Sanja Milosavljevic: Good people of the world, you are listening and watching to Mondopreneur podcast. It’s a podcast dedicated to people who try to find joy and try to inspire themselves, maybe sparks of new ideas. The idea is to share stories of successful people from all over the world, whether they are entrepreneurs or they’re working at universities, institutes, NGO sectors. This whole project is supported by the US embassy in Belgrade, Serbia and thanks to them we can actually share stories from people from all over the world. I am really privileged today because my guest today is Anu, and she is a lady who has a powerful story. Not just business side of her story, but also the personal side of her story and her life. And I’m just going to enjoy and I hope that you’re going to enjoy too. Hi Anu, how are you? 

Anu Chadha: I’m very good Sanja and I’m so happy to be talking to you and I’m looking forward to sharing my journey. Because as I say, it’s journeys all over the world, the experiences and ideas where we can all help each other to grow and feel inspired so I’m very happy to be here. 

Sanja Milosavljevic: Thank you for your time, really, and thank you for accepting my invitation to participate in this project because I really strongly believe that your story is powerful on both levels – your personal life and your career as a business woman. Can you tell us something about yourself, I usually ask my guests to introduce themselves to listeners and viewers. Like, what is your educational background and how does it correlates to things that you do today? Is there any connection between your education and your career path, or is it something completely different? And I would also like to ask you if you could share some of your hobbies?

Anu Chadha: Yes, of course, it’s always exciting, you know – we as humans love talking about ourselves. However, let me say I am Anu Chadha and I belong to India. I believe our lives are incredible shows, where we are our destinies’ author. I run a fashion company in India. And if people out there know that Delhi is the capital and my workplace is on the outskirts of Delhi, it’s in the place called Gurgaon, which is growing as one of the big cosmopolitan cities. I became a late entrepreneur in life. When I say late entrepreneur, my journey of entrepreneurship started at age 45. So I’ll tell you a little bit prior to that what I did, I did my schooling in Delhi and then I graduated from the University in India called Panjabi university and I was in the boarding college up in the hills, the place was called Sacred Heart. And the moment I say it, I still can feel the lovely breeze there, the beauty of the whole infrastructure and my lovely friends. Gradually in life- once I did my graduation since I belonged to a business family, so there was no mentorship in a way- there was nobody to mentor me to what should be my next steps. I would say that I didn’t know enough because I studied in a boarding college and it was a very closed environment so it was more for finishing school. However, I did English literature and Psychology and these two things have held me in very good stead in my life. So let’s say education, yes, it’s one of the most important, most primary things. And if you can do what you like, that’s how your roadmap emerges. So once I got passed out my college with my normal graduation degree, I got marriage and it was an arranged marriage. Because back in the early- late 80’s, early 90’s in India there were a lot of arrange marriages so I’m a product of one of them. And I would say it wasn’t the best decision because I wasn’t professionally qualified and life doesn’t- life is a mixed bundle of what is going to happen. And I wasn’t geared for that. I had a very difficult marriage from which I could not- or rather I should say I did not know how to get out of. And so I was marriaged in a really wealthy family and from day one I knew it was going to be a tough time, but I also knew that my inlaws and- because like I said it was an arranged marriage so you’re not only marrying the guy, you’re marrying the whole family. So I was told that the day I stepped out, I’d get no child support. I had two daughters, so it took me 12 long years to actually make the decision of actually coming out. And that was, I would say, serendipity, it was more like things switched game in front of me and I could somehow take that step, leave my husband and my inlaws family with two small children, girls. My little dog was as old as my younger daughter. And from there we started a new roadmap and we rode I would say- I tried to do my best in whatever I would do, worked hard and reached- even to realize a lot of my dreams, yes.

Sanja Milosavljevic: That’s wonderful because it’s very hard and very difficult even now in 2021 to just make that kind of decision and leave everything behind and go into something completely new. Especially if you are not financially stable, you don’t have a job or a company or whatever. It’s actually a very brave act, what you did is a powerful and brave act. Can you tell us something about how did you spend the last year, the Covid year. Although it’s still the Covid year, but the last year was- it hit us all simultaneously and the whole world stopped. So how was it for you and your business?

