ABOUT US
Gottacombai is the brainchild of two classmates, Deepak and Chitra. The company is named Gottacombai after a small village twenty kilometres from Coonoor, nesting among the verdant tea estates in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve.
Gottacombai’s objective is to bring old beauty back to life. We take great pleasure in giving carefully curated works a place of importance in your home. This is our labour of love.
We aim to bring objects to the market that have been chosen for their artisan craftsmanship. Each piece has been painstakingly worked on by hand to restore it to its original state as best as possible without compromising its authenticity.
Our long-term objective is to showcase a small slice of the vast, yet rapidly disappearing arts and crafts traditions of India, whether in wood, brass or bronze, or in the form of silver on wax mouldings.
Please join us on our journey through India’s rich past and present.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Our business has limited scalability because we typically showcase collectibles unituem and are not generally available in multiple units.
We make a substantial effort to acquire collectibles that are extremely attractive and then spend days refurbishing them. Unless specified, it is likely that we only have one piece of each item showcased on our website.
We have a philosophy of wanting to price our items within reason, taking into account the effort that goes into sourcing the pieces and the amount of time spent on bringing back their original splendour . . . with some of our own artistic twists to boot!
CHITRA HIREMATH
Chitra is a transplanted Kashmiri who has lived all her life in Mumbai, first attending high school at Villa Theresa, and then receiving a B.A. from St. Xavier’s College. After receiving a post graduate degree in Advertising and Mass Communication from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Chitra spent a few years in the field of executive recruitment with Datamatics and the Hinduja Group before becoming a partner at Globesearch, an executive recruitment business in Mumbai.
Chitra left the corporate world in 2008 to devote her time to more altruistic pursuits. Being passionate about helping bring a sense of civic duty to India’s large population, she became and remains actively involved in waste management initiatives in India. She also has a keen interest in the art and crafts heritage of India, and helps source, re-purpose and re-invent the wonderful traditional crafts of India, and reintroduce them to a new generation of youngsters.
Chitra is married and has two children who are based in Mumbai.
DEEPAK CHOWDHURY
Deepak was born in India into an army family, and spent his early years at Mayo College, a boarding school in Rajasthan, before receiving a B.A. from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai.
Leaving India for the first time in 1979, he spent two years in England, prior to obtaining an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and subsequently spending a quarter century in the financial services arena in the U.S.
Deepak left his professional career in 2007 to explore areas of passion outside the corporate world, and he found it in travel, photography, and design.
Deepak settled in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu in 2016, where he continues his passion of photography, design, woodworking, and travel to this day.
Deepak has two children who presently live and work in London.
