Paper Tiger

This is an excerpt from the chapter ‘Paper Tiger’.

Chapter Introduction

She wanted to work in recycling, but not with an NGO. So, she ended up starting a business in handmade paper. Along the way she discovered many interesting things, including an unexpected use for elephant dung.

Mahima Mehra hates to ‘sell’.
“I am here in Mumbai for the very first time, taking around samples of Haathi Chaap products. It’s difficult for me – I’ve never been the marketing type!”
In fact, Mahima is not really the kind of person you expect to see running a business. But don’t be fooled by her mild mannerisms – this is one tough lady.
As a strong headed young woman of 24 she ventured into the badlands of UP in search of small producers of handmade paper. Her passion for recycling eventually led her to develop paper from the dung of elephants – sold under the quirky brand name ‘Haathi Chaap’.
This unusual enterprise is getting her a fair bit of attention, which she finds amusing. “I look at all the stuff we make and sometimes wonder, “Logon ko kyun pasand aa raha hai?”
Elephant poo or not, it’s par for the course. Another day spent working in an industry she enjoys, with people she likes to work with, at a pace she sets.
Mahima has taken the kora kaagaz of life and written out her own answers.
More power to elephant potty, and to people who can take the poop out of convention!

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Excerpt

After 7 months at Jan Seva Ashram, Mahima quit and simply started working with paper. The year was 1995. The capital investment was Rs 12,500 – borrowed from her family..
“What did I use it for? To buy myself a table, a chair and some paper,” she laughs. “Really that was all I needed!”
In the initial few months Mahima did only jobwork. She bought handmade paper from the market, and created folders by hand. She would then go around her own neighbourhood and areas close by, looking for buyers.
“I’m not really a marketing person. Nor am I an expert in craft – in fact I am quite clumsy! It was all very hit and miss, I simply learnt on the job!”
This continued for about a year and a half, which is when Mahima met her mentor, Bernd Merzenich, at the Indo-German Export Promotion Council. Impressed by the quality of work, he introduced her to a couple of his friends who wanted to work with handmade paper from India. They booked an order for stationery worth Rs 7 lakhs.
“The wonderful thing was, they gave me half the money in advance! And they went on to become my distributors for Germany, and very good friends.”
Mahima decided it was time to start making her own paper and headed to the tiny town of Kaalpi in Uttar Pradesh. Why Kaalpi? Because unlike Sanganer – the other hub for handmade production in India – Kaalpi had smaller producers.
“Apart from the recycling aspect, I had also decided to work with small, family-owned units. What’s the point of helping those who’ve won export awards earn a few bucks more?”
And so it was that Mahima – then merely 24 – took the train to Kanpur. Followed by a three hour road journey, sitting on top of a tempo. Her first impression: bilkul beehad bazaar. A town in the middle of nowhere.
But the really difficult bit was not getting there; it was a woman getting there and wanting to do business.
“Kaalpi is the kind of place where women basically stay indoors. The men there would not even look up and speak to me!”
And when Mahima showed them paper samples, most would simply reply, “Nahin ban sakta hai…”

Finally, Mahima located one small unit in Kaalpi run by three brothers who were interested in taking up her work. And with the kind of spark she was looking for.
“For me the most important aspect when I look for a small producer is a sense of creativity… sense of adventure ki haan hum yeh bhi kar sakte hain. Rather than just wanting to earn money out of doing the same thing again and again… Udai had that quality.”
But of course, it meant frequent trips from Delhi to Kaalpi, in the first year. Getting through on phone actually took longer than simply getting onto the overnight train – which is what Mahima got used to doing.
Around this time, Bernd Merzenich returned to Germany and started working for a fair trade company.
“Let’s design some packaging for organic food!” he suggested.
And that’s how ‘Papeterie’ – which is what Mahima had named her little company – suddenly became a much bigger business. From a modest Rs 15 lakh turnover in the first two years, by year four revenues had jumped to Rs 40 lakhs.
“We created packaging for Darjeeling tea, meant for export markets. This in fact became the ‘bread and butter’ for the company.”
Working with Udai, using age-old techniques, Papeterie produced paper which was so high in quality that when it was tested in Germany, they concluded, “This is good enough to eat!”
But what actually makes handmade paper so attractive; what is the ‘eco’ element to it? Well, first of all handmade paper is completely wood-free.
The raw material commonly used is cotton rag – what we know as t-shirt cotton or hosiery. This cotton is pulped and thrashed into tiny pieces in a large machine known as the Hollander Beater; after which it is washed in a roller drum. This process continues for several hours.
Now all you need is a wooden vat filled with water, in which you put a mould – or a giant chhalni. Pour the right amount of finely shredded pulp into it and voila – a layer is formed!
On drying this layer turns into a sheet; coat it with starch, smoothen between rollers and there, you have ‘paper’.
“The advantage in places like Kaalpi is that even today, there are people who use the purest form of paper making.”
The eco aspect is also reflected in Mahima’s attempt to make handmade paper a part of everyday life, and not just something to use as a shaadi ka lifafa.
“I’ve been using handmade paper in my Laserjet and Deskjet printer for years! Of course we need to add a special coating to make that possible.”
Exports, packaging, production and the joy of working with paper – all this kept Mahima busy enough for six years. Then, she met Vijayendra, a small producer based in Sanganer. And life took a new and interesting turn!…