I am a marketing professional who loves marketing and creating campaigns.
I am a bibliophile, blogger, feminist and a zero waste aspirant. I currently live in Bangalore and Dharwad. Married to Rahul Pagad, he’s my strength, go-getter and the force behind Dopolgy.
I hope to work to uplift women and LGBTQIA in the near future.
Tell us about yourself, your background and what you do currently
I am an engineer by education and a marketer by passion. Bengaluru has been home for most part of my life, except for the 1 year in Indonesia post marriage. I am a bibliophile, living eco-friendly lifestyle and moving towards zero-waste lifestyle, a blogger and a feminist.
I currently run Dopolgy along with my partner Rahul Pagad. Dopolgy is a company dedicated to bringing green alternatives at affordable costs. Our priority is the environment and we do awareness campaigns, workshops and conversations to spread awareness on choosing an eco-friendly lifestyle.
Tell us about any current projects or initiatives you wish to promote
We are manufacturing pencils from Newspaper. Initially started as resellers, we slowly transitioned to manufacturers to work on keeping the costs low. Pencils have and are part of everyone’s life at least at the learning/school age. We don’t think for a second that these pencils come from trees, trees that give us oxygen, is home to many birds, insects and animals, trees that attract rain and hold the soil tight to the ground. Statistics show that over 6 million trees are cut everywhere worldwide to make 15 million pencils. It’s like cutting down forests just for the sake of pencils.
With Newspaper Pencils, we hope to bring a green alternative to people to use. These pencils work the same as wood pencils itself. Eco-friendly stationary is what we are working on currently.
What has been your biggest challenge in achieving your success?
Convincing people. Using non-ecofriendly materials has become habitual and people don’t want to think and get out of that habit. We sure have a group of eco-conscious individuals too who happily embrace this, but there are also the guys who still don’t worry about climate change or the environment. Having them to connect with us and have a conversation has been a challenge.
But we have been persistent and kept our intent clear. We care about the environment and we shall not quit trying to convince them. We don’t believe, we have hit success yet. The day we can influence a lot more people to adapt to being eco-friendly is when we would have actually succeeded.
What has been your greatest achievement personally?
Changing my lifestyle to be more eco-friendly and making people think about using plastic everytime they look at me.
My greatest achievement is yet to come. I have just begun.
If you weren’t doing what you do now, what would you be doing?
Reading millions of books and writing some too. Maybe I will still do it. If Dopolgy wouldn’t have been, there would be a women empowerment NGO or organization for sure. On second thoughts, I think I would be doing that too.
I strongly believe we should follow our heart, it may choose a this or a that or want both.
Who has been your biggest inspiration?
Steve Jobs. A non-technology guy who built the company that worked with technology to create great products. I admire his focus on the design and the needs of a customer. His passion for his company and to create new innovative products is inspiring.
My father, K.S Bhadranna is another person who has inspired me throughout my life. Family was his priority, books and written word were his lifelines. The love for books and the written word, I have is from him. He always thought us to be simple, humble and chase dreams.
What does the future hold for you?
I hope to make an impact and work to fight climate change and reduce the plastic in the environment through Dopolgy. We are planning to add more recycled and upcycled products to our catalog. Work to bring awareness to many more and plant as many trees through campaigns as we can.
The present is what we are working for, hoping the future will be more greener than it is now.
Website: www.Dopolgy.com | FB : www.facebook.com/Dopolgy | Instagram: www.instagram.com/Dopolgy | Email id: [email protected]
