Let’s hear from Priya Ravishankar, who is from Bangalore, an engineer by training and worked for KPMG in their Governance and Risk division before starting Cubs and Calves. Currently lives in Mumbai with her husband and 3 year old daughter.
How did Cubs and Calves came into being?
I honestly don’t know! It wasn’t in the plan. I just stumbled upon a beautiful quiet book online and wanted to make one for my daughter. When I casually posted it on Facebook, I didn’t know what would come of it, but to have several hundred people contact me and request a book for their child just blew me away.
And that’s how Cubs and Calves was born!
Today, we have a design house in Mumbai and a production unit in Delhi. As India’s first and largest quiet book brand, we are happy to state that Cubs and Calves products have made their way all over the world – 6 continents , 37 countries and still counting.
What are Quiet Books? Why is everyone in love with Cubs and Calves quiet books?
Quiet Books are Interactive Fabric Books that provide hours of play and learning. They keep the child engaged while they pretend play, learn colors, shapes, sort and count, pair and match, work on their fine motor skills, explore textures and different materials. Each page has an activity to do and a skill to work on.
Because its so much FUN! And Unique. A true Keepsake. Quiet Books allow the child to explore and work on skills that strengthen hand dexterity, fine motor, concentration, focus, order, logic and reasoning, aiming for a target, vocabulary, sensory perception and independence.
Easy to carry, they are great for car rides, planes or around the home. Easy to store. Imagine a shelf full of toys in a single book that you can carry anywhere!
They also make great birthday presents.
Why do you create? How did you learn this skill? How did you get interested in this art?
I create simply because I have the urge to create. It’s like a new continent, a new place to me every time and I want to explore its meadows, precipices, mountains, and landscape. And sewing, working with fabrics, gives me a new zone of existence. I am self-taught. I had never sewn a button before I sewed my first book. And then all I wanted was to sew and to keep on sewing. Master the art. Visions were boiling inside my head. I just needed to bring them out.
What do you do to make your workspace an enriching and inspiring place to be? How to you combat creative blocks?
I have a fantastic team that I’m so proud of – my partners, coworkers and the artisans. I’m humbled by their love and commitment, inspired by their passion and extremely confident of their skills.
Like any start-up, the pace of work is dizzy. You always have a 100 things to do and you’re always running behind schedule. But we never forget to laugh and have fun. You must take a look at this video we put together a few months ago –
Creative block? What’s that? 🙂 I don’t think I can afford myself a creative block.
How do you balance being an entrepreneur along with managing your family?
When I’m working, I can work at a stretch, at home or outside, early in the morning or throughout the night. The children give you a certain schedule – my daughter wakes up at 7am and we have breakfast together before she goes to school. But I often start work at 5am, or I will work late after she has gone to bed. I try my best. But there are times when I can’t balance. Somehow, I’m OK with that. I don’t think you can juggle all these balls with equal perfection or equal strength. We must recognise that we can’t do everything in the same way at the same time.
One buy Cubs and Calves quiet books – From the website www.cubsandcalves.com and from Amazon.com , Amazon.in and Flipkart currently