Sambhav Raj’s ideology appears to be a riff on the old proverb: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
“I have always been against charity: it hurts people more than it does them any good,” believes Raj. If one actually wants to help and do something of value, “give them a skill that can make them self-sufficient,” says the retail marketing head for clothing brand, Nicobar, who has just released the Blind Bind Book, a special notebook hand-bound by the visually impaired.
An alumnus of the Shri Ram College of Commerce, with a keen interest in design and photography, he was introduced to the concept of social entrepreneurship way back in college, says Raj. “I was part of Enactus, a worldwide non-profit organisation of students that focuses on the concept of social entrepreneurship,” he says. Enactus encourages students to take up community projects and make people more independent, “We would set up businesses for them and then move on,” he remembers.
This is what he wants to do with his Blind Bind Book, currently available on his Instagram store under his brand Crenulate, and put together by the members of The Blind Relief Association, New Delhi. “I would often attend their annual Deepavali mela,” he says, referring to the pop-up held at the Association. A lot of products created by the visually impaired are retailed at this mela, including candles, diyas and paper products since, “the association does a lot of vocational training for the blind here,” he says, adding, “as there was this community around me, I thought of making something with them.”
He conceptualised the design and sourced the paper for the book. “I wanted to make something that was consumable,” says Raj, who is also involved in marketing and selling the book that currently retails on Instagram at ₹350. “There is no compromise on design here, however. I wanted something that people would buy for the sake of the book, not out of empathy for the visually impaired,” says Raj.
The sleek, simple 100-page volume is bound in midnight-black, across which is embossed a pattern of golden dots that carry the phrase, “I wish you luck,” in Braille script. “The first page of the book is made up of actual Braille paper,” he says, running his fingers across the dotted script etched on the thick sheet, beside which a translation of the English alphabet is provided. “The goal was not just to give opportunities for the visually impaired, but also for the sighted to be aware of the language,” he says.
Part of the earnings of the book go towards the association, while the rest he plans to put back in the business and develop, “more designs, maybe a different colour or different lettering on the front page,” he says. And yes, facilitating autonomy is the plan in the not-so-distant future. “The vision is to establish a wholesome business and exit out of it,” says Raj, adding, “I plan to pass the onus of running it to the visually impaired.”
Visit www.instagram.com/ crenulate/ for more details