Pamela V. Brown
Write Path, an L.L.C.
Kauai Business Report, April 2004
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Pamela V. Brown Write Path, an L.L.C. |
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Kauai Business Report, April 2004 |
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Kauai Businessman Impressed with Commerce in India
By Pamela V. Brown
KAPAA - When he traveled to India in February with 20 other Hawaii Rotarians to help immunize children against the dread disease polio, Marty Kahn had no idea that he would have the intense, "sensory-exploding" experience that greets most visitors to the country.
"The depth of the poverty, the joy of the people, the wealth of the privileged class, the cows and pigs and camels in the streets, the food, the Taj Mahal, the two lane-wide five lanes of traffic . . . every day is filled with hundreds of sights and sounds and smells," he wrote via email to his friends in the Rotary Club of Kapaa. |
Photo by Pamela V. Brown |
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He was pleasantly surprised at the level of business done in the
country. "I had no idea what I was going to encounter," said Kahn, who owns multiple art galleries on Kauai and one on the Big Island. "I didn't expect to see the businesses at the high level that we did see."
Vendors of every possible commodity lined the streets of most cities, operating from one-room stalls often with no overhead lighting or other electricity. In some areas, rows of street vendors fronted the stalls, selling fresh produce, fried foods, clothing, fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice or the popular fresh lime juice while a variety of livestock strolled by.
Some businesses occupied larger, slightly more American-style stores, though often the building exteriors could be deceiving.
"We went into one ramshackle building in Udaipur, walked into the store on stone steps, dirt floor and we were ushered up to the next floor," he recounted. "From floor to ceiling was textiles. A man started throwing out textiles and silks, pashminas and bedspreads." (Pashminas are intricately hand-embroidered fine woolen shawls.)
"Turns out this place was the manufacturer for Hermes and some other noted labels," Kahn said. "The $5,000 and $6,000 bed throws that Hermes shows in the window, the man was throwing out for us. I'm afraid to tell you what we paid but we brought some home." |
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Kahn said there were eight more floors above that showroom, probably filled with still more textiles for export. The store's host told Kahn that his gross income is between US$80 and $100 million per year. Equally impressive was the hustle and bustle of street-side vendors who exhibited a strong sense of entrepreneurship - people trying to be successful financially any way possible.
"I got a feeling that business was done pretty much the same way (as here)," he said. "People were warm, friendly and receptive and willing to do the best they could in order to offer their products."
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Photo by Pamela V. Brown |
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Even the profuse and amazingly persistent souvenir salesmen hovering outside tourist hot spots such as forts and palaces had their admirers. Kahn said that even though many in the Rotary group were annoyed by those salesmen, many of the group succumbed and bought knick-knacks.
"We didn't visit any places that looked like Rodeo Drive or Kalakaua Avenue. They must be there somewhere but out group didn't find the high-end fashion areas," Kahn said. "We were dealing with the people from the streets with the family businesses to the manufacturers," Kahn said.
As art connoisseurs, Kahn and his wife Carole managed to locate an art gallery while in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), and discovered an artist named Sudhir Katkar who was exhibiting his work. They were so taken with his talent that they commissioned him to do a piece named "The Devotees," depicting people in different aspects of prayer.
"It's being shipping to us now as we speak." |
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Contact Information: Pamela V. Brown (808) 651-3533 cell (808) 821-1027 fax |
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"Individuality of expression is the beginning and end of all art." --- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Proverbs in Prose |
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Official web site of Write Path, an L.L.C. and Pamela V. Brown © 2003 All material, pictures, concepts, intellectual property and rights reserved. |
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