters put up at the entrance of Sri Parvati Gallery @ eldams road.
Our porch display
An entire stretch of our goodies for sale!! 🙂
This garden stall, unlike the others we’ve been part of, was held right in the heart of Chennai city at Eldams road. Well, almost. And the gallery by itself was well renowned for exhibiting great talents and their works over there. Two more companies joined along with us for the event. They were Adeniums India & Sai baba aquarium. Mr. Jalandhar Reddy, owner of Adeniums India, has also been in the bonsai industry for many years. He too is one of our inspirations & our well-wisher.
Lovely Adeniums for sale!
Kamakshi nursery, needless to say, are pioneers in what they do and have been in this business for over 40 years.They exhibited wide varieties of bonsais, beautiful orchids and exotic varieties of cacti during the stalls. We were only humbled by their invitation and equally glad we got to be a part of it. Mr.Srinivasan, who owns kamakshi nursery, is still going strong at 75 with his passion for greenery. One can only hope to have that amount of staggering strength at that age.His daughter, Ms.Radha Srinivasan, has also dedicated herself to the cause. But being raised among passionate garden lovers, it wasn’t too difficult a stand for her to take.
Mr.Srinivasan , owner of Kamakshi nursery
Ms.Radha Srinivasan, some bonds are created for a lifetime. Atleast ,that’s how we felt.
Air plants displayed by kamakshi nursery.
Exotic cacti varieties
The amount of fun we had in the total of three days were amazing and we were taught that our perseverance matters. And not to be disheartened. Mr. Srinivasan is truly our greatest role model.
As always, Day 1 being a Friday was kind of slow-moving. But since there had been enough advertisement through Facebook and local newspapers, we were much more hopeful for the following day. Day 2 and 3 just skipped by in full flow. If there weren’t customers, there were laid back, fun banter going back and forth between all of us.
We had great sales over the weekend, so much that some of our supplies got over and we had to send back a few dejected souls with assurance that we’ll have them in stock at our offices when they call us.
In between all this excitement , we had cause for more. A famous South Indian TV channel namely RAJ MUSIC’s official , had dropped by and he wanted to make a short session/video clip about the stalls we had put up. This was definitely a prodigious add-on!!
Raj music TV official who happened to drop by.
We also indulged in exchange of goods between the hosts and we couldn’t resist buying some of their pretty orchids as a gift to one of our team member.
The dazzling orchid bought by us.
A close up on a variety of orchid.
Meanwhile , the amount of people we got to meet and the encouragement we got were truly boundless.We had loads of drop-ins and surprised looks when we mentioned, “Yes, we run the company, a couple of twenty year old’s”. We had some inquiring and sharing their theories and ideas about hydroponics and aquaponics and other innovations and futuristic designs they’ve thought of. Of all the stalls we’ve ever put up so far ,this was the most fun highlight . Our spirits no doubt doubled.
Some of our garden kits, products and a module about growing greens that we put up!!
Vertical panel system
Bamboo planters, aesthetically pleasing!!
Terracotta pots galore!!
Sixteen paneled vertical garden!!
Amazing people that we met:
Can you imagine a father-son combo who were involved with running chemical factories turning a new leaf and deciding to take on the green industry and wanting to give back something to the rural society ? Or a sports news TV executive wanting to create a setup with a theme of community gardens with a bartering system and arduously working towards it? Well these were the fortuitous encounters we had and were absolutely thrilled.
Serious group discussion!!
We had people checking in on us till the very last hour. And after the day’s toil, it proved to be a herculean effort to sell that last one. And whoopee, it got sold, thanks to one of our dear friend who happened to witness the entire episode and completely entered into a bout of aggressive marketing. If you’re reading this, can we recruit you please? 😛 🙂
The Last sale of the weekend!!
And so there we were, packing off and loading everything back into our trucks , only to unpack again in a couple of weeks time. It was time for an unplanned surprise dinner with old friends and to enjoy the success of the weekend. Until next time. 🙂
SPACES 