Making the Most Of Unforeseen Circumstances: The Journey of the Sundry Club

October 13, 2021

My name is Adya Mehrotra and I was born and raised in India. I am a 17-year-old high school senior in Kanpur. I am currently pursuing the non-medical stream along with physical education. My interests include music, design, volunteering, research, basketball, and technology. I truly believe that if you pursue something with all your heart, the universe aligns to make it happen. With a number of goals, I try to grow and glow. 

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“Things don’t always go as planned, but it’s when you make a plan out of the unplanned and make the best of the unlikely things in life.”

The journey of The Sundry Club resonates with the above quoted words.

The Sundry Club was established a year ago with a vision to break up the monotony during the Covid-19 pandemic. We began with organizing events that included debate, art, and poetry to help people get out of their shell and enhance their skills. Within a span of two months, The Sundry Club built up a community of 150+ members well-skilled in art and writing. The community not only gave the members a lot of exposure but also expanded their network. 

During Diwali, The Sundry Club realized how street vendors were neglected and mocked by people who did not support local businesses. To be “vocal for locals,” we launched “Prayas,” an initiative to raise funds, go local, and buy all the diyas from the street vendors to make their Diwali a special one. 

The next few months were quite a roller coaster ride for the Sundry Club. We worked to provide internships to people our age and built up a team of 20+ students interning in departments like content writing, graphic design, video editing, and social media marketing. We held several campaigns to speak about social issues and topics that are underrepresented in India through the sharing of articles, illustrations, stories, and videos. Our main attraction was #YouthSpeaks. 

Along with these other campaigns, we also initiated “Mission Muskan” in collaboration with Nischay Foundation, a nonprofit organisation, to bring a muskan (a smile) to the faces of the children of a nearby orphanage. With the exceptional hard work of both teams and diplomatic skills of our Chief Marketing Officer, we raised a sum of Rs7000. We prepared packages with storybooks, stationery items, wearables, sanitizers, and masks and visited the orphanage to kick start their new year. 

Today, The Sundry Club does all types of work for our community and provides all types of services. From books to music, from life lessons to motivation, we have it all. Such has been the exciting journey of The Sundry Club!

Like most ventures, we have had days with absolute lack of motivation, work not going the right way, and people doubting our ideas and questioning the existence of our organisation. Despite the hardships, what kept us going was the idea of regretting the things we did not take up — not the things that we did and failed. 

The Sundry Club turned one on August 1! We can’t wait to show you what we have planned next!

To learn more about the work of The Sundry Club, visit @TheSundryClub on Instagram.

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