Anu Chadha: Hm, so you know Covid was kind of- you know, I would say it was something that was unprecedented, unheard of. Now that I studied more about pandemics I realized that every 100 years the world feels something like that. Still, I would say that unlike other pandemics that happen which are more city-specific or country-specific, this pandemic has been an equalizer. It has taught us it’s got nothing to do with your status, your color, your gender, which country you belong to – 1st world one or 3rd world one. So, pandemic is something which is something all over. It’s the biggest equalizer, I would say. Because even when the world is sharing, it’s sharing with just about everybody, within your country, within cross-countries, we try to tell each other- it’s irrespective of our cultures and color. Then it’s a big driving force of unprecedented change, across multiple industries including apparel of which I’m a part of, and that entire supply chain. If you talking about the industry side of Covid, I’d say that the industry has contracted, it’s really, really contracted. Within India, we could already feel the steam of the textile and fashion business heading down because of e-commerce, because of certain changes and let’s say big noise about sustainability. So already since 2017 businesses were ending because a lot of companies who could not keep up with the sustainability act, they were slowing down. And because- and then if they are slowing down- like we say, how it starts? It starts making not just from top to bottom, but even from the bottom to the top. So everything was changing. So the industry has contracted and it’s made us rethink what is important and what we should expect from grants. We have to eliminate all negative environmental impact. Covid-19 has made sustainability a very much core thing now. Very, very core. We need to combat climate change, we need to restore biodiversity, protect our oceans. Take very positive steps which go beyond any one individual or any one company. This is about the industry side of Covid-19, however the personal side of Covid-19 is I would say that- well not- before the personal, I would even if you want to ask certain things about how people have started thinking differently. You know? Their goals have changed. It’s not just about industry, it’s about even at a personal level everything is changing.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Can you please share with us the story about the award you got for making masks? Protective masks?

Anu Chadha: Yes. So when Covid-19 happened and we all got to know that this was something that nobody understood where it would lead us. And we saw the stock market crashing and- I’m an investor, you know? For me it was not just my business taking a beating, it was also my investments. So everything was in a bit of a disarray and I could remember having very heated discussions with my personal people in the bank, my RM’s and you know at that point of time I thought the only way out of that situation was not just by ducking down, not by losing your- not by just reacting, so I thought within myself what was the next step? And of course the next step was of course keep the company going. Because I didn’t want to, you know, my staff which is working there, I wanted them to stay with me. Because we had- I trained them, and we had a long history with us. So what was the next- the most positive thing would be for the company to start making money. So what we did was we took a kind of license to work from the factory, because I have a factory in Gurgaon. And we- it’s a factory which has 4 floors, one is for machinery, one where all the stitching is done, one is the office space then the packaging, the sampling units, everything. So we had staff, the point was how do we do this? Fortunately just before Covid, I thought to myself that I would be outsourcing a lot of my stuff. So by  chance I didn’t have so much labor force and I’m glad because it would’ve been so hurting to not pay them or removing them. So we started- so I had this guard in the office, his name is Rajeesh. And he belongs to a village in Bihar. Bihar is another state in India. Another place in India. So he’s from Bihar and now fortunately he- about a year ago he got a smartphone, you know. And now the whole story started. So I told Rajeesh and we on the Zoom call with my other merchandising staff, so he decided that we should start making masks because this was what everybody wanted. So the point is because I believe in recyclability and reusing stuff so I had a lot of fabric in the company over the years and the store. So I told Rajeesh to send me a lot of pictures of the stock, you know, the fabrics. Because we wanted to make sure that the fabric we picked was breathable, it was the right fabric which would protect from the germ. So Rajeesh became all supercharged. He felt that now he had some very important things to do, because there was nothing to take care of at the factory as the guard, you know because there were no entries, no out people going in. So he sent me a lot of pictures and then our next meeting on the next day we were looking at all those pictures and deciding which of those fabrics we want to use for the masks. And then it was how do we get the pattern to Rajeesh, you know? How do we get them the pattern. So then came in our Masterji, Masterji is the guy who was the pattern master. So we reached him and gave him some specifications. He made the pattern at home and since we had the license at the factory to run the machine, we were allowed to do things in the sense that we could give out the fabric, we were allowed to do that, we were allowed to share the pattern of course while taking all steps of safety. So we also started making PPE kits in the company. So what happens is demographically the whole supply chain has to be manual in a way with safety, but you have the license to do this and you were taught how to do this. So regarding those masks, Rajeesh he gradually- let me tell you also that he learned how to stitch them. So from the simple guard who was in charge of watching entries in the factory to actually pick up a skill like tailoring. And he learned that because I told him that he must make as many as he wants and discard them until I feel they’re the right ones. So the pattern was- certain patterns were made for the masks, cut into sizes, then there was a lot of elastic line in the factory in black and white. So these were used. The fabrics were picked up- we made three-ply masks and we put the fiber in between because we already had the PPE stuff fiber with us. And then became this- we put a goal out there on Instagram, on Facebook, on different social media that we plan to make 100.000 masks. And a part of that earning after paying the tailors and of course some factory expenses, the part of the earnings would go to a particular cause and the cause was actually for the militant labor you know. Which was just like Rajees you know also belonged to Bihar, so there’s a lot of militant labor in India who are in the textile stitching business. So we said we would give them the money if they wanted to go back to the village while the pandemic was going on. At that point of time the MIT had come up with an award just called the Community Choice Award and we won that award, it was called the MilliporeSigma award and we were very happy, very encouraged that these were three accomplishments we were done. One was of course getting the award, two was Rajeesh expanding his level of skill. It doesn’t matter how many people do it, even if it was one person in front of me that do it, I saw that as a great opportunity of what can happen if companies allow their staff to learn, to explore, to experience, to fall to get up, so it was wonderful.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Thank you, thank you for sharing. So can you tell us something about- well, what do you think about empowering women and what is the minimum of things that we need to do to empower women?

