
I am very delighted to introduce Sharanya and Saraunya, two-spirited women, my dear friends, who have vowed to take us back to our roots with their range of herbal products. Their home-based business started in a small way in November 2016, when they prepared a herbal bath powder and hand-delivered it to a small group of friends and relatives. I was one of their earliest customers. In four years, they have grown gradually and are now selling a range of traditional products under the brand name Parambariyam.
Here is an interview with the two of them about their passion, which they have developed into a successful business model.
The idea behind Parambariyam….

We are friends since our school days. We often pondered about the increase in the use of chemical products in our day-to-day lives and wanted to reduce using them. Incidentally, both our families used to prepare bath-powder at home using traditional ingredients – channa dal, moong dal, and turmeric during our childhood days. So, we thought why not make this product in a small batch at our home and sell it to friends and our families.
This is how it all started. We researched more on that topic and added a few more ingredients and the result came out really well. It became an instant hit among our customers. Also, we made a conscious decision not to use plastic in our packaging. Hence, we sold our bath powder in glass bottles. To add a personal touch, we used handwritten product tags and tied them around the bottle using jute threads. We also hand-delivered our product along with a thank-you note.
We were selling only our first and only product bath powder till the end of 2019. Once we decided to increase our range of products, we thought of the brand name Parambariyam. It means tradition in Tamil.
Turning point….

A friend once complained about hair loss to us and we gifted her a bottle of a hair oil concoction which we were using at home. She liked the oil very much and said that her hair fall has reduced drastically. She even suggested selling this oil. She placed an order of 18 bottles, to begin with. We started selling hair oil next.
Then slowly included turmeric powder (kasturi manjal), digestive powder, shikakai for hair, bath powder for babies, and soap-nut powder. Apart from this we also sell traditional cookware – brass coffee filter, brass davara-tumbler set, brass canister, and eeya sombu. For those of you who do not know about eeya sombu, it is a vessel made from eeyam, an alloy of tin, and is traditionally used to keep rasam in Tamil Nadu.
So, a total of seven products and traditional cookware. A friend of ours, Mekala designed the logo and packaging for us. Though we use printed tags for ingredients now, we still stick to our jute thread and thank-you notes.
Challenges faced….

Our biggest challenge in the initial phase was to bring customers back to using traditional products. We had a few customers who hesitated to buy again saying that it was time consuming to use herbal wash and their bathrooms got messy. Eventually, they too got around when they realized the goodness in our products. Now, a lot of people are interested in our herbal bath powder.
Another challenge was to tackle packaging. We were only hand-delivering our products for a long time. When the orders increased, we found it difficult to deliver them personally. Then we started couriering our products. We still love to hand-deliver them though.
Planning involved….

Running a business from home is not easy. Especially for women. We have to juggle between work and home efficiently. Since we sun-dry most of our products before grinding them, sunlight is essential. During the monsoon, we would source our raw materials earlier and make a few batches before the onset of rains.
Now, we are present in social media as well. Hence, we need to plan time for promoting in the digital platform too. The perfect chemistry between us helps us to handle our work efficiently.
Well-wishers….

Our business is thriving mostly through word-of-mouth promotions. There is one specific customer Laxmy aunty we would like to mention. She felt genuinely happy about the idea behind our products and got in many customers. She calls us regularly and encourages us to do more. Many such customers promote our products wholeheartedly without expecting anything in return. We will be always indebted to these well-wishers.
Also, we want to thank our spouses for their support, without whom this business wouldn’t be possible.
Both of you have had successful careers, what do you think of this change?

