Listening to the story of the 23-year-old Sai Chandra, who has come up with a one-of-a-kind yearly calendar, his physical disability is easily the last aspect to hit your thoughts. Each of the dates in his calendar is substantiated by birthdays of significant historic and contemporary personalities of national and international acclaim, including their sayings in both English and Telugu languages.
The result is all thanks to his treasured collection of quotes preserved through childhood and an extensive nine month research prior to its release. While this is his brainchild, a friend of his taken over designing responsibilities.
With his early years bearing strong influences of his grandfather, a retired government teacher, it’s a purely social motive that gave birth to this idea. “The aim was exclusively to reach out to children, especially those in their teens, who really need an inspirational figure to scale heights. The monetary angle to it was just to break even whereas pushing hard for profits was never on the cards,” he elaborates.
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The intent to stay free of religious intonations was conscious, considering their target group was the younger lot, for which he has extensively travelled across several colleges and schools throughout the city. The responses from the managements haven’t always been as resounding as his spirit, but his stubborn desire to be recognised beyond his health impairments and rather for his work that has taken him along.
A series of experiences from his past, more or so puts things into perspective. “There was a person willing to buy 40 copies of my calendar just to showcase his sympathetic side and not the product in itself. I respectfully backed out and instead gave him a complimentary copy,” quips Sai to clear his end.
Moments like those, where he had a teacher near old city, waiting for his calendar to reach her school for about two weeks is what he lives for. His work made him reach out to the likes of Venkata Charyulu, who has been a reassuring presence, both on the psychological and financial fronts and the sole reason he isn’t staring at bankruptcy.
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With time, he came across the right people who let his work reach national quarters which also had him receiving requests from Maharashtra and Tamilnadu to design calendars in other regional languages.
In a bid to even out demands, he is planning to a hire a team of 25 people, but he accepts the fact that the paper quality may have to be compromised. Won’t that be a risk altogether? He doesn’t totally disagree but says it’s unavoidable. “While we were ready to sell the calendar for about Rs 40-50, people weren’t willing to buy. We now want to get a good balance between reach and quality,” he assuredly says so.
Recipient of several felicitations, in and around the city, he has chalked out interesting plans for the upcoming year to sustain his intentions. An aspirant filmmaker friend of his is planning a short film to widen his reach, as part of a marketing strategy. Meanwhile, he is intending to pay a tribute to the Indian army and throw light on other unnoticed national heroes, award-winners for the next calendar, which he plans to ready by this October.
“This would give us that much needed window to tap avenues like the annual book-fair and the Hyderabad Literary Festival,” he’s sure.
Is he up for products more than the annual calendar? “This is a foundation stone with which we have started our journey. This is a model by which we want to go about our ways,” he concludes. Sai Chandra can be reached via mobile on 9573029675 and email at saia8920@gmail.com