<p>When Arani Roy and Prachi Saxena decided to combine their individual interests and set up a platform for budding writers, little did they imagine the tremendous response their initiative would garner.<br /><br /></p>.<p> ‘RedPaper.in’ might be a newbie in the startup arena but considering the fact that it’s largest user base outside of India is in Uganda, a discovery which left the owners ‘awestruck’, the venture has come a long way indeed. <br /><br />Arani Roy says he has always had a thing for writing but it took a personal tragedy for him to realise this; a decision that made him quit his lucrative corporate job. “I lost both my parents in the same year and that made me realize how futile it is not to pursue your dream when life can shock you at any point. It was around that time when Prachi (my partner in the venture) and I had a word,” he says.<br /><br />“We realized that just like me, there are many others who want to write. It might be confined to a love letter, a one liner or even just a sketch, but people love to write. They just don’t have a place to showcase their creations,” he adds.<br /><br />For Prachi, it was the mundaneness of a routine corporate job that led her to turn back to her old interests. “My job in a technology firm seemed fun in the beginning but gradually, the monotonous life seemed unacceptable. I felt that if I spent time more there, I would one day join the league of ‘programmed’ people. Talking about this, Arani and I realized that we could venture into a space where can resurrect the creative streak in people that has been over-ridden by the ambition to succeed professionally. And thus ‘RedPaper.in’ was born,” she says. In their own words, red depicts passion and paper is a blank canvas, so ‘RedPaper’ is a platform for everyone who wants to write, sketch or upload just about any media content.<br /><br />“The only purpose of ‘RedPaper.in’ is to celebrate creativity. We wish to be a digital art gallery holding thousands of tangible thoughts,” says Arani. <br /><br />The content is curated via two channels. One is the write (www.RedPaper.in/write) section, where people can submit their work. After some quality checks, the team hosts the work on the website. The second channel is gathering content by hosting talent hunts in schools and colleges. The team conducts competitions in various cities, first at the institute level and then at the city level, identifies the talent and mentors them. <br /><br />Asked about some of the most interesting articles they have got, both Arani and Prachi say that there have been plenty. “An article titled ‘My long distance love’ told a story about how distance makes the heart grow fonder. We also hosted an article which compared Vibhishana to Peter Pettigrew! The article was titled ‘The twisted tales’ and questioned the definition of heroes and villains. Then there was this poem titled ‘The Teenager’, written by a 14-year-old and portrayed very raw emotions,” says Arani.<br /><br />“Another article, ‘The Midnight Supper’, celebrated the fact that a diamond on the finger is no longer a woman’s ultimate dream while ‘Celebrating Hijabs’ depicted the age old hijabs as a fashion symbol,” says Prachi, smiling.<br /><br />It is such topics, as well as the number of articles they get everyday, that makes the team believe that everyone has something to write about. The fact that they are being invited to a variety of book launch events as well as invitations from several colleges and other such events, including the recent ‘Comic Con’ and ‘Entrepreneur India 2016’, only reinforces this belief. <br /><br />“Once, a school in Hyderabad got in touch with us and asked us to take a session for their students. When we pursued it, we realized it was a kindergarten school. The fact they were conscious about hosting content made us realize the importance of our job,” says Arani. <br /><br /></p>
<p>When Arani Roy and Prachi Saxena decided to combine their individual interests and set up a platform for budding writers, little did they imagine the tremendous response their initiative would garner.<br /><br /></p>.<p> ‘RedPaper.in’ might be a newbie in the startup arena but considering the fact that it’s largest user base outside of India is in Uganda, a discovery which left the owners ‘awestruck’, the venture has come a long way indeed. <br /><br />Arani Roy says he has always had a thing for writing but it took a personal tragedy for him to realise this; a decision that made him quit his lucrative corporate job. “I lost both my parents in the same year and that made me realize how futile it is not to pursue your dream when life can shock you at any point. It was around that time when Prachi (my partner in the venture) and I had a word,” he says.<br /><br />“We realized that just like me, there are many others who want to write. It might be confined to a love letter, a one liner or even just a sketch, but people love to write. They just don’t have a place to showcase their creations,” he adds.<br /><br />For Prachi, it was the mundaneness of a routine corporate job that led her to turn back to her old interests. “My job in a technology firm seemed fun in the beginning but gradually, the monotonous life seemed unacceptable. I felt that if I spent time more there, I would one day join the league of ‘programmed’ people. Talking about this, Arani and I realized that we could venture into a space where can resurrect the creative streak in people that has been over-ridden by the ambition to succeed professionally. And thus ‘RedPaper.in’ was born,” she says. In their own words, red depicts passion and paper is a blank canvas, so ‘RedPaper’ is a platform for everyone who wants to write, sketch or upload just about any media content.<br /><br />“The only purpose of ‘RedPaper.in’ is to celebrate creativity. We wish to be a digital art gallery holding thousands of tangible thoughts,” says Arani. <br /><br />The content is curated via two channels. One is the write (www.RedPaper.in/write) section, where people can submit their work. After some quality checks, the team hosts the work on the website. The second channel is gathering content by hosting talent hunts in schools and colleges. The team conducts competitions in various cities, first at the institute level and then at the city level, identifies the talent and mentors them. <br /><br />Asked about some of the most interesting articles they have got, both Arani and Prachi say that there have been plenty. “An article titled ‘My long distance love’ told a story about how distance makes the heart grow fonder. We also hosted an article which compared Vibhishana to Peter Pettigrew! The article was titled ‘The twisted tales’ and questioned the definition of heroes and villains. Then there was this poem titled ‘The Teenager’, written by a 14-year-old and portrayed very raw emotions,” says Arani.<br /><br />“Another article, ‘The Midnight Supper’, celebrated the fact that a diamond on the finger is no longer a woman’s ultimate dream while ‘Celebrating Hijabs’ depicted the age old hijabs as a fashion symbol,” says Prachi, smiling.<br /><br />It is such topics, as well as the number of articles they get everyday, that makes the team believe that everyone has something to write about. The fact that they are being invited to a variety of book launch events as well as invitations from several colleges and other such events, including the recent ‘Comic Con’ and ‘Entrepreneur India 2016’, only reinforces this belief. <br /><br />“Once, a school in Hyderabad got in touch with us and asked us to take a session for their students. When we pursued it, we realized it was a kindergarten school. The fact they were conscious about hosting content made us realize the importance of our job,” says Arani. <br /><br /></p>
