Brazil and Beyond

Hello Good Afternoon,


I went to watch a live music show yesterday at the Blues Bar off Oxford Circus with a friend who is a VP of a Bank and who is into renewable energy.He is from Uruguay and I met him in Bhutan. He left early and had a flight to catch today, I on the other hand stayed on till the musicians came up to me and told me they saw me really enjoying the show and they loved it. Post that I got lost on the tube, fell asleep reached East London in the middle of the night and had to find my way home. It was 4.30 AM by the time I got home. When I was falling asleep I thought of Brazil and the next thing I know I have numerous calls from Mr.Narayana, it was already morning and with a bad bought of tonsillitis I answered his phone and I heard some good news! 


Our contact in Brazil is interested to buy solar products and wants details. He has spoken to a big firm in Belo Horizonte, what a cool name for a city, don't you just like the sound of it- Belo Horizonte? I have never heard of it before so let me Google it. Wikipedia says Belo Horizonte is the largest city in the state of Minas Gerais located in the south eastern region of Brazil. How wonderful that I should get an e-mail from so far away. Anyway, on a daily basis this is what I do, answer queries and ask questions, collect answers and forward e-mails here and there. This is international business! On the other hand Afghanistan wants shipping details and I just wrote an e-mail to Hongkong where I am in touch with Nokero's shipping team Terry Wan. I am very fond of Afghanistan  maybe because of Sayed and his twenty other friends who I spent a lot of time with. It is a country that I am very interested to help develop, in my own little ways and The Light of Asia seems to be getting involved with all rejuvenating economies and countries and I am proud of my company. 


More than that I am very thankful for all the support that I am getting from people. Fifity likes on our Faceook page in a day's time is not bad at all : ). I also need to thank a lot of people. The Light of Asia must be the only company who had dreams but no investments and it has been painful to get it started but now that we have flown from the runway, the sky is the limit. 


To start with I am living on borrowed logos, yes our company logo is getting designed meanwhile in Bhutan, thanks to Jurmi Chhowing, Tshering Wangdi and his team at Turtle Tree Creations. Our website is now getting worked on by my dear friend Pranim Rai at Tshongs Bhutan, Bhutan's only online market and who will also be our IT person, Dorai Raj from Bangalore has been my agony aunt especially booking my tickets all over India and taking me around Bangalore when ever I visit, much ground work and selling Nokeros in the train for pocket money has happened this past year to keep me sustained. Even those Nokeros were lifted from my parent's account (I sold Nokero to my parents, no profits there- rather made them buy and Bhutan is charging me 60% tax! Sometimes I can't handle Bhutan's hypocrisy talking green but not walking green), and I have a lot of accountability to fulfill once I get my other sales going. My parents of course they have been the most supportive, though of course they stopped giving me money after some point because they just didn't get what I was trying to do- a global business with no money, and they thought I was pretty air headed but what I did do this past year is I connected with a lot of people. Yes people are my saviours, and people are investments. Tom at Oxford, I can't thank him enough for introducing me to all the "BIG" networks including Nokero. In the past year I have made a lot of people green, or think green and it has been a great journey so far. I am sure I have so many other people to thank, each one of you reading this too. 


My best Nokero sale moment was when my sister Anju had to come drop me at the airport, and we did not have enough money for her to go back to her college, this was in Delhi. So when she went to pick up my luggage to the room I was speaking to the taxi driver and guess what, he bought a solar bulb off me, they were discharged and were not even lighting and because he believed in the product I gave him an extra one, and those were my Nokero samples that I walked into India with! Good story yeah? I have some good becoming an entrepreneur moment stories, lots of them. 

Another one. One time I was in the train from Alipur to Delhi, at least it was an air conditioned compartment and I met some people who could not digest that this Oxford stubborn graduate was travelling in India with nothing but hopes for a solar bulb deal and wanting to make this world a better place. When these few people were nearing their destination I was fast asleep, we had reached Bihar and they shook me from my sleep and bought a few bulbs from me and wished me well. Strangers are so wonderful and I am blest to have met a lot of wonderful people who wish well for me. 


