TRADING THE TRADITIONAL

                                                                                                                    

Recently I went to my Aaita’s (grandmother) home at Chaparmukh, she always take a great pleasure in preparing crude, unrefined, pastoral Assamese dishes for me that I always relish for. But this occasion, yeah visiting my aaita’s home is an occasion for me always; it was a bit exceptional because she showed me her kesa xunor gohona which includes thuria, dugdugi, junbiri, dhulbiri, gaamkharu, jethipotia and jaapi. I was awestruck, gazing lustily at them. She understood my unstated yearning of her antique jewels and told me that she will give these ornaments in my marriage, I felt like I am in seventh heaven. Please readers do find me a bridegroom (a nice one…..) so that it would be possible for me to grab those enticing and tantalizing pieces.

For those who are not-so-lucky to have a grandma or her historic jewellery like me, no need to worry. Now there is a universal grandma who is available anytime to showcase her Axomiya gohona (Assamese jewellery) and is happy to make you happy. The only dissimilarity is that you have to buy them from her and one more thing….. this grandma has a huge collection of Assamese jewellery (more than my grandma’s collection) and not only charms but a massive range of mekhela chadar is waiting for you to be explored. Okay……no more suspense let me reveal it. It is Assamshopping.com.

Assamshopping.com is the North-East India’s First Multi-product e-shopping portal & online store promoting traditional & other local products of the region. It is a step to grow a better market place for the local products developing primary economy of the region emphasizing on socio-economic growth. Currently they are dealing in Chadar-Mekhela, Assamese Jewellery products and furnishings.  They are associating other products of all communities in North east along with some other normal products.

I recently caught up with a noticeably excited Chittaranjan Gogoi, website’s IT head and energized Debanga Saurav Gogoi, administrative officer for a tete-a-tete. Following are excerpts:

Deepa- In today’s extremely trendy and westernized world how the thought of sponsoring Assamese traditional wear and jewels came in your mind?

 CG- Assamese culture is one of the richest cultures in the world, but due to lack of promotion it is not getting its position. Through Assamshopping.com we are going to promote all the traditional items that enrich our culture.

Deepa- What was the motive behind the whole initiative?

CG-   If we go through the search engine, we will not be able to find any such shopping portal which gives us the option to purchase any such local traditional items of Assam. In this competitive market, online shopping has taken a huge share. So, to be in the market our local items should be in the online world. It would help the nonresident Assamese and others to purchase the goods at their doorstep.

Deepa- Who are the members in the mission?

CG-  Assamshopping .com is a socio economic promotion of MerryLook Technologies Private Limited. Behind the architecture of this website, we are four persons from the company side,  myself (Chittaranjan Gogoi), Debanga Saurav Gogoi, Dheeru Gogoi and Chandan Bhuyan.  I am the Head of the IT Section and I  look after the  development and maintenance of the website.  Dheeru Gogoi is the Operating Officer and Chandan Bhuyan is the Creative Officer.

Deepa- When was the website launched?

CG- We have launched this website during mid-April this year.

Deepa   How is the response?

CG- Our website is still in beta mode. We are adding other traditional items gradually, along with Mekhela- Chadar and traditional jewellery. Still, we can say we are getting a good response in these early days.

Deepa – What was the basic idea behind launching the website

CG-  .Through Assamshopping,com, our main aim is to strengthen our primary economy. Assam has resources, still our per capita income is lower than the other states in India. Socio-economic development of Assam can be achieved through work culture.

Deepa – Have you stumbled on any hindrances or obstacles while promoting Assamese culture through your website?

CG-  During the development of Assamshopping.com we visited many villages to collect samples for the website. We visited Sualkuchi, the silk hub of Asam. They told us that it will be difficult to deliver to products on time if huge demand comes. It is because of lack of machinery and worker. However we are trying to work out on different sources so that we can meet the needs of customers on time.

Deepa -What future plans regarding  Assamshopping.com ?

CG-  We are planning to promote each and every traditional items of Northeast through online marketing and shopping portal.

Deepa – What do you think are your limitations regarding marketing and other promotional stuff , as everything is done online?

CG-  Till now we have included the card payment facility through PayPal. But customers don’t want to pay before physically checking the item. To overcome this drawback, we are going to add cash on delivery system soon.

Deepa -Is there any message for the Assamese youths from the team of ‘Assamshopping.com’?

CG- We will call up all to build a great work culture in the society. It’s time that the Assamese youths should try to think out of the box  ideas and try to work on it whole heartedly instead of self-lamenting that there is no opportunity or no job in the state.  If people have the right attitude then they can definitely be self-dependent even without a job.

                           Kudos to the young and dynamic team of  Assamshopping.com for budding a great idea of endorsing traditional attire and jewels, and making people aware of Assamese culture by bringing it to an international platform.

 Click the left button of your mouse on Assamshopping.com and see the fantastic fabulous range of mekhela chadars and Axomiya  gohona. And yeah there are lots of accessories to give your sweet home an elegant and trendy look…so friends what are you waiting for? Our traditional conventional shopping is just a click away. Click and check the whole collection………wishing all the readers a happy window grabbing….oops sorry…I mean window shopping.

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Category: Issue 9, Issues, Society, Vol I