This article is a part of our Founder Series, where female founders share their entrepreneurial journeys.
Baatein was an idea that germinated over a cup of coffee and a passion for writing. A writer penned it down and a platform for storytelling and poetry was born.
My name is Chhaya Dabas and I am the founder of Baatein. Baatein is a community of artists, primarily writers. The community has been generating original content since 2014 and promises that you will find it relatable, one poem or another. The initiative that started as a blog comprising of a few writers is a full fledged start-up now, aiming to carve out a niche platform for and of artists with the will to complement each art form with a beautifully written story. Baatein is currently working on very interesting projects and collaborations and will soon launch its own merchandise line.
It is a stage for conversations and creativity. Inspired from life and the roller coaster that it is with all its emotions, thoughts, feelings and its perceptions.
As I call it, Baatein is a place where your thoughts meet their echo. I launched the platform on Instagram in the month of November 2014 as a poetry blog. I found Instagram to be new, dynamic and exciting and it resonated with my idea as well and since then I have never looked back.
Soon the platform, along with a growing community on Facebook, was engaging with various writers who felt the need to create a place to share their thoughts and that is how Baatein turned into a community.
Baatein’s grandest achievement till now has been a customized wall painted with one of our captions.
Baatein was declared the winner in a Twitter based competition organized by Delhi I Love you- a cultural movement across the city following the footsteps of Paris, Rio and various other cities.
A ten-feet wall of Ambedkar University, Delhi was painted with our caption, “Some places have that magic; they throw up dancers, musicians and dreamers at every corner, or simply turn you into one”. The wall, even today, inspires and engages the passersby as our words continue to create conversations.
As a part of our constant effort to reach out to more writers and to converse with more souls, we decided to enter the DU Fest season with stalls at various colleges.
Our first stall was installed at IP College for Women, during their Diwali Mela. The stall was a huge success and we even sold customized products like dream catchers, lamps, diaries etc. Various other colleges served as platforms to initiate direct interactions and genuine conversations.
It has been an upward curve so far and gradually, one story at a time, a new brand of storytellers is emerging. Do refer to brands like Kanabis, Puppychino, and Paper Boat for whom some selected poems were inked, cherished and framed, if you simply wish to be thorough.
Today, I am taking the initiative forward by working with bigger collaborations. I have managed to build a team of highly capable and loving artists to whom I shall be eternally grateful. Shreya Tyagi, Suvarna Singh, Aakanksha Peshawaria and Kunal Gupta are not only members of Baatein but also the foundation of the organization. We continuously reach out to photographers and writers and are also paving a path for events to just fulfill one dream- to create passionate conversations and stories to inspire.
It has been an adventure filled with surprises. Not a single day has gone by when we haven’t walked out of our office feeling exhilarated.
It is a product of love, innovation, creation, laughter, the highs and lows and of every direction the wind has blown. Baatein or conversations is a chapter inked with adoration and admiration and a will to inspire. So just answer this for us, were you inspired?
Baatein on Facebook. The website is going to be launched soon.
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