bok feb 2010 summary

well folks,

the bok 2nd edition experience:

• not having the plums was the biggest disappointment to all of us - the weather has been exceptionally hot this week and we had harvested all the fruits from 3-5 days before dispatch to ensure that ripe a bit when they reach their destination. Unfortunately the fruits ripened faster than expected/hoped and we had the classic catch-22 situation; disappoint you a little bit or take the risk of sending them, which would have juiced the rest of the box - plums are a sensitive lot, get squished easily; hence we choose the former. It seems to be an art to decide "when" to harvest - since, we are committed to not using 'preservatives' of any sort; we need to evolve a mechanism to harvest/transport to your homes in the shortest possible times.


• logistics was much more smoother, this time around - although about 10 folks in chennai did not receive our boks, yesterday. They are being delivered today, free or charge. Our order-acceptance system (web, email, phone) was a bit messed up; our delivery teams did end up in a few houses of people, who had not ordered; apologies for the inconvenience.


• we will incur a loss this time around also - it will however be less than the first time around, so there is an improvement on the economic front also.


• overall summary; better than the first time, but not optimal, yet - we recognize the need to improve on a few fronts (logistics, harvest-time, costing, ...) to satisfy our ardent supporters, "you".

some of you have asked me about the big round yellow things - they are 'malta limes' can be used as slices in tea, and other suitable drinks which typically use lemons. The skin is quite useful too - sun dry them, cut them into small cubes and crystallize them in a sugar solution; kids/adults will love chewing it.

having said that, this year has been weird in weather terms, our peach trees are fruiting and plum trees are flowering again - we will know the harvest situation, a few weeks from now and if it seems like a decent harvest, we will share them with you.

thanks for your continued support, looking forward to a improved version 3 experience.

as always,

Karthik Ayyar
www.houseofkodai.in

ps. we have decided to not send you long rants; but rather to post our monologues on the Internet and email you once-a-week with links to them - so you can read them at your convenience.

bok feb 2010 - has left the building

well folks,

this time around things (harvesting/packaging/dispatching) went much smoother than the last time; hopefully you'll be able to feel the improved experience.

however this time around, we did make one mistake - "plums", they were too ripe to be transported and would have made a mess of the other fruits in the box; so we decided not to send them this time around. Our sincere apologies for this 'unfulfilled' promise. Due to this, we have decided to reduce the cost by Rs. 50/- (so you only have to pay Rs. 200/- for pickup and Rs. 250/- for home delivery). If some of you feel too strongly about it, you dont' have to pay - do accept it as our compliment, no questions asked.

for those of you wanting to pickup our boks:
Chennai/Nungambakkam:
enmail.com Pvt. Limited
8 (old 5) Vidwan Sundaram Street
Nungambakkam, Chennai - 600034
P: 2826-2666

Bangalore/Koramangala:
Contact Mr. J. Jaishankar (98452) 47604

we have sent about 20 extra boks to Chennai and 3/4 extra boks to Bangalore; so do contact us today, if you need a few.

to end on a positive note, we wanted to give people more and surprise them well...so we put in a few "big yellow round thingis"...(they are not lemons/oranges, which are already part of the bok).

we hope you enjoy our boks as much as we have.

as always,

Karthik Ayyar

ps. will post a more detailed summary of our 2nd edition on Tuesday once the deliveries are complete.

bok up for feb 2010

we can now accept orders via. our web-site www.houseofkodai.in - yes, we not only do organic farming, but write software also! old, habits die hard.

do visit www.houseofkodai.in to place your orders, alternatively you can email/call us also. For all of you who have already emailed your orders - thanks, you dont' need to reconfirm.

we have confirmed orders for about 100 boks and have 200 more to go - please order a few more, and spread the word today/tomorrow.

Our pickup points are Nungambakkam/Chennai and in Koramangala/Bangalore - We will be sending delivery/pickup details on Saturday after we consolidate all the orders. Please note that it helps us immensely, when we are able to bulk deliver 5/10 boks in the same home/office/area.

