This is the journey of a girl from small-town Ayodhya to cosmopolitan Bangalore. Meet Shalini Sudarshan, mother, wife and the brainchild behind NGO Sampoorn, a non-profit organisation that works for upliftment of rural artisans.

“I knew as I child I wanted to do something... only did not know what,” she explains simplistically. Her charming and effervescent demeanour was something that was always part of her. Armed with a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts, Shalini took a job in Bangalore’s Haryana Emporium. This was really where she found her true calling — while working with arts and crafts. “This job gave me an opportunity to meet a lot of artisans and understand what they bring to the table. It was also at this time that I got a good understanding of the fact that there was no real platform to showcase their talent,” she says. However there were several limitations on what a government organisation could really do to further the interests of artisans.

So there began a small but sure start to her journey to help rural artisans come to the forefront. “I visited several exhibitions to understand what was being showcased before starting out on a small way.”

Working directly

While the beginning was about eight years ago, Sampoorn materialised about 2 years back. With nine committee members from myriad backgrounds, this society has started making a significant impact on the nature of exhibitions held at Bangalore. “The reason I opted for a society was to ensure we could be recipients of government grants and corporate sponsorship,” she explains. Incidentally Sampoorn believes in working directly with artisans and not traders, without intervention of any middlemen. The artisans are mostly national and state award recipients representing interior and rural areas of the country.

Knowing nearly 500 artisans and their crafts has certainly helped Shalini. “I am now planning to travel to Surajkand near Faridabad to talk to more artisans. Customers need change and that is what I want to do,” she explains.

In a city like Bangalore where exhibitions have become commonplace, what sets Sampoorn apart is that Shalini gives each artisan personal invitations a good two months in advance. “This enables them to prepare and make their art and crafts ready for the event,” she explains. Of course all her work is completely supported by her family. “My husband Kailash and mother in law have been completely encouraging and have been my source of strength,” she says.

Her husband has been instrumental in giving her not just moral support but also helped her financially to pursue her dreams. In fact, Shalini is also the mother of 19-month-old Aditya and says that it is all about learning to balance family and work. Like she says, “it’s part of life and needs to be taken care of.” And the future is bright with several opportunities. One thing on top of her agenda is to take the artisans abroad to expand their horizon.

Also she is hoping that Sampoorn becomes a household name in the whole of the country soon. However all this does come with a big set of challenges, the foremost being a lack of funds. But Shalini is an optimist and is hoping that there will be grants and sponsorship so she “can do more for my artisans.” So raise a toast to that and take a leaf out of her book, it’s certainly worth emulating!

Sampoorn can be contacted at 9845597553