I have to go meet a Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies now. Have a good day. 


My Facebook status today which I want to share with you as well: What the mind conceives, it can achieve. Mind is magnet so attract wisely : )


Sincerely,
Manju

The Light of Asia

So the journey begins.


Actually no, it had begun since February 2011. The Light of Asia was born when Thomas, Victor, Larry and I were having a conversation in the Oxford Union. Yes the very place where Prime Ministers, Presidents, Actors, Singers and everyone else comes to speak. It is the oldest and the largest debating society in the world. The expensive membership entails a room filled with leather couches, a room where great conversations take place and greater ideas are born. So one such time I had taken two solar Nokero bulbs and was selling the idea to get Victor on board who is from Fiji. I was soon going back to Asia the next week or so having formed The Light of Asia, a name that Victor and Tom suggested. The idea being, the Budhha- the enlightened one would show me the way. No I am not particularly religious but Buddha was a great man and his teachings make sense. We will come to my multi-religious upbringing some other time.


So I left England with two solar bulb samples, fifteen humble pounds in my pocket, a burning entrepreneurial spirit and a head full of dreams.The solar bulbs were samples from Nokero that Evan Husney from Nokero has shipped me from Hong Kong (no not all Chinese products are bad, this is an A grade product). Nokero is an American company based in Denver and I am Bhutanese; the world gets smaller as you read on and the adventures of The Light of Asia.


I never went to business school but I have had some of the best marketing lessons from the streets of London. We will get to that some other day as well. So I am the CEO and I am the founder, what would I do to expand the company?


People. People are amazing, the power of networking is beyond words. The human network is what business is all about, especially when you want to make a global difference. With Oxford comes connections, like never before.


Oh, before I reached Delhi, I made my first sale to Nepal sitting in London. Long story to that but to cut it short, it paid my rent. Wrong way to do it, the exchange rates are terrible, it is better to earn in London and spend in Asia but hey, I have never done things the conventional way!


So I landed in Delhi, with a degree from Oxford, MSc Biodiversity Conservation and Management and during recession trust me even a degree from the Moon would not help much. I must thank the recession though, it made me a social entrepreneur. The explanation of which will be in another blog post again (from the sound of which,another blog post and another, keep following us there will be many posts coming up), but it would suffice to say, The Light of Asia will be a story like you have read in books, from rags to riches! It is all already happening, the secret works.


We also just started working on finding dealers for  hand woven Nepalese carpets where the profit goes to building communities and schools in Nepal, and Project Vishma, Bhutan's youngest scientist, whose story I broke in the newspapers and he is The Light of Asia's Thomas Edison, our very own green in house Scientist and Inventor. We are currently looking for a lab so Vishma can start working on his Dhobi- a pedal powered washing machine. Updates on that coming soon too.


Here is the link to customized carpets from the Himalayas with Himalayan designs. Even the Everest can rest on your feet now.


https://picasaweb.google.com/kinleyt/CarpetsFromHomes


My business partner who is in Hyderbad, where you obviously get delicious Hyderbadi biryani, has worked for Tata International for more than 30 years and Mr. B. L. Narayana and I am currently in the process of doing a massive sale for Nokero to Afghanistan. I lived with some Afghans one time, along with several other house mates, I have some amazing stories and they are wonderful people. Don't listen and believe all that the western media has to say, I am telling you. The Afghans I met used to call themselves "pahariah" or mountain people and when mountain Bhutan meets mountain Afghanistan, we clicked and the best part, we used to speak in Hindi which we all learnt by watching Hindi movies.


What a wonderful world.


Cheers to The Light of Asia as our journey unfolds. Do me a favour please, just close your eyes and send me good vibes, bless us. : )


And just in case you are wondering why not a website, why a blog. I believe that a blog documents an organic growth and no company starts big. Every one has their humble beginnings.


By the way, The Light of Asia has also partnered with Bhutan Trip Advisor which ensures you a trip of a lifetime so if you are thinking of visiting Bhutan, you know who is going to make your trip worthwhile. Oh why, us of course!


Last word- Green is definitely in!


CEO and Founder,
Manju Wakhley