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Leela Bordia

Leela Bordia – (born 1 May 1950) is an Indian Woman Entrepreneur. She is the Proprietor of Neerja International Inc. – a company involved in making Blue Pottery items – situated in Jaipur (Rajasthan) India. Over the years starting from 1991 she has been awarded with State, National and Lifetime achievement awards for outstanding contributions to the Ceramic Art Wares and traditional Blue Pottery of Jaipur Craft.

Early life, education and social work

Leela was born to a Marwari Family in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, and brought up in Calcutta. She was schooled at Pilani Vidyapeeth in Pilani and completed her college stint from Meera Girls College, Udaipur. She received a Bachelor's degree in Science from University of Rajasthan in 1969.

Her father, S. C. Sacheti, was an Executive at Hindustan Motors. Her mother Nagina Devi was a homemaker and a Social Worker with Mother Teresa in the destitute areas of Calcutta where Leela used to tag along. This left a lasting impression on the young Leela’s mind for helping her needy brethren.

In 1974, Leela was married to an engineer Kamal Bordia from Jaipur. Post marriage she continued doing Social Work with the support of her husband and mother-in-law. She frequented the Hida ki mori area of Jaipur to help the needy. She met some artisans of Blue Pottery who were the last bastions of the dwindling sparks of this ancient craft.

Blue Pottery at that time was mostly in the form of big vases, pots and other garden styled pottery. Her suggestions to innovate the craft were met with poor response as the potters were adamant to change their traditional methods, designs and products as they said, “You are a non-technical person with no knowledge of how this craft is made”. Though disheartened, Leela still continued in her efforts to change their minds.

The Dawn for Blue Pottery

Meanwhile she worked as a teacher at a Montessori School which was affiliated to the ‘Anokhi’ store in Jaipur. She was introduced to a French Importer Paul Coomar who was visiting India for purchasing Indian Handicraft items for his store in France. The introductory meeting with him was the turning point for Blue Pottery. He suggested preparing bead curtains for his store in France. Leela eventually found success when one potter Kailash decided to give her suggestions a try. After 2 months of hard work put in together, the first consignment was exported to the client. Payment was promptly received and all concerned were very happy. But later Leela found out that their products had to be sold off at a measly price due to bad quality.

Paul however, returned to India next year and suggested to try out door knobs in Blue Pottery. He stressed on concentrating on quality while preparing the products. The artisans were aware that there was a buyer now for their products, though with his own suggestions. Lalaram, an expert artisan from Village Kotjewar, about 50 km from Jaipur came to try out the new product. Soon the Blue Pottery ‘door knob’ came into being and thus, started the journey of innumerable creations and innovations for this craft.

Moving away from the trend: Let us work from the villages itself

Poor farmers, laborers, artisans and their families were converging on big cities in the hope of finding livelihood and a means of subsistence for themselves – this being the trend at that time. Though they were land owners in their own villages, the scarcity of rainfall and once a year crop had forced many of them to lead a life of poverty and misery.

Leela advocated the concept of moving back to the villages and working from there – this would generate two-fold income for the artisans. During the rainy season, they could attend to their crops and farm lands and during the other months they could concentrate working on their craft. This idea clicked in the minds of the artisans and they returned back to their villages to work from there. This meant that Leela would have to visit the villages weekly with work for the artisans.

In 1979, Leela’s sister Manju Lodha invited her to Mexico to see and learn the local pottery found there that resembled Blue Pottery. During her month long stay, she would travel daily to the Pueblo City about 100 km from Mexico where she learned the craft.

Neerja International Inc.

For any art or craft to prosper and stay alive, it is very important to have marketing and sales of the product. The need for marketing and exporting of the Blue Pottery items was the sole reason for forming the company Neerja International Inc. in 1982, which Leela named after her younger sister.

The company works on the concept of creating self-sustainable units at the village level itself. The artisans prepare the bulk orders given to them and get paid for the finished goods which they bring to the company.

Neerja International Inc. was the only Indian Company to be featured in Business in Asia, published by the Curriculum Corporation, Australia . Leela Bordia’s story is now part of the Curriculum of the Xth Class in schools across Australia.

Awards, Honors & International Recognition

Memberships and Associations

] Leela is the Vice President of the Federation of Handicrafts Association, Rajasthan. Leela was the former Vice President of the Federation of Rajasthan Exporters Association. She has also served as a Member (Industry Expert) of the Board of Studies in Foreign Trade Management.

She has been the Secretary and Vice-President of the Federation of Rajasthan Exporters Association from 2005-2008. She has also been the Executive of the Chamber of Commerce, Rajasthan from 2001-2003. She has been a Member of the Bead Association of California in 1999. She was the Member of the All India Women’s Council in 1985. She was the Founder Secretary of the Rotary Inner Wheel Club (East) from 1980-81 and was awarded as Winner of Shield for Best Performance.

Case Study on Leela Bordia finds place in the Text Book on Entrepreneurship already published in the CBSE Syllabus of Class XI in India.

Leela has a daughter and a son. Her daughter Aparna is married and settled in Indore while her son Apurv heads a software company Neerja Softwares Pvt. Ltd. and the Everdata Data Center in Jaipur. The website www.supermompreneurs.com has ranked her at the 14th spot among 'World's Super MomPreneurs' list.

Rajmata Gayatri Devi the erstwhile Maharani of Jaipur has been an ardent patron of the Blue Pottery of Jaipur craft and Leela Bordia’s efforts.

Leela has also penned down a coffee table book named Jaipur Blue Pottery - A Tribute (the first copy of which was presented to the President of India Pranab Mukherjee) on September 9, 2014.