#BareItAll - Men in Sustainability [Mehul Manjeshwar]

Till now it was all about women at Bare. Oh yes! Bare is a women-run team and why not - a woman entrepreneur, women in the manufacturing team, in design, finance and all those geeky stuff. The whole of last year our spotlight was on women who had re-defined 21st century careers. Their stories were inspirational which gave us new ways to think, opened up new paths. In the spotlight were - Vidhi Jain (Illustrator), Madhuri Braganza (Actor), Vanmayi Shetty (Ex-Creative Head at Bare Necessities, Urvashi Goverdhan (Actor), Samyukta Kartik (Vegan Recipe Developer), Rohini Kejriwal (Founder, The Alipore Post), Nirupa Rao (Botanical Illustrator), Pragya Kapoor (Environmentalist, Film Producer), Samanvita Shetty (Actor), Tanvie Hans (Co-Founder, Sisters in Sweat), Shwetha Subbiah (Co-Founder, Sisters in Sweat) and ofcourse our three superstars - Shabreen, Nazeema and Reshma.

But hey! That’s not all. Our men are not those “forgotten heroes”. Their contribution and it’s not just limited to that. Bare men are whole-heartedly committed to their work, they love what they are doing and yes, they are making a huge difference for sure. Hence, we just turned our spotlight to our heroes (and it was not just restricted to Bare) who had gone the road less traveled. These men didn’t get trapped in the societal norms but broke their way out, dived into path-breaking careers and yes, they all did have a shared passion for sustainability. Let’s not keep you wondering. Did you see our punny Bare newsletters of late? Like since September last year? All credit goes to our Marketing Head, Mehul Manjeshwar. Mehul has been with Bare since the last 6 months and has amazed us by his thoughts, his philosophy and way of work. 

                     Mehul, Marketing Head at Bare Necessities. Apart from that, he cares about sustainability, is an avid traveler and comes up with the best puns ever

Photo Courtesy: @sid_art.co

So here’s Mehul for you. Indian, born and raised in Qatar and Canada. Mehul moved to India 6 months ago and currently leads Marketing & Sustainability Communications at Bare Necessities. He helps communicate our brand story though our words, actions & meaningful partnerships. Mehul's favorite part of the job is sustainability talks and workshops with kids. “My goal is to raise awareness of the problems our world is facing today. I found that negativity and the news we are exposed to was quite detrimental to the way I was looking for solutions – I was looking for solutions because I was forced to.

 with one of his favourite products - Espresso Yourself Coffee Body Scrub

Photo Courtesy: @sid_art.co

Check out his Instagram feed. It's beautiful @mehulm

Mehul has been giving sustainability talks and conducting workshops all over Bangalore and also in other cities like Mumbai and Chennai. So, when we came up with our awareness campaign for Valentine’s Day, Mehul was our first choice. And, Mehul was more than happy to be a part of it. We also had a few questions for him to answer.

- Tell us about yourself and what you're truly passionate about?

At some point, I started coming across initiatives that are helping move our planet in the right direction environmentally, and for future generations. Looking at this more closely, I came to realize that if we approach problems positively, we are able to uncover genuine and authentic solutions with 100% passion. I have had the opportunity to travel, for which I am quite grateful, which opened my eyes to the beauties of our world, but also the atrocities our planet is experiencing. My passion for outdoor adventures made me realize, even more, that something had to be done. I believe in communication, raising awareness and education. This, in my opinion, should be the foundation of change. We should all aim to learn from the various positive initiatives out there, share it with each other so we can all apply it in our own lives, and change the world!

- What is your favourite Bare Necessities product?

I came to realize that swapping from a plastic toothbrush to a sustainable alternative was the easiest first step I could take. We don't really need the fancy, colourful, grippy plastic toothbrushes - these are just selling points for corporates. We need to simply go back to where we all started, using nature for our necessities. A major aspect of waste that travels around the world through our oceans, rivers and all are plastic toothbrushes that can be mistaken for food by many marine animals. A powerful photo I saw was a floating plastic toothbrush looking eerily similar to a seahorse. Not only does this get mistaken as food for marine life, it also breaks down and gets into the water and food we consume.

- Why, in your personal case, should we care about sustainability and zero-waste?

We, as men, all find ourselves getting trapped in societal norms, including the products we use. Not caring about what goes into the products we use is deemed as the manly thing to do, but I found that taking care of our health, our bodies and our surroundings is way more important than what people think about you.

Photo Courtesy: @sid_art.co