Today we’d like to introduce you to Divya Vasu.
Can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Per Indian tradition, it is customary to give gift favors for our guests as our way of our expressing our gratitude and love towards each other. The gifts may vary based on the festivities celebrated but they all embody a sense of belonginess, respect to the tradition and culture and joy of celebrating together.
When searching high and low for gift favors in typical commercial establishments in the US, I found that the available gift favors were either too pricey or lacked quality and a human touch to it. I felt they did not fully represent the creativity of Indian art. Several of my friends and our Lotus Lane Boutique family shared the same feeling.
Lotus Lane was born from our ardent desire to showcase all the beautiful and unparalleled creativity that the simple artisans of India have been quietly perfecting for centuries. For many of our art-loving community including us, bringing these arts home helps reconnect and relive our younger selves and recreate loving memories of home away from home.
Lotus Lane Boutique started with a humble beginning in 2018 operating primarily from our Dallas, TX home office. With great love, support and encouragement from our family, amazing friends, and our art loving community, Lotus Lane has evolved into an exclusive online boutique that offers lovely, colorful, heart-crafted decor, jewelry, gift favors, and other personal accessories.
Majority of our Lotus Lane Boutique family members return to us for their gift favor needs every year and refer their friends and family to us. We are extremely grateful to them for their immense support, love through their positive feedback. We have been very fortunate to work closely with artisans and small businesses that employ local artisans. The local artisans are the carriers of art for many generations and often perfecting their art Is their primary source of Income. It brings us great fulfillment and joy to serve the needs of our customers and provide livelihood for our artisans.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all! Our team and I have had to wear different hats, learn new skills and manage uncertainties.
Our goal has always been to create a beautiful shopping experience that embodies the love and creativity of all our artisans. While we enjoy doing our best, what happens behind the scenes has been a challenge. Coordinating design to shipment of products from across many states and artisans in India, managing shipping delays & damages, exceeding customer expectations have kept us learning and growing both professionally and personally.
On several occasions, I have had thoughts if I can sustain the journey and at those times it has been pivotal for me to go back to “why” I am doing what I am doing and keep pushing forward. I’m grateful for every situation (good or bad) that has come my way because it has taught me the importance of staying grounded, humble and nimble.
It has been a very meaningful and fulfilling journey thus far.
We’ve been impressed with Lotus Lane Boutique, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our purpose is simple: we are playing our role in spreading awareness of the rich, vibrant and timeless Indian art beyond cultural, national and generational boundaries. We mission our purpose by making timeless Indian art more relevant to modern lifestyle and creating a joyful and easy experience for our members to bring them home. A big component of our mission is to educate and inspire the new generation to explore Indian art through our DIY art kits.
The way we go about serving our members is by providing an authentic, reminiscent and joyous experience for our members and staying true to our purpose. From our perspective, we are not just simply shipping out products. Through our products, we want our members to reconnect with and relive their younger selves and recreate loving memories of home away from home. We curate products that are hand made by artisans and representative of art forms from different regions of India. This ensure all our products are authentic, high quality and affordable at the same time.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
We wanted a name that not only captures the journey of art but also each of our inner journeys. The name Lotus Lane gets its inspiration from the significance of the Lotus flower.
The flowers’ roots anchor it in the mud, but the flower rises above its murky environment, blossoming open one petal at a time. What is prominent about the lotus is that although it often grows in mud, and returns within it at night, it always blooms clean the following day. Because lotuses rise from the mud without stains, they are often viewed as a symbol of purity.
Each of the art that we rejoice in comes from Mother Earth and to Her, they will eventually return. In between, the creators (artisans), with their sweat, tears and joy, give it a beautiful form, a name, a character that we fall in love with, much like the Lotus flower. Our journeys are similar. Every day, each one of us battle our inner demons to rise and blossom in this beautiful garden called life. Serving both our artisan and art loving community give us the opportunity to rise above our self doubts, the fears, the challenges every day and like the Lotus flower, we return to ourselves in the evening with a sense of content, fulfillment and meaning.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shopthelotus.com
- Instagram: INSTAGRAM.com/SHOPTHELOTUSLANE
- Facebook: www.FACEBOOK.com/SHOPTHELOTUSLANE
