WHO ARE WE?

We are a bunch of creatures that absolutely adore and Respect both our biological as well as our ecological mother (Maa aur Dharti Maa). We are inspired by our mother’s craft and vision for re-creating beautiful things out of trash and converting them into a treasure (they call it ‘up-cycling’ these days ... well ... Indian mothers have been doing that for ages)

Driven by ancient Indian school of thought which encouRages us to live a sustainable life, our motto is to; Restore, revive, retain and re-interprete this thought by following three simple ‘sutras’ ; reduce, reuse, recycle.

We are peace loving people and we are here to spread ‘Eco’ism.

Our passion for arts, crafts and nature combined with our idea of a cleaner, greener and healthier tomorrow makes us ‘who we are’.

WHAT EXACTLY DO WE DO?

• We are modern day rag pickers who strive to earn their bread n butter by hand crafting beautiful things out of all kind of trash like used PET/glass bottles, cosmetic containers, old clothes and textile waste together with other earth friendly materials.

• Being ‘true’ Indians, we dutifully exercise our rights to give Pravachan and Bolbacchan on how ‘you’ can play a part in keeping our mother earth clean and be an ‘Ecobuddy’ just like us (Sharing our recipes and spreading knowledge through workshops)

• We are here to play our part in cleaning up the ecological and social environment not with brooms and vacuum cleaners but with paint brushes, colors, and scissors (& in the process inspire many others to follow the same path).

• Our endeavor is to cultivate the Indian essence by weaving, crafting & amalgamating our culture, traditional arts & stories of colorful India into our products.

• We are here to celebrate everything about India, be it the rich cultural heritage or the full on drama on which we, as a country, never lag behind.

WHY US?

The only carbon footprint that we leave behind at Ba no Batwo is the carbon dioxide that we exhale at work (but we make sure we have lots of green trees around so as to help them with their photosynthesis ;)). Everything that we make is hand crafted with love and affection.

We strive to bring back the ancient thoughts of living sustainable life so that we can be responsible ancestors.

We are dreamers who dream of a cleaner and greener tomorrow and we want you all to be part of that dream so that we can together turn it into a reality.

WHO CAN JOIN US?

• Any ‘living being’ that respects nature

• All art and peace loving souls

• All responsible citizens & FELLAS who are proud of rich Indian cultural heritage

• Last but not the least, anyone who has frequent episodes of ‘Shopomania’ and feels the urgent need to shop for some ‘cool stuff’... ‘This is’ the place for you ;).

(* BA in Gujrati means ‘Mother’ and BATWO is a word which signifies a clutch or a small purse that woman use to keep all their important things. Combined together, it metaphorically implies ‘Mother’s Wisdom’)

The ‘Genesis’

So here was a young girl, wanting to make beautiful clothes and help people look awesome, for she had always enjoyed dressing up her Barbie doll even as a small child. Her passion took her to one of the leading fashion schools in the b-town as she aspired to learn tricks of the trade and cherish every moment of it.

Flip side of the coin

As she learns more and more about the beautiful side of fashion industry, the darker side of the industry also starts becoming increasingly more evident. Huge volumes of environmentally hazardous chemicals that are used, enormous amounts of water that they consume, large quantities of waste that is generated (fashion industry is the 2^nd most polluted industry), poor working conditions of labours, extremely low wages that reach the labours and artisans working at grass root level, the list was endless.

Self-reflection – Fighting the ethical bug

“Did I make a wrong career choice”, she asked herself.

After a lot of introspection and after reading about other like minded people who were also fighting the cause, she decided to join hands with people working in ethical fashion that completely eco friendly.

But the questions still remained. What about the problems that the world at large is still facing? What about the lost ecological balance, huge chunks of plastic waste that gets dumped into the ecosystem regularly? Is there a way to encourage and influence society at large to also adopt a sustainable lifestyle? Can we amalgamate the arts, crafts and design ideas with the reusable waste and create sustainable earth friendly products?

Eureka !!! – Turning trash into treasure

(Inspired by mother ‘natural’, applied to mother ‘nature’ ;) )

“There is no such thing as ‘away’ .. when we throw something it must go somewhere” said Annie Leonard and it seems that her mother had already reinvented this quote in her own personal way.

As one fine day upon her return from office, she found her mother working in her very own ‘Terrace garden’. She noticed that her mother had cut open a wide plastic jar in half and also had a half broken clay pot and she used them to plant two small saplings in her garden …

EUREKA !!! She shouted ….

And this is how Ba no Batwo was born, with mother’s inspiration (all Indian mothers are a school in themselves when it comes to teaching us about sustainability because of the rich cultural heritage), some used scrap (plastic bottles, used containers, old clothes, old news papers), an unerring passion about rich cultural heritage of India and last but not the least, with love.