17/07/2017
RASS – Yass Poshe Tass
Thinking out of the box, targeting social problems and making life easier for people has always been the motive of start-ups and entrepreneurs across the globe. A person does not need to do an entrepreneurial course to be one, what you need is to believe in something. Something you feel can bring a change or benefit someone. What adds to the beauty is a common belief which targets some common problem. This is exactly what Rayees, Arif ,Showkat and Shoaib ,four engineering graduates from Islamic University of Science and Technology count on. The four of them always wanted to do something in their own ways that could benefit people. However when we talk about a geography like Kashmir some additional challenges do pop up. Just the idea of a start-up does not take you to establish the same.
“Funding of the start-up and a good team had always kept the ideas we had on a back foot”
Nevertheless as they say, if you really want to do something, you will find a way. This is what happened with the team at “RASS”. In April 2016, these likeminded friends met and discussed their ideas. One of the ideas targeted the toll that summer was taking on everyone and especially the students in IUST due to the high altitude location of the university. Shoaib being a keen observer, besides a techie had noticed students going to a dhaba wala [a tea stall] every now and then. The summer had seen an increase in both the number of students and the times they went to that place. The person (dhaba wala) had started selling watermelons and this had attracted everyone due to the blazing heat.
“We asked him about the quantity he was selling per day and the numbers were phenomenal. We thought that it could be even better to have chilled fruits, shakes, fruit salad, smoothies and fresh fruit juices”.
They all felt that this was something that IUST and Kashmir on a broader view required. They had noticed the exponential rise in the number of restaurants and fast food outlets in the valley but fresh fruit corners had somehow not really come up here. The team at RASS did not only want to sell fruits or juices but wanted to create a brand in Kashmir.
“Quality was our primary motive. If we were doing it with healthy things, we had to make sure that we did not compromise with the quality. We hired some people who had experience with making shakes and drinks. We payed them for learning and improving as they were going to be the mantra behind the success or failure of this venture.”
The team at RASS now started looking for the best location at IUST and finally had a unanimous take on the 25x16 shop near the bus yard in the university. They next registered RASS at local authorities in Awantipora in district Pulwama. Taking up a rented shop and registering it was just the first step in the process. Such a venture did not have many of its kind in the valley. There was no guidance to the type of machinery or the best approaches here.
“There was nowhere to go, visit and get an idea of how things were best to be done. So we went to Delhi and visited some good fresh fruit juice corners and parlours. We had discussion about the best suitable machinery for this kind of an undertaking.”
The machinery used at RASS is an advanced German BMW brand which has been tested for great taste and efficiency. The machines are able to extract more than 95% of the juice which means most of the nutrients of the fruits are retained. The team RASS adds credit for starting up this project to a report by ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). It focussed on how the eating habits here in Kashmir had started to engulf people below the age of 20 years in diabetes and other health problems.
“There is an epidemics of diabetes and other life style disorders like hypertension (high blood pressure) obesity, PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) globally and the scenario in the valley is not any different from rest of the world. The major cause of this epidemics is the physical inactivity, irregular dietary habits and consumption of large amount of junk food almost on daily basis. All this leads to weight gain especially around the belly which leads to insulin resistance, when body is not able to use its own insulin. Insulin is the hormone which is required to control ones blood sugar levels and converts food into energy. Due to this insulin resistance body produces insulin higher than normal levels and this process continues for years to a point when body’s reserves of insulin are almost gone below 50% that is when one is diagnosed as diabetic. So The Solution to this problem is encourage youth for healthy life style i.e. physical activity, avoidance of Junk foods and adapting healthy food habits.” Says Dr. Peerzada Ovais Ahmad, a doctorate scholar in the Department of endocrinology, SKIMS and working actively on young diabetes scenario in Kashmir.
Keeping this scenario in mind the team at RASS ensures no use of preservatives, sugar or any other such ingredients. It’s just pure fruit. RASS will be having a display on per day basis about the fruits available on a particular day since it promises only fresh fruits and drinks.
The name RASS has a story in itself. RASS is a Kashmiri word which means a kind of soup or a juice.
“We always wanted to have a name that we Kashmiris could relate to. The name RASS was just one of the options when we were deciding the name. We tried the first alphabet combinations to develop a good one. Just one of the combinations gave RASS – Rayees , Arif, Showkat, Shoaib and that was when we finalized it.”
“Yass Poshe Tass”, a Kashmiri proverb has been used to fulfil the management criteria of having a tag line to the start-up.
This is just the beginning. The team at RASS believes that this venture needs to be taken up to various parts of the valley during the summers so that people do no end up with soft drinks and other drinks with added preservatives. Nonetheless the challenges for team RASS did not end up with buying branded machinery or investing with the infrastructure and quality. The turmoil the valley saw last year delayed the launch of this amazing start-up. It has been now after a year of its inception that “RASS- Yass Poshe Tass” was inaugurated on 18th of July 2017.
Story credits: Bisma Bilal
