The story begins, as many stories do, a long time ago, when my great grandmother was a little girl, growing up in Awadh, India. Her mother, she told my grandmother, who in turn told me, was quite a friend of the begums of Awadh. Now these begums were given to a life of luxury: they would spend their languorous afternoons pampering themselves with exotic concoctions. Growing up in the courts of Awadh as a friend of these begums, my great great grandmother was let onto the secret recipes that kept the ladies of the court so young, healthy, and beautiful. The scrubs and creams and oils that the begums taught her to make, my great great grandmother passed onto my great grandmother. And that is how these recipes reached my grandmother.
I remember my cousins, my sister, and I would spend our summer holidays with my grandmother, and when we had settled around her in the garden, she would silently inspect us! Even the tiniest pimple and slightest hint of a dark circle made a mental note of! And many mornings we would discover little bowls with some mixture in them, waiting for us. Or a bottle or two with something else in the fridge. Or we'd be treated to a head massage with a secret oil! If one got up early enough, we'd catch my grandmother in the kitchen, mixing, blending, and grinding the simplest ingredients, into these magical creams and oils and face packs!
And this brings me to the birth of Shene. About two years ago, after years of pampering her grandchildren, my grandmother decided to use her knowledge, skill, and experience, to share these wonderful body care solutions with everyone she knew. What started as a royal secret, became a family tradition, and then spread to friends, their friends and family, and so on.
And it didn't take me long to decide to join her in her mission to share the goodness of natural homemade herbal bodycare products with the world.
And that is how Shene was born! |
