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Swati Sucharita chats up Gaurav and Archana Shah and learns the key to successful entrepreneurship

Though geographically located side by side, their worlds couldn’t be more different. One manages Crossword, arguably Ahmedabad’s best known book shop, while the other runs lifestyle design store Bandhej, considered to be the final word on style for the city’s fashion aficionados.

The link, you wonder? Nothing, except that they are siblings, and run two extremely successful businessesb in Ahmedabad.

Setting Up Shop
Fresh from her course in textile design at the National Institute of Design (NID), Archana launched Bandhej in 1987, a 900 sq ft boutique in Navrangpura, with emphasis on home furnishings, like dhurries, etc. “The initial orders were through mail order catalogues, and we had a good response right from the beginning,” she says.

Today, her boutique located in the posh Mithakhali area of Ahmedabad, where she lives since late 1996, is considered to be the Mecca for all things elegant, be it formal Indian wear or westerns, accessories or jewellery. Blockprints or bandhni, crepe, cotton, satin or lycra, Kanjeevarams or Sambalpuris, name it and you will find everything under Bandhej’s roof. Bandhej is also planning to launch its branches at Mumbai (around April) and Bangalore later this year.

A Book Store?
Gaurav, who is seven years younger than Archana, started Crossword in 1995 on the suggestion of an aunt based in Mumbai. While the initial push came from Mumbai, the response in Ahmedabad was far from encouraging.

“The argument given was one cannot sustain a book store in a city like Ahmedabad, which is not really known by a discerning reading public. To top it all, we were looking at a property which was considered inauspicious for any sort of business, it was jinxed and nobody was buying it.”

In October 1995, Crossword was launched on a property area of 5,000 sq ft, now expanded to 13,000 sq ft, smiles Gaurav. “The focus was an informal hang-out for the youth, who could browse through books, for a good couple of hours,” he says.

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