Anu Chadha: You know, we say that half of the world is women and this is one gender that’s not actually used to its optimum. Women- you see, empowerment is very city- very country and city-specific, yeah? And country-specific, you know? If I were go back to my life, so I belonging to urban India felt so disempowered in a bad marriage, yeah? And when I come out of it, my first duty was to empower myself, then my two girls and then all these women who I gradually- when I started my factory and I started hiring, 93% were women who I was hiring. And this was a conscious choice and this choice came from my own life. So what I’m trying to say is that empowerment is very important. So, in my case at that time there used to be no mentors, no scaling of businesses, nobody was there to tell you the pitfalls, the short falls, the roadmaps, I did it all on my own. I fell, I got up and like we say for a lot of people who said- who helped me, I am always so grateful. But to a lot of people who didn’t help me, I’m also grateful to them. Because they taught me that it was all there inside me and I could do it. So empowerment on all levels is very, very important as we see. One woman, if I give my example without any vanity, if one woman could get empowered and she could empower her daughters and she could set up a factory to empower other women. So, what we are trying to really reach here is that every woman has the capacity to empower herself and then to empower other women in her environment. Now when we talk about artisanal strength, because I belong to the fashion industry and we talk about the artisanal strength and here what we’re doing now, we’re trying to get technology to these artisans. Because you see when artisans get skilled in technology- artisanal strength in technology is an answer to hope and solutions in life. So these artisans are now being taught different ways with the help of technology. We teach them about how to run a computer, how to show us pictures even if they’re sitting in the villages, how to show us what they are doing at every stage so that nothing goes wrong. That’s one thing. So we can immediately tell them what’s going wrong and they can correct that instead of making the whole thing and then discard it and disimpower them. So this is the part of empowerment that we give them the flight plan that you know this is how you need- whenever new product is being launched, this is how you make it and at every stage you are sending us pictures. Until the time we can actually come and see you. So this is one step, yes? The second is we are telling them with the help of a lot of our buyers who are selling us pictures of what they want, so we kind of be- the company is like a bridge, we tell the artisans as an example, a simple thing like rope. Rope made of fiber, the fiber coming from the coconut. Now, you see ropes are no longer so much required, yeah? And in the fashion business they are certainly not. So how would this fiber with the correct way have to be constructed so we can make beautiful macrame bags and sell them for maybe 50-60 dollars in the US? Yeah? So modifying the product, modifying the artisanal skill, the knowledge with the modern context of what the world needs. So this is another way how we are helping the artisans to empower them, yeah? And the total is that we’re trying to build these connect between the artisans and their families. Their children. The children don’t want to stay in the villages any longer, they want to run to urban India and do other kinds of jobs. Okay, that’s good. But if they’re only doing it because they have nothing better to do, that’s where we want to empower them. So we are trying to connect a lot of their children, their young boys and girls, a lot of these older women, they’re powerhouses of skill. The kind of embroidery they can do, the kind of knittings they can do, the kind of stuff they can do with their hands, braid it and all that. So we are trying now to help the younger children to learn all this and for this we are  giving them a good environment. We are- and because the end purpose is that all this reaches us in the factory. And we are able to create business for these people so that they have a good life. So these are different ways of actually empowering.  

