THE GLOBAL VILLAGER

His newest brainchild is a project called Himalayan Harvest, the goal of which is to market internationally, locally available agricultural produce. For instance, the famous mustard oil produced in the traditional mills of Kokhana in Lalitpur District. “I am planning to market this oil with three price tags,” says Anil Chitrakar, Fellow of Ashoka International and founder of Environment Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA), the Kathmandu 2020 Movement as well as of ‘Crafted In Kathmandu’. “The best quality oil meant for human consumption will be the highest priced, the next best, meant for massage use will be cheaper and the third grade, to be used for lighting lamps, will be the cheapest.” Himalayan Harvest will also be marketing other produce such as lapsi and coffee. Without doubt, its future rides on the reputation and fame of Anil Chitrakar.

One cannot pinpoint exactly whereto the reason for his fame lies. He is only forty one, yet he seems to have accomplished a lot in his young life. Most people know him through his writings published regularly in many well known magazines which catch one’s attention not only because of the lucid style but also because of the originality of the ideas. Others know Anil Chitrakar as an adroit entrepreneur who started ‘Crafted In Kathmandu’ three years ago with the self proclaimed objective of supporting artisans and craftsmen living in and caring for Kathmandu. “I believe that the lowest salary of the 200 odd artists and craftsmen I provide work for should not be less than Rs.10000 a month,” declares Anil.  “Only then can I claim to have made a difference and at the same time provide the motivation to keep them honing their traditional skills.” This is obviously why he says that ‘Crafted In Kathmandu’ is not just any handicrafts business. Anil likes to call himself a mentor to the artists and craftsmen of Kathmandu, who though highly talented, do not have the business savvy to get the deservedly high prices for their works of art. On the other hand, while he himself holds an engineering degree in mechanics, Anil has evolved into an international marketer of sorts. 

The fact that almost one and a half shipping containers containing ‘Crafted In Kathmandu’ products will be leaving soon for an annual Summer Sale in Manhhattan, New York, should further substantiate the claim.  The Ashoka Fellow has registered a company called Worldwide Market Square in the USA through which he has ambitious plans to market all over the globe. Clearly, Anil has smelled the intoxicating aroma of big international business and it looks like he has liked the fragrance. At the moment however, the large eyed, swarthy ‘mentor’ follows a three pronged marketing strategy, 1.exploit local festivals to sell items like masks, incenses, musical instruments and so on, 2.promote aggressively to expatriates, tourists and higher income nationals and 3.export.  He elaborates, “Actually our strategy is to convince customers that by purchasing our products, they will be aiding heritage preservation efforts.” The concept seems to have clicked as ‘Crafted In Kathmandu’ appears to be surfing waves of success today. “Because of this, prices become the least of the concerns and so we manage to get very good markups.” Of course, as Anil adds, “The artists and craftsmen gain the most from our efforts.”

Anil Chitrakar conducts what he terms, ‘heritage walks’ almost thrice a week within the valley and as everybody knows, writes mostly about heritage conservation, societal changes and historically important subjects concerned with traditional arts, crafts and festivals. This naturally qualifies him to be termed a ‘conservationist’ and presently, Anil is out of the country almost two weeks a month giving talks and lectures in various symposia worldwide on these very subjects. His last talk was as the key note speaker in the Barcelona Forum in Spain and his next one will be at the Social Entrepreneur Forum in Singapore, the topic of which is most appropriately titled, ‘How to initiate societal changes through business activism’. Recently, as an Ashoka Fellow, the ‘mentor/intellectual’ had talked about, ‘how to move from corporate social responsibility to social entrepreneurship’ at a symposia organized by the TATA company in Jamshedpur. About his Ashoka Fellowship, Anil informs, “One has to be an initiator of new ideas that affect societal changes besides being a successful entrepreneur to qualify for an invitation to become a Fellow of Ashoka International.” According to him, the exclusive body is currently involved in some 1600 social entrepreneurship projects in 55 countries. He further informs, “Ashoka International is the first organization to start the social venture capital concept.”

Born to Prem Lal and Ganesh Devi in Bhimsenthan, Kathmandu on March 21^st 1961, Anil’s life has been an eventful one and he admits that events really started taking a much better turn in 1993 when he was invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos as one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow, the roster of which also included Bill Gates. Around the same time he was also awarded the Rolex Award for Enterprise. Both these prestigious awards were in recognition of Anil’s role as founder of Environment Camps for Conservation Awareness (ECCA) that today has a training centre lodged in 7 ropanies in Bhaktapur. “The idea was to conduct periodic camps where conservation experts would teach on the subject to college students who in turn would teach school students,” says Anil. “School students, in their turn, would create awareness in their mostly illiterate/unaware parents who then would adapt newer ideas/technology towards conservation efforts.”  ECCA was founded in 1987 when Anil was working at RONAST where he did a three year stint in the energy technology division, and under whose auspices he got the opportunity to study energy planning at the University of Pennsylvania in the USA.

During the tenure of Keshab Sthapit as the Mayor of Kathmandu, the articulate social entrepreneur/intellectual was invited to be on the board of the City Planning Commission where he worked for five years and was involved in the Metropolitan Infrastructure Project looking after the Social and Heritage department. Before that, for seven years Anil worked at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and was Head of Nepal Office when he quit. “A lot of work was accomplished during this time,” remembers Anil. “IUCN played a very important role in guiding conservation and preservation policies. In fact, even the curriculum of environmental text books were changed on our advice.” While on the board of the City Planning Commission, Anil initiated the Kathmandu 2020 Movement which envisaged creating a public vision as to how they would like their city to look like in the year 2020, and more importantly, how they would contribute towards fulfillment of the vision two weeks from today.

Anil Chitrakar has no doubt risen to where he has due to his own intelligence, innovativeness and energetic endeavors, but he does give credit to wife Rosha for her steadfast involvement and able support in his various activities. Married for the last 18 years, they have a son, 14 year old Pratik and a daughter, Pratistha, who is nine. Interestingly, while most of his ancestors followed the traditional Chitrakar occupations as artists and later, photographers, Anil’s maternal grandfather, Krishna Lal, who died at the age of 93, served three kings as the Kazi of the royal palace. Such a background could most definitely have helped Anil by providing a stable platform from where he could spring to glory.

In turn, Anil’s ‘Crafted In Kathmandu’ has certainly helped numerous artisans of the Valley by providing for their skilled works, a larger and more profitable market. The recently concluded co-branding agreement with Yak and Yeti hotel whereby their products will be on perennial display in one of the premier hotel’s lobbies named the ‘Art Walk’, is an added feather in Anil’s cap. And while his versatility restrains one from attempting to categorize him in any single category, one cannot forget that the physics major from ASCOL who won a Colombo Plan to study mechanical engineering in India, must also have a mechanical bent of mind. If proof of this were needed, then suffice it to say that Anil has also become ‘mentor’ for a scientist, Babu Raja Shrestha, whose solar powered lamp, known as ‘Solar Tuki’ won a $20000 award at the recently held Development Market Place event in Kathmandu. Anil says proudly, “It is a marvelous piece of engineering and has also been short listed for an award in a similar event in Washington.”