Only a select gathering of friends were to have come to the exhibition held at an apartment in south Calcuttas Rowland Road. But word spread. And soon a motley crowd began trickling in. It took the would-be customers a while to register the simple austerity of the pieces on sale "" Interiors Jaipur had evoked images of stylistic extravagance.
The advantages of each unit of furniture unfolded dramatically. At the pop of a cork, a sedate writing table converted into a bar rack. A childs high sleeper opened into a wardrobe, a book rack and study unit complete with chair and waste bin!
The aesthetically designed furniture requires minimum space and is priced reasonably. Value for money was the much-touted phrase at the exhibition. Prices ranged from Rs 700 for a Japanese side table to Rs 18,500 for a glass-topped dining table with attached bar. There were book shelves for Rs 750, tea trolleys for Rs 900, two-seater sofa sets for Rs 6,500, a full double bed unit with two drawers, attached pull-out bed and lamps at Rs 18,000...
The natural grains of wood show in the Asian Paint melamine finish. A wet cloth can wipe off ugly stains. Anjum Katyal of Seagull publishing house and Prakash Kejriwal, owner of Chitrakoot Art Gallery, were both spotted admiring the Japanese sofa set at the Calcutta show. Said Katyal, who gazed longingly at the childrens furniture, It is built on contemporary lines and the prices fit my pocket.
Spontaneous creativity and a keen understanding of geometry mark Neerja Laths furniture. Functional and featherweight, the products are a delight for inch-conscious interior designers. Her inspiration apparently comes from the straight, clean lines and sleek shapes of Japanese art. Lath works from a 3,000 square yard showroom, Akar Prakar, in Jaipur (with an adjoining factory and office on the same premises).
But where amidst all the helpful souls milling around was the designer herself? As it turned out, she was far away in Jaipur, hard at work at Akar Prakar on Laxman Path, Vivek Vihar. She does not have to make the extra effort to market the product "" the younger generation takes care of that. Her son, Abhijit and daughter-in-law, Reena, are her zealous promoters. Neerjas husband Mukund Lath, a professor of ancient history at Jaipur university, also accompanied the exhibition.
We go for maximum utilisation of space and move with the needs of the people, says Reena, perfecting her PR line. We maintain a wide range of wood colours, so that the furniture easily matches the rest of the decor. The furniture comes in seven different hues of rosewood, walnut, ebony black, and four shades of natural brown. The pieces are light, detachable and easily moveable as they have rollers fixed to the legs.
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Lending a helping hand at the exhibition were sundry friends, making for a general air of bonhomie. Some ten employees of Akar Prakar listened patiently to customers suggestions, trying to incorporate demands till it fitted the buyers requirements to a T.
Although Neerja Laths first exhibition in Calcutta was held way back as 1982, it was never held on such a large scale. The born-designer made her first foray into the world of business selling cotton saris and handicrafts from Pipli in Orissa to Calcuttans during a long stint in the city. Meanwhile, she began designing handcrafted scrolls and curios in the Gurjari and Tilonia tradition, even enticing a clutch of Jodhpuri craftsmen away from their desert homeland. There was no dearth of demand in an era when ethnic had become chic. Soon orders began pouring in from the Cottage Industries Emporia in Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore, Madras and Hyderabad. By 1992 she had her own showroom and art gallery.
A visit to Japan was to leave a lasting impression. The first product to emerge from the ideas garnered in Nippon was a low Japanese trolley. Reena Lath is ever the enthusiastic salesperson, offering a detailed chronological account of the progress her mother-in-law has made over the years. She took up the onus of designing sleek, functional and moderately priced furniture that the country largely lacked in the early eighties. She kept her finger on the pulse of the market, looking to books and periodicals on interior decor for inspiration, then producing the stuff with her own distinctive artistic mark. She now sits on a treasure trove of over 150 exclusive designs.
Not that she has ignored the rich artistic heritage her home state, Rajasthan, had on offer. Her brief stint with a British television unit filming Mary Margaret Kayes bestseller, The Far Pavilions, yielded spectacular heritage furniture dating back to the turbulent years between the 'Mutiny and the Second Afghan War. 'Heritage furniture also brought in orders from the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC). The assignment included providing furniture and accessories for Palace on Wheels, for Midway Behror "" a motel on the Delhi-Jaipur highway, the Nahargarh fort cafeteria near Jaipur and several RTDC tourist lodges including the upmarket heritage hotel Yogi Mahal in the Ranthambhore National Park and the tourist lodge at Sawai Madhopur.
Mother did a lot of experiments with designs in the early eighties when she got the Jaipur Cottage Industries assignment, which was one of her first, says Abhijit Lath. The Jaipur unit was to close down soon but it paved the way for more assignments from RTDC and Cottage Industries Emporia elsewhere.
Neerja Lath sketches her ideas on paper before transmitting them to her craftsmen. The items are closely supervised, with Lath suggesting alterations as the piece shapes up. Each design is then assigned a code number.
The company's turnover started growing from 1990 as she gradually moved from catering to the customer-suggested designs to work her own, says Abhijit.
At the end of the seven-day exhibition, the Laths had sold almost all their items on display and were kept busy taking orders for more. The delivery date for ordered goods was set three months hence, when Akar Prakar hit Calcutta next. The gumption of the younger generation was fully in evidence. Their big idea is to eventually build a customer base here, as they have tried to do in other places in their exhibition itinerary.
This generation is raring up to expand the business. Abhijit Lath is planning to get his own wood seasoning, lathe and compressor machines. On the cards is Akar Prakars first branch, to be located at DLF Qutab Enclave Phase I in Gurgaon, specialising in office furniture. Reena Lath, with a degree in hotel management, plays the perfect hostess. I think its great fun to sit together at home with the family and design furniture for future homes, she says. That would most likely be her mother-in-laws line too.