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Culture– it’s not something that we can easily coach our children to pay attention to. Especially in multicultural diasporic families, it can be hard to maintain traditions and learn about cultures. Many families end up forcing culture onto their children instead of crafting exciting experiences for kids to learn about their culture in inclusive ways.
But, there’s an easy way to enrich children’s lives through culture and watch them love doing it.
Indigrow is all about raising kids to participate in traditions, learn about their cultures, and have fun while learning.
“We believe a mirror into one’s own culture and a window into other cultures are essential to raise more empathetic and imaginative kids of tomorrow.” – Indigrow Website
The business creates a wide selection of products, catered to the social and emotional development of different ages in the early childhood years. For example for infants & toddlers they offer Baby Board Books, Beginner Puzzles & Flash Cards. For kids ages 3+ they offer delightful story books, advanced family games and puzzles.
“We want your child to have fun. We want to have the child step into our magical universe and really enjoy it,” Founder Kshama Alur said. “Just through open ended play with these goodies, they will become empathetic and they will become imaginative, and they will become better storytellers, because of the way we design it for them.
What’s truly unique about Indigrow though is that they offer a themed collection of products.
While products differ by ages, every collection has products in each age group. For instance, Indigrow has produced A to Z of India, Colours of India, and a Singapore Collection. Indigrow has essentially created a whole universe of inclusive products that appeal to children.
“It’s almost like the universe we’re creating is left unfinished, in a way, because it’s about you finishing it,” Alur said. “It’s about your child taking that away and getting imaginative with it all, and I think that’s the power and beauty of it, mainly from a child’s point of view.”
Indigrow has also started branching out into different cultures, such as their latest Singapore Collection.
“We’re going to expand our South Asian collection, but also going to bigger areas for us like China, Japan, Korea. These are cultures that are very much present in most countries because the diasporas are so big,” Alur said. “We really want to grow this into an inclusive international platform.”
Indigrow has the potential to grow into a flourishing business, but where did they start?
Founder Kshama Alur started Indigrow after the birth of her son, Neil. Kshama wanted her son to grow up not just appreciating her own culture, but also cultures across the world. Soon enough, it became apparent that teaching children to be culturally aware in an engaging way was a struggle for many parents. That’s when she called up her best friend and early childhood expert, Akhila. Kshama and Akhila worked together to develop the stunning products we see here today.
“I think the world is getting more diverse every day. It’s not just a section in the bookshelf, you know people are living in each other’s countries, people are studying, and workplaces are going to be so much more diverse going forward,” Kshama said. “So, I think if there’s one skill that kids need to know more than robotics and coding and, all of that, is the skill of cultural competence, awareness, and consciousness, and the values, like empathy and imagination, now more than ever.”
As a mompreneur, Kshama hustled hard to make her dreams come true.
“I am a mompreneur doing this full time while also looking after my child, but I’m hustling about 10 times more than I would have normally, and 20 times more than a guy with no family,” Kshama said. “There are, I believe, stereotypes that still exist within the startup world. I know there are people looking at the business as a side hustle, but this is not a side hustle. This is my dream.”
Be sure to follow Indigrow and Kshama on her journey to spreading cultural awareness to children on Instagram and check out their website here.
For more updates, visit UrbanAsian.com.