What we have realised is that we love the hard work we are putting into research, sourcing, and preparation of the products for our business. When you are passionate about something, you don’t find it a chore. Instead of working for someone, developing our own brand is worthy and we never regretted our decision to quit our jobs.
Initially, we were grinding about a kilogram per batch. Now, we are grinding up to 4 kg per batch. We have delivered our products to countries like the US, UK, and Canada. Our biggest order was a whopping 32 kg of bath and shikakai powder together. We are excited about how far we have come and are humbled by the gratitude of our customers.
For orders contact 98844 55203, 98416 39877.
Meena
August 13, 2021 — 6:41 am
super.best wishes
S BALASURIYAN
August 13, 2021 — 7:33 am
Wishing you both great success in near future. Kindly maintain custermer data and send birthday, wedding day grettings to them. These small wishes will get your name and products sculptured n their hearts. And it is the small drops that make a ocean. So consider even the smallest order to be important one and do start referal benefits to customers. Remember the best way of advertisement is passed on through a satisfied customer to another.
Cheers to you both
S.Kumar
August 13, 2021 — 7:39 am
Parambariyam products are super with age old ingridients of ancient Tamil’s,it is also called patti vaidhyam.I pray to God that your sincere efforts will bring you great laurels.
Sharanya
August 13, 2021 — 11:27 am
Thank you 🤩🤩
S Balasubramanian
August 13, 2021 — 8:21 am
Excellent. If only youngsters like these two understood the value of our grand traditions and returned to the roots, we could hope for revival of healthy lifestyle which has now been lost by us in our mad following of western culture. Our ancestors have given us a rich legacy which we have a duty to follow, nurture and hand down to the next generation. Congrats and carry forward. All the best.
S. Shanthi
August 13, 2021 — 8:51 am
Fantastic mission to find roots with passion. Heart of heart every one of us long for the traditional life though we have no choice as new gadgets products engulfed our life as a canopy. These two young entrepreneurs have made a slit in the tent to make us experience a liittle sunlight. Small steps lead to big journey.
Hats off to their ideas Kudos to their labour and perseverance congratulations on their achievements and all our best wishes for expansion and success
R Ramadoss
August 13, 2021 — 9:12 am
Nice idea. All the best
Shankar Krishnaswamy
August 13, 2021 — 10:13 am
Great.
Wishing you both all the very best in your endeavours.
V.S.banumathi
August 13, 2021 — 10:36 am
Super from 2016,to2021 drastic improvement,all the best ,keep rocking Saranya
Sharanya
August 13, 2021 — 11:25 am
Thank you Manju ❤️ saraunya and i loved chatting with you and sharing our experience
Laxmy r narayan
August 13, 2021 — 11:38 am
Hi friends,
I have no words to express about the quality of chemical free homemade herbal products of sharanya’s parambaryam. I have been using ALL their products from top to toe since inception. One has to use to prove the worthiness.
Hi folks, why can’t you try to buy atleast one of the products so that I am damn sure ALL will end up buying all their products.
These twin birds(lovely ladies with same name) will definitely soar very high and sure to win entrepreneurship award from the government very soon.
All the best
Sharanya Narayanan
August 14, 2021 — 7:34 pm
Thank you soo much aunty 💗💗
Saraswathi Ranganathan
August 13, 2021 — 2:59 pm
Great Sharanya. It is really a pleasure to see your small baby step with one bath powder turned out into launching of various products like oil, OAK powder, haldi, shikakai, baby bath powder etc. I must say here, your hair oil is outstanding, something laa jawab. Your growth during this period of 5 years is amazing. We have seen the continuous efforts you put in this. Whenever you achieve something, manasu kekuthu, what next Sharanya? So I am asking you, what next? Shall we give 50% of this credit to Sricharan who is your pillar of strength? Congratulations charan.
Sharanya Narayanan
August 14, 2021 — 7:35 pm
Means a lot to us aunty. Thank you 💗
Padma ranganathan
August 13, 2021 — 4:02 pm
Very nice!! Best wishes to you both.
Sharanya Narayanan
August 14, 2021 — 7:35 pm
Thank you perima
S. Sundararajan
August 13, 2021 — 4:30 pm
Extremely happy about the achievements and wishing you both a great future and all the best in all your endeavors
Sridhar R
August 13, 2021 — 4:50 pm
I am a regular buyer. Their products are good and genuine. All the best to both of you to reach greater heights
Bindu Pandya
August 13, 2021 — 7:10 pm
Very impressed with your success story and your passion to use traditional ingredients. How do you ascertain one product is suitable for all skin types and weather conditions ?
Sharanya Narayanan
August 14, 2021 — 7:38 pm
Hello Bindu
Thank you. We recommend mothers / buyers to do a patch test before buying, if they tell us that they have sensitive skin. And we have listed all the ingredients ok the product so that if anyone is allergic to any of the ingredients they would know
Thank you 🙂
Srinivasan
August 13, 2021 — 7:27 pm
Nice to see your steady growth and I know that you are selling the real home made products.
All the very best for your future growth.
Jayanthi Narasimhan
August 13, 2021 — 8:36 pm
Way to go Saranya. The girl in frock who came to learn music long ago is an entrepreneur now. I am proud of you and wish you all the best ❤️
Susila Vasudevan
August 13, 2021 — 8:51 pm
Excellent job. Your efforts for our paramparya items are appreciable.
My blessings for your efforts.
Priya (jvaps)
August 13, 2021 — 9:17 pm
Congrats girls. Keep rocking !!!
Ravishankar
August 13, 2021 — 10:59 pm
A great start ladies. With so much of artificial ingredients going into making fancy expensive products, it’s time we go back to age old herbs to regain the benefits of medicinal and healing qualities of the herbs. Good luck ladies.
ns
August 14, 2021 — 3:07 am
Congratulations – wishing you both success in this venture to return to the roots with quality and healthy products. You deserve to suceed
Partha Ramaseshadri
August 14, 2021 — 3:36 am
Proud of you Sharanya and best wishes!
May be next step is to take our traditional roots to international level👍
Sivakumar Shanmugam
August 14, 2021 — 9:54 am
When I think of Saraunya.. other word comes in my mind is a “Phoenix Bird”..Not exaggerating but true.. Of course women are always stronger than men, but you are strongest than all of em.. Keep doing whatever you love to do, you will reach heights with the commitment and loyalty that you show in making out your products. All the very best, dear Sister..
Vijayalakshmi. S
August 15, 2021 — 9:44 pm
Great effort from youngsters. I find the products very soothing for the skin and feel very happy touse eco-friendly products. Keep it up both of you
Mekala
August 16, 2021 — 7:46 am
I’ve seen the brand grow from 2016 and Ive seen the amount of hard work and dedication these girls put into every one of their batches. Very well written and to the point. Great article, great going!
Manjula
August 16, 2021 — 7:07 pm
Thanks Mekala. Do sign up for updates