We thought organic farming was difficult, but now realize that convincing people and getting our boks into your homes are much more challenging tasks !-) We are committed to doing this in a transparent manner - but need your active feedback/support/involvement to make this successful.

last but not the least, we guarantee that you will enjoy our boks - fruits of our labour and if for some reason you are not, we will happily refund you, with no questions asked.

as always,

- ka

first bok'up

one of the nice things about life is that it keeps popping up pleasant surprises all the time - I must admit that this little initiative of ours seems to have touched a sensitive spot in peoples lives. All of us at the houseodkodai are deeply moved by the emails and phone calls that keep coming encouraging us to do more…

a brief summary of our first bok'up

Price

• Everybody loves the concept and quite a few of you felt the price was high.


• We spent about Rs. 120/- per home delivery - Rs. 20/packaging Rs. 60/- to transport the box from Kodai to Chennai and Rs. 40/- for local delivery.


• Overall, we lost about Rs. 12,000/- in our maiden attempt - Personally its' the best money we have spent till date; as it has touched so many lives.

Product

• Not every bok had the same quantity of items - bananas were the biggest problem; some got more of one than the other. All packing was done in an hurried manner, the evening before, manually under low light conditions; not an excuse, but an explanation.

Delivery

• Simply put - logistical nightmare; biggest problem area: had to deliver from aynavaram to ambattur in Chennai. Had 2 delivery teams deliver for 2 days/nights (from 8 AM to 10 PM)


• Bangalore delivery was small but smooth - by 2PM Sunday everybody had their boks; it was because of my passionate high-school buddy jj and bulk delivery (5 boks in one house and 10 boks in the other, from where others paid and picked up)

the good news, tons of compliments on the 'quality' - people acknowledged the difference in taste and longevity (some of you have cooked and eaten our produce 2 weeks after we sent it across). We certainly are glad to be part of your delicious/healthy lives.

education is a perpetual process of learning from our mistakes - Im glad all of you are supporting our amateur attempts; We certainly have learnt a lot from the first bok delivery and have planned to adopt the following suggestions:

Community effort
We have had several suggestions to supply to shops; however, we are very keen on connecting with you directly and are committed to a community effort rather than a commercial one.

Increase Value

• With increased volumes and improved logistics, we should reduce costs significantly - If we do 300 boks to 20 spots/homes the next time, we should be able to reduce our costs and your price significantly.


• We have had a few nearby farmers approach us to supply us with organically grown produce from their farms (not everything grown is blasted with chemicals - most of the fruits trees are just allowed to grow and harvested during the season) Once we are convinced on the quality, we will choose to include them in our bok.


• Our goal - provide organic produce at market prices; with your regular participation and by eliminating the distributor/retailer we can do it.

Improve Logistics

• bok spot: We need volunteers for each area to store/distribute atleast 10 boks from us - so others in the area can pick them up during the day. The bok volunteer will be rewarded with:
  
  
  
  • our deep gratitude
  
  
  • free bok from us
  
  
  • new like-minded friends who come over to pickup boks
  
  
  
  

If we have one drop spot in each area within the city - we can complete deliveries by 10 AM. everybody in the area would then be notified, so they can pick it up by 5 PM. After which we collect the remaining boks from the bok spots and distribute them free of cost to needy institutions.

for those of you who are inclined to volunteer for bok spots - please email us; for others, please do consider this an aspect of community service and an opportunity to make new friends ;-)

as always,

Karthik Ayyar

long time no hear…

first a brief note on the long silence – I have had to climb down into concrete jungles and came back up only this morning. although it was fun meeting old friends and making new ones, i'm delighted to be back home. pure no-strings-attached love from my four legged friends is something I enjoy always ;-)

since there is quite a bit to cover, i'm splitting them up into 3 mails/posts, so you can skip the ones you're not interested in:
1) this note (posting now)
2) first bok’up (posting a few hours from now)
3) bok'up: feb 2010 (posting tomorrow)

I still enjoy designing hardware and writing software – with the need to update our web-site, I wandered aimlessly in the Internet and found a few sites for inspiration; the site that finally won me over was www.thesixtyone.com

once the what was known, it was just a matter of discovering the how and so started the journey to learn html/css/javascript, figure-out filling-up pages with images, using the keyboard, and other nifty stuff. The final result after a few intense days mingled with sleepless nights, we are proud to announce the new and improved www.houseofkodai.in please do take the time to check it out and send us your comments/feedback.

as always,

Karthik Ayyar

ps. to my dear friend whose endrendrum has inspired me to shamelessly borrow the english version – thanks ;-)