“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events”
In this eighth month of the year, we designed events to create opportunities that create interaction.
The Annual General Producer Group Meeting
This year SASHA’s Annual Producer Group Meeting was held in Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission, Kolkata with the benevolent presence of Assistant Secretary of RKM Narendrapur, Swami Basabananda Maharaj and Swami Debaswarananda Maharaj.
The Meeting was inaugurated by lighting of the ceremonial lamp by Swami Basabananda Maharaj , Swami Debaswarananda Maharaj, along with Roopa Mehta (CEO of SASHA & Secy. Sarba Shanti Ayog) and Swagata Ghosh (Executive member SASHA & SSA) and three producer representatives Latika Das, Abani Paik and Dipali Pramanik. While welcoming all the participants Swami Basabananda added that they are extremely happy to host the annual meeting as the association with SASHA goes back more than three decades. He shared the great philosophy and vision of Swami Vivekananda for constructing economy of India, by strengthening the hands of the common people. After the welcome speech a session was dedicated to the review of SASHA’s and SSA’s annual activities & achievements. Mrs. Mehta presents a SASHA’s annual report and potentials as well as challenges in the future. Ms. Sujata Goswami shared the overall performance & outcomes of SSA activities.
Second day started with the welcome speech of the SACP president, Mr. Pritam Singh Chawla. Mr. Ranjan Mitter, president of SSA emphasized on his speech the changes in the current scenario of the world economy. Next session was dedicated to chief guest, Ms. Sumita Ghose, the founder of Rangsutra. She shared her personal journey in setting up the organization, experiences and challenges the team faced while setting, managing and scaling up the organization. She also emphasized on the importance of quality control and production monitoring. She shared vital information and key learnings from Rangsutra’s engagement with larger global chain like IKEA. Overall, it was an immensely motivating interaction with Ms. Ghose.
Mr. Sambuddha Ghosh, General Manager, SASHA was also part of the panel with Sumita Ghose and shared his observations for the last financial year and focus areas for the ongoing period. A panel discussion on Social security, the present schemes and their importance was organized. Panelists were- Dhritiman Ghosh, Dipali Pramanik, Bharati Ray and Abani Paik. Representatives from Khamir shared their views on social security.
The present producer representatives in the Sasha Board were re-elected unanimously. Mr. Dhritiman Ghosh was nominated by Dipali Pramanik in place of Mr. Dilip Das. The meeting ended with Vote of Thanks.
The earth, the wind & the fire…
Sasha presented a selection of Ceramics works by noted Ceramist and Studio pottery artist Lipi Biswas, The event was inaugurated on Aug 4th at 5 pm at our Sasha Shop.
The evening started with the inauguration of the exhibition which displayed potteries of Lipi Biswas through varied and astounding products display followed by an Interaction session. She was in conversation with our Sasha CEO Mrs Roopa Mehta and went down the memory lane, related to her work, her experiences, her life as a studio artist and her love for her art which is so natured inspired and raw. She even mines her own clay, makes her own paints and glazes all from the natural products available in the surroundings!
It was a fun filled evening and an introspective evening with dips and crackers, chocolate tarts; people sharing anecdotes about their experiences and association with Lipi Biswas. The collection was extensively worked upon and developed all handmade by Lipi Bswas from mugs, cups, platters, bowls, multipurpose container, foot scrubbers and even whistles. All her products are food safe, lead free and micro oven friendly.
Sasha at BODHI, Baroda
Sasha was delighted to have showcased its range of Garments, Kantha accessories and exquisite handloom sarees at BODHI in Baroda from 3-6, August. We received encouraging reviews and are grateful to Mala and Pradeep Sinha of Bodhi and their entire team for all the support.
S̄wạs̄dī from Thailand (Thailand Visit)
Ms Karobi Choudhuri & Mr. Pradipta Sengupta from Sasha participated in a Natural Dye workshop in Thailand to learn the brand new technique of transforming natural dye to make pigments. The knowledge and information will be very beneficial for our printing units. We plan to introduce the technique to the printing units in the coming days.
Exposure Visit
Children International approached SSA for an exposure visit for their trainees of vocational unit. Total 25 participants got the opportunity to visit two craft units of SASHA, one was Prachesta and another one was leather unit – Hafizulla Ansari. Both the units welcomed them very well and the young trainees were satisfied with their visit and was very encouraged to start something on their own.
Stay Tuned as the next month we make more events into stories.