Make a palate of colour, sprinkle wit and wacky ideas and then give the structure comic relief. And you’ve got yourself MICA graduates and design maestros Rahul Anand and Rajat Tuli’s twist in the tale. “There is no hard and fast rule, there is only one thing in common — that it’s a team effort that is pertinent and a bit cheeky. Among the products, I love the Great Indian Diary. We wanted to make a fun diary of the clichés that are Indian… things that we are known for, what tourists speak about, inherent to our desh and we have broken them down into various interesting characters and sketches.

The other design close to my heart is the Mosquito Quito India which is a safer, cleaner way of using a mosquito coil and extremely functional with an aesthetic design. Next are definitely the cocktail classes — a set of two for gentlemen and ladies. And making the ordinary glass attain a character of its own might just coax a laugh out of you too. There is an interesting word play. Taking quirky ideas in the Indian context is heartening.

We are now working on 50 products that will be launched through the year that have hints of humour and loads of fun in it. We are looking at interesting and tongue-in-cheek stationary and also designs in categories we have never tried before, like furnishing ‘cos we only did cushions. We all look for a little fun and personality in life. It is human nature to laugh, that fun factor cannot just be a joke book. There is so much more that can bring a smile to your face and that’s what we do.

As told to Suruchi Kapur-Gomes
Rahul Anand is a Founder and director, Happily Unmarried