Neil Banerjee
For 30-year-old Keshav Kalra, being the Designer and CEO of India’s first invite-only, premium eyewear brand – The Monk – is more than just an accomplishment to boast about. It is a responsibility and a challenge to offer his Indian customers the comfort of bespoke designs.
When Keshav ventured into his six-decade-old family business five years ago, he knew that he had found his springboard to success. But he also knew that he wanted to carve his own path with his distinctive vision and develop his own signature brand.
The Monk was started with the simple strategy of setting up an eyewear brand for people while keeping the kindness model intact.
Keshav, who graduated in business management and marketing from Queen Mary University, London, says, “The family business was the prefect incubator for me to give rise to my brand. The need and a market gap for an Indian brand that is global made for the perfect conditions to start sail. Today, we are on track to becoming global. We have started our conquest with Dubai and are looking to go places as we take this journey forward.”
But nothing was dished out on a platter to Keshav. He encountered many an impediment and had to power through them resolutely to reach where he is today. However, it was these trials and tribulations that strengthened his resolve further.
“It’s been a phase of life dominated by learning, designing, planning and implementation. In these 5 years, we’ve gone through the pandemic and fought hard to bounce back. It’s been a fulfilling journey that has shaped my artistic and business mindset equally,” Keshav reminisces.
Family background played a huge role
Keshav grew up in a family of hard-working and committed opticians which helped him to gain in depth knowledge about the different aspects of optical devices during his formative years.
He underlines, “It all helped me when we were setting up The Monk, to get the right science behind making eyewear that our people deserved and had not received yet. Everything from being in the back room with the mechanics, to knowing what was going wrong or right, to learning from the optometrists and getting valuable inputs to design as per customer’s actual needs and interacting with the sales department, went a long way in providing me with the best insights into market trends and demands.”
Keshav’s hands-on experience in this field has shaped his brand’s identity. Also, it was his deep knowledge about the industry that sharpened his business acumen. He was also groomed and trained well by his father and grandfather, who were already stalwarts of the business and gave Keshav the inputs and mentorship he needed when he launched his own venture.
Being a keen observer and learner apart from having valuable expert opinions around him helped him to make his brand a big success.
“Having a father and a grandfather who are superheroes and who have been there for me whenever I shine a bat signal has been of great help. Being experts in the industry, their knowledge, connections and experience is nothing less than gold,” Keshav enthuses.
He adds, “Every member of my family, be it my sister, my mother, my father, my grandfather, my grandmother and even my furry friends along with all my Dayal Opticals crew who have been with us through the years – have had an important role to play in our success. Our ability to design specifically for women so as to make our designs not only the best in fit and quality but also the most stylish and trendy is all thanks to the excellent inputs given by my mother and my sister.”
Delicate balance of creative and business responsibilities
An artistic bent of mind is a prerequisite for creating designer eyewear and Keshav has oodles of creativity and imagination. No wonder artists and visionaries like Da Vinci, Tesla, and Fidel Castro are his inspirations. Their philosophies and achievements continue to influence his perspective and work.
Keshav says, “They are the actual influencers in my life and their collective influence on me has translated into The Monk. Da Vinci and Tesla, for instance! Ever since I was a kid, their work and lives has fascinated me; in their times, they were so ahead of the curve and their innovations and life’s works have shaped the way we think today.”
“I’m a big fan of history and love to learn all that I can from it and my brand is an extension of me so that is going to impact how I raise my brand; it is bound to affect my thinking and my influences. This can be seen in the stories behind each of my collections and designs,” he emphasises.
Keshav has always had an artistic side to him, and it can be seen in his brand’s designs and his product’s names.
He says, “Rather than treating them like ordinary products, we have a story behind each collection and design of ours. Our designs are scientifically created masterpieces that deserve their due diligence and a name that clearly defines their story. This adds the much-needed soul to our eyewear rather than it being just another item that can be bought.”
Pandemic – The biggest challenge
Keshav believes that nothing is a cakewalk, and that everything comes with a price. He also contends that one must take every challenge that comes one way head on and come out of it not winning every time but with a great learning experience.
The biggest challenge that he has faced was the COVID-19 pandemic when the world came to a standstill and so did his brand.
“It was a time of unpredictable uncertainty and that was a challenge that we took head on. Thanks to my father’s positive outlook, we used the time when we were forced to sit at home to painstakingly design our next collection. All of this helped as when the lockdown was lifted because we came back wiser and with our best collection yet, giving us a boost in sales as well. Having the right people advise me really helped me to face all the challenges that came my way,” Keshav recalls.
Milestone moment
And what has been the most defining and memorable moment in his journey till now?
“The first time that we received a note from one of our patron customers telling us how The Monk in a short span of time had become his favourite because of the comfort he felt after wearing our designs. When he read about us and the fact that we pride ourselves on making eyewear for the Indian nose, he gave us a shot. Ever since, he has had no problems or discomfort. Instances like these are the best motivation you need to power on,” Keshav tells us.
“The technical expertise for framing the perfect temple or nose size for our customers so that they feel the most comfortable that they have ever felt is a feat that we have been able to achieve because of the great mentorship that I have been blessed to receive,” he adds.
What sets his brand apart
The Monk claims to make eyewear that has been specially designed for Indian face sizes and features.
Keshav explains, “For ever, we have been forced to fit into designs by fashion houses that are on trend…yet they are tailored for the European or Japanese nose size and style and are made by designers that come from those respective schools of design. We at The Monk specifically design our eyewear for the Indian nose and face type, making our product sort of like the iPhone…if you use it once, it’s difficult to shift to any other.”
As far as production is concerned, the materials used in Keshav’s products are ethically sourced and created in factories that abide by all the necessary norms.
“When we say we take the science of making eyewear seriously, we mean it. The materials we use are the best – be it titanium, surgical steel and the purest acetate in the market. Right down to our custom-made nose pads and our ceramic pads that provide the best comfort and stability,” Keshav asserts.
“Our frames are made from natural materials with extremely high quality Mazzucchelli acetate. This material comes from cellulose acetate, the raw materials of which are cotton and wood. Additionally, this material offers superior resistance and malleability,” he adds.
And that’s not all. Keshav’s brand only uses mineral lenses with HD colour technology, an innovative filter that increases sharpness and intensifies primary colours. “This composition gives the lens a unique and incomparable resistance and quality of vision,” he says.
Look good while you do good. Keshav strongly believes in this. He says that every person who has an inherent goodness and kindness in them and displays it with abundance should look good while doing it.
Legacy to leave behind
Keshav has many exciting launches in the offing. His humility coupled with his ambition prompts him to say, “my best is yet to come.”
And how would he like his brand to be remembered?
Keshav answers, “To make a mark on the eyewear world and have our due share in it. To be known as the brand that forced big fashion houses to make tailor-made products and not follow a ‘one fit should fit all’ motto. We would love to be remembered as a brand that gave Indian faces a brand that is made specifically for them.”
