(Photo: Cameron Bertuzzi)
Struggling to find culturally
appropriate toys and books for
her kids, Rupa Parekh decided
to leverage her Wharton MBA
and entrepreneurial spirit to
launch Umani (named for her
children, Uma and Nico). She
hopes to reach multicultural
families who—like Parekh
and her Turkish husband—are
looking to share their culture
and mythology with the
younger generation.
What was the motivation for you to start Umani?
As an Indian-American, for a long time, I would
feel like I had to call my mom whenever I needed
help with things like cooking a dish or covering the
significance of a holiday. I always wondered, ‘How can
I bottle up my mom when it comes to knowing things
about our culture?’ Then I married a Turkish-American.
That added a new dimension, where we now are part
of a blended family. Now all of a sudden we have this
opportunity to be teachers, where up till now we felt
like students. In order to be a good teacher, you need
tools, and I didn’t feel like I could find the right ones.
Even multicultural ones are not designed well. My
parents would bring things from India but even the
books were not child friendly. They couldn’t compare to
The Very Hungry Caterpillar or other simple, memorable
stories. By the time I had my second child I realized
that this problem wasn’t solved.
The first line I launched is called Jai Jai Hooray,
which starts with my heritage and what I know, but the
larger vision that was also born is about more global
play for global kids, because I think this problem is a
human problem. We all want to pass on traditions.
How do you make something complex like
mythology accessible to children and preserve the
essence of it?
I was nervous because with culture, especially
in a place like the Indian subcontinent, the practices
are so different region to region, and then you layer in
something like mythology and people feel very precious
about it. And then you start to offend people.
(Photo: Ana Gambuto)
When I had kids, I realized that you’re so anxious,
excited, and frankly desperate to pass on anything,
that I do believe that you let go of pedagogy a little bit.
The whole philosophy of our company is that it’s about
modernizing traditions, and it’s about keeping them
fresh and more inclusive and exciting.
We also want to keep things simple enough. Now
my American mother-in-law can help the kids learn
who these characters are through the flashcards we
design. That’s a big philosophy—to design things
simply and beautifully in a way where anyone can be a
teacher or a student.
We’re really starting to think about what is culture
and what gets handed down. It’s about folklore, food,
dance, and celebration. And when you have tools to
integrate them into everyday life, it becomes really
fun. You can play with our Holi powder on a Saturday
and make that tradition a lot more fun and accessible
to everybody. We built a vocabulary for the goddesses.
How do you describe Lakshmi? She’s my good luck
charm. How do you describe Parvati? She is the sun and
moon of our family.
What has the response been like?
We get love letters every day. We have thousands
of fans worldwide. The Brooklyn Children’s Museum
invited us to plan their Holi festival. It was amazing,
and that has actually excited our fans and they want to
see more live experiences.
What’s next for you?
We want to make the experience of learning about
culture something that is fun for parents and for kids.
We’re really interested in creating opportunities for
families to explore their identity through play. We do
want to help parents start dialog with their kids at all
different age levels, even by starting with the basics.
We’ve got lots of ideas about other aspects of
culture because we’re not just about religion—it’s
where we started.
Poornima Apte is a Boston-area freelance writer and editor. Learn more at WordCumulus.WordPress.com.