Sanja Milosavljevic: So, one thing is to financially empower them like teach them to use skills and train them to do other stuff. But how can we psychologically empower people? You know, when someone is in problem, in depression or whatever, in some bad mood – it can be just a bad mood – maybe that person cannot see the end of the problem and they think it’s the end of the world? How can we help them to- as you- I don’t remember if you remember when we talked, but it’s a part of the mental hygiene, a part of mental health, how can we empower people in that sense?

Anu Chadha: Yeah. So you know when we talk about- you and I were talking about the hygiene, yeah? We were talking about mental health and I said let’s start with mental hygiene. Now, let’s look at a couple of points here. One, first we are to get over the shame of not feeling mentally equipped. In India we have this big noise, big- it’s kind of a little bit sad, but people don’t look at people going through mental anguish or going to the psychiatrist, they are looked down upon. It’s like you’re incomplete. So we have to now consider mentally how do we become adept. Now what happens is that- one is that you have a mental health problem. Alright, it can be solved with two things, we know that. One is going to a psychiatrists, taking right medicine and the other is to take therapy. Now these are acute problems, a lot of people are moving towards this. Before I move forward let me share that I have personally in the 2019 joined as an independent student the University in Delhi, it was a study on mental health. And this I did very independently because I didn’t have an exam, but I wanted to learn more and more about different issues, different health problems, different mental problems and because like I told you in college I was doing psychology. So it was somehow connected to that, but I was always interested in mental health. And that gets me in good stead because of my traumatic marriage. I tried to without knowing- unknowingly I was doing things to keep myself mentally alert and mentally at peace.  And a lot of times I feel that instead of- my most important adage for mental health is don’t just keep doing arguments, don’t keep fighting, don’t do arguments because some battles are just won by staying put and remaining quiet. I give a lot of importance to that instead of just responding, reacting, reacting and all that. So coming back to mental health I feel that- five things I feel are very important and I practice and because I practice and since I’m sharing with you, I would like to tell you. One is – be spiritual. Whatever energy, whatever you believe in, it’s important to trust. Whether you’re an atheist or not. It doesn’t matter. But even if you don’t’ believe in god, just believe in yourself, because that is enough. That is enough, that’s something that you see. So whatever you- what is important is that you need to have some faith, you need to have some practice and you need to have some study in the laws of the universe. In the cause and effect theory. So when you believe in these things, when you believe in spirituality, when you believe that whatever seeds you sow, you’re going to reap. So whatever good you do, you’re going to ultimately benefit by it. Or when things are not in your hand, you have to trust the universe. Because it’s where you are, what you’re doing, whatever is happening it’s what it’s meant to be, so relax. It’s not something out of place, it’s okay. So whether the Covid came and all that of course a lot of what’s the journey behind it is different. We have to talk about sustainability and we have to address those concerns. But whatever you are, wherever you are, whatever situation right now is, that is meant to be. So one – be quiet. If you can change it, change it, if you cannot change it, just leave them as they are. And universe itself takes its next step. In the morning when I get up, I always don’t just get up with haste, worry and what’s going to happen and this and that. I just get up and I just sit on my bed and I just feel like I have arrived. It’s almost like I don’t know where I was while I was sleeping, which dreamland I was in, but now today in this moment I have arrived. So live in a state of mindfulness. I have this very nice guru, he is a young guy, his name is Nithya Shanti. And this is what he taught me – he said don’t just get up. Sit up, say you’ve arrived and then maybe every day – even if you’re repeating it, doesn’t matter – but give gratitude to ten things in your life. So that’s a very good way to actually be mentally healthy. Whether it’s Covid time, yes, all the more, but even if it’s not Covid time get up and say your gratitude to ten things in your life. It could be even the bed you sleep on, it could be the person you love is alive – it’s you who are kicking, yeah? And all those beautiful things, animate