Growing up in a Tamil Brahmin family allowed Radhika Iyer Talati, Founder, Anahata Organics, to experience first hand traditional Indic rituals for great hair, skin and body practised on a day to day basis.
She was reminded to carry forward these rituals when her children were born and she saw stupendous results with the ubtans, scrubs, oils, gels etc. that she made for them.
Radhika soon started gifting these products to family and friends and many started requesting her to make more, but she never did think of getting into any kind of commercial manufacturing of these recipes.
But in 2009 things changed. “It was only after my breast cancer treatment through naturopathy, did I get deeply involved in learning more about Indic sciences and how it saw human health. It was miraculous to see how easily simplicity in lifestyle could transform the body,” says Radhika, a Yogini, mountaineer and philanthropist.
Call of the Himalayas
While assisting her guruji in his makeshift ashram in the Himalayas, she realised the importance of organic living. She recalls, “I would watch as he mixed simple Indic ingredients to create stunning products that worked like magic on skin and hair. As part of my sewa in his kitchen, I was exposed to traditional Indic recipes that were practised for thousands of years by our civilisation.”
Quite naturally, her experience of being involved in similar processes back home helped a lot. During her stay of about five months, she was taught many skin, hair and body care products by her Guruji himself.
“My connection with the Himalayas was forged in his apothecary and ever since I spend at least 15 days every year in the Himalayas. It was also during these travels that I happened to meet several people from across the world, who further honed my knowledge. I also learnt how to make organic and natural food, condiments, spices and salts without any artificial preservation. I started using these recipes in my day to day life and started seeing stupendous results. But even then the thought of commercialising these recipes never occurred to me,” says Radhika.
In 2019, she decided to turn her Yoga centre into a full fledged foundation. It was only then that Anahata was set up as a professional natural and organic brand to help support the foundation. Radhika shares, “The sole vision and inspiration behind setting up Anahata, was to bring simplicity back into our lives by way of adopting an organic, mindful and sustainable lifestyle. We belong to a country that has forever been an aesthetic conscious culture. Anahata is the Heart Chakra in the Subtle Body, according to the Yogic scriptures and it truly voices just that… we make everything from the heart! “
Challenging times
The brand actively works towards promoting healthy, organic and environmentally sustainable products in the field of skin care, hair care and food. The company is about a year old – started at a challenging time, during the pandemic. But Radhika feels that’s still as challenging as it can get, but she knows that it has been the right decision. “Covid has been a never ending roller coaster ride for most of us and so many of us are still going through this struggle. While there is nothing much we can do about it, we do know that we have to have patience and do what we do best, make fabulous products and help our customers look good and feel good. And like everyone, wait for the economy to open up,” she adds.
Anahata has a wide range of products, both in the food as well as beauty segment. The brand manufactures as per demand, obviously since it’s natural and preservative free and it sells online as of now. Radhika has her own website as well as Anahata sells on several platforms. The company is in the process of getting eco certified.
Anahata has started exploring the possibility of exporting honey and spices to the Middle East and EU. Radhika hopes to start exporting by this year.
Speaking of future plans, Radhika says, “The only future plan is to make our products more accessible to all strata of people. We want to become a brand that everyone can access and we are here to let the world know that good quality need not necessarily be high priced. We hope to revive Indic ingredients, we hope to involve more people and less machines and we wish to support marginalised women.”
