Our Story
We were born and raised in the hands who believed in living a conscious life of 5R’s Refuse, Reduce, Respect, Reuse and Repurpose!
It is a very significant memory of my childhood, when I was eight, in the free hours of noon and as the warmth of the sun reflected on the window panes of my lawn to the floor, my mother sitting on the cotton stuffed homemade ottoman, humming to the tunes of 80’s classic Bollywood radio music, she weaved pretty frocks using old sarees and my father’s shirts, sewing tulle and pink bows for me and my sister as we twirl every time she places the weaved cloth on us for the measurements. Born in a middle-class family, we had a very minimalist approach towards our life, it taught us the most valued lesson of living, we were born and raised in the hands who believed in living a conscious life of 5 R’s – Refuse, Reduce, Respect, Reuse and Repurpose.
Refuse all the unnecessary things in life. We often stammer in saying ‘NO’, but refuse to do anything toxic; be it plastic or an environment that serves no purpose- it is simple to just refuse. We never entertained the idea of using too much plastic, my mother preferred using steel boxes, bottles and glass jars that can be reused for various purposes
My father taught us a valuable lesson of reducing the usage of valued energy and releasing the wastage in the environment. One just has to be a little conscious of their choices, it was the little things like, saving electricity, understanding what our environment needs, and plantations. Most of our Sundays went into learning about different plants, gardening, understanding the needs of the soil and using recyclable materials and waste as natural sources of gardening. This helped me and my sister to know more about consumption and how it impacts life as a whole
When I and my sister were growing up, we saw that people around us don’t really appreciate the beauty of nature and respect it enough to survive; a classic example is excess use of plastic and careless dumping of waste. My mother used kitchen waste for our gardens and my father always experimented with his conscious choice on how to make it more effective. They said, ‘it’s always about one step at a time, if you respect them enough, nature will give you back with both hands’
The minimalistic approach sounds like a very modern concept, it’s trendy nowadays but it’s the root of our rich Indian tradition that most people used it in their daily lives earlier. Now, as I have a family of my own, even now, I don’t shop compulsively, it has never been in our roots. During our childhood days, my mother only made trips to shop when it was densely needed, otherwise, it was always about reusing products as a part of conscious living
Ever heard of the quote, ‘don’t throw away things that can be repaired’, I strongly believe in this and even today, I try to implement as far as I can. This generation has the concept of replacing it when it could be repurposed or repaired; from relationships, dreams, to even daily products. Consumerism has seen an all-time elevated graph and this shocks me to the core that people believe in throwing away things that can be repaired- this gives a lot of idea on the take of life, nowadays. Every traditional Indian family believed in repurposing and we want to bring back the tradition
Our Company
Conceived during the lockdowns, rooted since the childhood
Our planet is changing
It’s time to change the way you shop- it’s time for Raw Route
There’s a better way to shop - easy and convenient but made in a way that treats our planet!
As I pen this story down, sitting under an old mango tree in my garden planted by the old residents
of this house, I believed they were the most selfless people who planted these many trees only to
have my family and my two-year-old niece enjoy the cold breeze as she played under the shade.
It is the people with a knack of need for something to find the best possible ways in creating
something good for the kids, neighbours, community and the planet. Our passionate team and
expert researchers behind Raw Route are working efficiently to keep this churning and slowly and
gradually, our community is shaping up to fill in any gaps.
Founder,
Raw Route