objects, inanimate objects, it could be even the gym machine you will not pick up after ten minutes, it could be the cup of tea you’re going to have. So it’s not about animate or inanimate, it’s just about everything. And the fourth thing I would say – I have been taught that you know. Like I said if some of your people hearing this could also google Nithya Shanti, this wonderful, wonderful young teacher. Because you know teaching you have to take from all aspects, you have to be a little sponge who soaks in everything. So one more thing which I’ve learned is to stay detached, because things will not changed. Everything will happen the way it’s happening. Because there’s too much involved in whether it’s business, the too many people involved whether it’s work, family, relationships, too many things involved. So stay a little bit detached in life. Don’t get so attached to everything and yet, and yet have a very dynamic engagement in life. Don’t just let be. If I’m saying detached, doesn’t mean don’t do things. Do things, but don’t be so worried about outcomes. You know? So, don’t worry. If the outcome is what you want, then celebrate, be happy. If the outcome is not what you want, stay a bit detached. You know? Because nothing is permanent. There’s day, there’s night, every cloud has a silver lining. So things will happen. Just walk a little bit more in that direction. Either you get what you want, or something better will emerge automatically. And one more thing I would say about to be- our sum total of our five senses. You know? Everything is about our five senses. And a lot of times we feel jealous of what we could not achieve and maybe our neighbor got. Like there’s this famous scene because I bought a smaller car and I was very happy – I had to cycle, as an example. And I bought this car and I begin to celebrate, but then I look out the window and see my neighbor got a bigger car and my car has no significance. So what I’m about say is let’s not be jealous. You know, there’s this- if you heard about William Shakespeare, there’s this play called Hamlet. And it’s said that jealousy first burns you inside. It goes through your heart so stop feeling jealous. What I mean when I say stop being jealous is our mind is a monkey. So we need to give something else to the mind. So when I say stop being jealous, it’s tell your mind two things, maybe two things you got. I say that if I feel that I’m in a situation where there’s competition. So if you see that you’re opponent has- and you don’t- you have to wish well in your life like I said cause and effect. So whatever cause you have there’s an effect. So when you see an opponent it must be very difficult to say all the best to you. It’s very difficult, but it’s important that you say all the best for you. For two reasons like I said, it’s cause and effect. When you say it  somewhere the universe is listening and you will get some benefit from that. You can even say to yourself good luck to you and you can even say to yourself better luck to you. It’s almost like you don’t wish the world bad, but you can wish to yourself the best. And second, if you feel that- and never give up, even to the end when something is happening. I heard this once that there was this team just playing basketball and this boy was watching the school team playing and they were losing badly. And the opponents’ team guy came and said “You guys have lost”. You know? You’ll never be able to make it because the score is 4:1. And this guy says hold on, man the whistle hasn’t blown. Don’t give up until the end. Develop that mental strength not to give up until the end. So mental hygiene is important in the sense that follow certain values – don’t be jealous, wish well, get up in the morning, be grateful, meditate, be conscious, be mindful of what you’re doing, if things don’t happen your way it’s okay because there’s a better plan there. Things will happen, work out something to your benefit. Just don’t give up till the end, till the whistle- just don’t give up. So, you know I didn’t give you my regular answers because I believe that life and experiences are very personal. So I’ve tried to tell you what I feel works, it worked for me and if it worked for me it might work for some other people. 

Sanja Milosavljevic: Of  course, of course I agree. We all speak from our personal perspectives. You cannot speak from other people’s perspectives, because you are speaking from you, from your personal perspective. So Anu, who would say but we actually almost came to the end of our conversation. I would really like to ask you one more question. Because I know that you run that 3A clothing business for more than 20 years now, but can you tell us what’s changed in these 20 years and what is happening with this fast fashion, is it something that people are becoming more aware of, or can you just share some thoughts on our topic.

Anu Chadha: Certainly, certainly. I must tell you that the name of my company is 3A clothing company. 3A as in America and clothing company. So you can go to my website and see we have a lot of information on what I do, information on CSR activities and I also have another parallel thing I do in the company and it’s called Anucha dot Global. WHere we are trying to get as many SME companies reach out to us and we are getting these country collaborations even within my country we are creating collaborations, we are helping SME’s to come under our platform so we can help them how to take- if it’s a new business, it’s actually very difficult to actually invest in social media, invest in a lot of learning. So we tell them that we have bought this part, so come to us we will help you take pictures in our studios, we will float you on the different e-commerce sites as per your need, we do all the photoshopping, the content help with some content writing, so all those things are being done on Anucha dot global. And I’m really happy and I look forward to more and more people coming under this. And this is being done at very fractional costs of what it would cost in the markets, so when people reach out, we try to help them. Get into all these collaborations, get them into various schemes, get them grants from the government, get them reimbursements done for various things. Also I would tell you- before I tell you a little bit more about how businesses have changed and about fast fashion, I would also tell you that I’m on WEP signatory, which means I’m a part of the UN women. So the WEP signatory means it’s a part of women’s empowerment which we follow and within the company and within our lives and learnings and teachings. I mentor young companies. It is pro-bono. It is through Nexus, Nexus is a mentoring group and I’m one of the mentors in their group. So, I’m a part of the UN women industry disruptive movement – what the Covid has done to disrupt the industry. So we talk about that on world stage. My presentations are even put on the US platforms and go through how the simple businesses organically came up and what all they are doing. I’m hugely into gender equality because I believe that gender equality is nonbinary and I also believe in the triple bottom line which is people, planet and profit. So I’m trying to do all that, I want to get more and more into actually talking about these things and taking action plans with people who matter. Now when we talk about how businesses have changed about the fast fashion, I would say that fast fashion is all about our inner foolishness. We have so much- when we open our cupboards, we have so much clothing, so much of fashion, so much of things. You go to kitchen you have a huge number of utensils, so it’s about consumeristic behavior. So I when I talk about these things I talk about how fast fashion can be curbed on the brands who understand this through government policies, through factories producing all this, through consumers and consumers primarily. The consumers have to understand that if you believe in goodness, nature, creating happiness, we have to be sustainable. And sustainability means that you watch what you buy. Watch if you need it. Take pride in what you have. Because when you take pride, when you watch, you are becoming mindful. So when you’re doing these things you’re actually also becoming mindful in life, in various areas of your life. So fast fashion, our government in India has come up with this big program called  Jal Shakti Abhiyan and here we are trying to preserve every drop of water and we are taking external help from countries outside of India to understand what techniques they are using. We have to understand that too much consumerism leads to landfills and when landfills happen that’s how we have all these tsunamis and we have all these various natural disasters. So more and more organic culture is being used, government is getting ahead with farmers, and more and more knowledge is being given to each industry, whether it’s aviation, textile, gold industry on how to be sustainable. There’s also the 2030 UN plan for sustainable world so fast fashion has to be culled from the consumer level, that’s my learning and that’s what I’ve talked about even in my own small groups. That there’s no need to buy unless you really have to buy. And that’s my take- I don’t know how much time you have, I can keep talking.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Well we actually- thank you, this is- we actually scratched the surface. This topic is very wide and we can be talking for hours about this because it tackles many problems. It’s not isolated problem, because everything is in connection- it’s interconnected. So, thank you Anu, thank you very much. Thank you for your knowledge, for your expertise and for your kind soul. You shared some very deep thoughts with me and with our listeners and yours. 

Anu Chadha: Thank you so much Sanja, I’m so happy that we met with this platform engine, I’ll be taking this forward. That’s the whole intention, you know. Take all our learnings forward, thank you very much.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Thank you. Good people, you were listening and watching to Anu from India, from Delhi. You can always follow us on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel, just type Mondopreneur or #mondopreneur. Stay good, stay in good health and see you in a week.