QUADROS SAYS HE WILL CONTINUE BRINGING NEW BRANDS FOR GOAN AUTO-LOVERS

ANALYSING POLICY, ECONOMIC CHANGES AND BUSINESS STRATEGIESBIZ PLUS 5

I thegoan.net Monday March 6, 2017

UM Motorcycles will create a unique segment: Evancio

Meet Nicky Lee; a homeopath with a difference

BHARATI PAWASKAR

She is warm, vibrant and con-vincing. Everything this Brit-ish woman speaks has a string of thoughts, emotions and ex-periences attached to it, mak-

ing it sounds like a story. This is because, she feels, “Life is a succession of stories linked together in a way that delineates the path one takes.” Sounds philosophi-cal and spiritual? This is Nicky Lee speak-ing. She wears many hats.

A practicing homeopath in London, she added gemstones and crystals to bal-ance the energies of her patients twenty years ago. She is also a flower essence specialist. But that’s not the only thing she does. As the proprietor of Blue Lotus Gems, Nicky designs personalised and specialised natural stone-casted jewel-lery at both her workspaces - in London and in Goa.

“I use gems and crystals as remedies, as essences, for protection, meditation and for the simple love to wear them as a piece of jewellery. Homeopathy and nat-ural gemstones, both deal with energy balancing which is very much needed for a person’s well being and hence I have been using them to balance the chakras in human body and gift health and well-ness to my patients in UK,” states Nicky, a staunch admirer of Indian spirituality that speaks high about chakra healing energies.

Though she does not practice Home-opathy in India, it is her passion for gem-stones that brings her to Goa twice in a year, February-March and October-No-vember for the past twenty years.

“It is the end of my first trip in this year, and I will be returning only in Oc-tober-November, though my jewellery is displayed for sale at Sasha’s Store in Panaji, Omkhadi at Anjuna and Museum of Goa (MOG) at Pilerne in Goa. I also sell it online through my website www.blue-lotusgems.com,” she informs.

When selecting a piece one must fol-low his/her instinct and heart. Actually, it is not a person who chooses a particu-lar stone, but it’s vice versa. The stones choose the person. That’s why someone is attracted or repelled by a particular stone. “So if you are naturally drawn to a particular colour or shape, then it is probably because you would benefit from its properties. Wear it in the knowl-edge that it can help you to feel balanced and protected,” advises Nicky.

Unfolding the birth of Blue Lotus Gems, Nicky states, “It started with a desire to unite design and healing. After fourteen years as a textile designer, fol-lowed by seventeen years as a homoeo-path, some of my clients requested me to set specifically chosen crystals to be worn as healing talisman. The focus around

A practicing Homeopath in London who uses gems and crystals to balance the energies of her patients, Nicky Lee, proprietor, Blue Lotus Gems, speaks of the latest global trend of discarding machine-made goods and returning to handmade, individualised products

RINGS TO UNBLOCK AND REALIGN A SPECIFIC CHAKRA ! Muladhar (Root Chakra) - ground-ing (red ruby, garnet, hematite, pyrite) ! Svadhisthan (Sacral Chakra) - re-lationships (orange, carnelian, coral, moonstone) ! Manipura (Solar Plexus Chakra) - self-esteem (yellow, citrine, aventu-rine, amber) ! Anahat (Heart Chakra) - self-love (green, emerald, chrysoprase, jade) ! Thymus (Higher Heart Chakra) - unconditional love (pink, rhodochros-ite, rose quartz) ! Vishuddhi (Throat Chakra) - expression (pale blue, turquoise, chrysocolla, aquamarine) ! Ajnya (Brow Chakra) intuition - in-digo (lapis lazuli, sapphire, sodalite) ! Sahasrar (Crown Chakra) - connec-tion with Universal Energy (purple/white, amethyst, suglite, quartz, diamond)

Nicky Lee, Proprietor, Blue Lotus Gems displaying her handcrafted natural stone jewellery at Sasha’s Store in Panaji

Pics: Narayan Pissurlenkar

PROPERTIES OF DIFFERENT METALS ! Brass - Surya, yang energy, attracts prosperity and shields the wearer from perverse energy, a good blood cleanser and detoxifier ! Bronze - Enhances strength and healing ! Copper - Conductor of positive thoughts and healing energy, metal connect-ing body and mind ! Gold - The master healer, with powerful yang solar energy, enhances abun-dance and strength, metal of the mind, deemed to encourage regeneration of neurotransmitters in the brain thus creating a better interaction between the left (logical) and right (creative) side of the brain ! Rose gold - Gold with added copper, enhances Love, warmth, spirituality ! Silver - gentle yin female energy, opens up the intuitive channels, metal of the spirit

each individual handmade piece is life enhancement; re-balancing the body, protection from any negative vibrations, and elevating the wearer’s vital force.”

She is currently bringing together a new ‘Chakra’ project in which the cli-ent is guided to intuitively pick an un-set gemstone and a textured ring shank; Nicky then marries the two, to create a

unique bespoke Chakra-balancing ring. “I am just a medium between the ener-gy and the patient whose demands keep changing with the season though there is no pattern in likes or dislikes. My sale is unpredictable. But I am a passionate de-signer who walks that extra mile to make sure that my designs satisfy an enthusi-astic buyer,” states Nicky whose travels

to India have always been laced with vis-its to Jaipur for the past twenty years to explore rare gemstones.

Nicky recalls that during one such trip to Jaipur she purchased a large, boldly faceted, rich red Ruby for herself. She designed the setting and gave it to cast in a ring to a jeweller in Goa. “The Ruby was glorious. But when I went to collect the finished ring, the goldsmith apolo-gised that the ring could not be made as the ruby broke accidentally. Upset by his carelessness I walked out of his shop. But I could hear a voice inside me, ‘Why re-gret? Make it yourself.’

The voice kept repeating like a mantra in Nicky’s mind throughout her return journey to London. There this homeo-path enrolled for a course in goldsmith-ing and mastered this challenging art. It was at this juncture that Blue Lotus Gems was born. Nicky has two workspaces, clinic in London and jewellery workshop in Goa.

“Crystals heal - I give them as reme-dies, as medicines to consume or as jew-ellery to wear on the body or to keep at home for protection. The focus of each piece is centred on life enhancement, to help re-balance the body, to protect from any negative vibrations, to amplify the wearer’s aura and life force,” elaborates Nicky. Each of her crystal or gemstone has been purposely chosen as imparting a particular vibration, allowing the wear-er to benefit from its unique properties.

Metals have powers and energies flowing through them, Gold is a pow-erful solar yang energy for enhancing abundance and strength while Silver is a gentle moon yin energy for opening up the intuitive channels. Metals like Brass, Copper and Rose Gold too possess prop-erties. Brass has a grounding earth en-ergy protecting the wearer and Copper is a conductor of positive thoughts and healing energy while Rose Gold is known for love, warmth and spirituality. “Wear them and flourish,” smiles Nicky.

Today’s fast life brings with it lot of stress and imbalance in the body and mind. To get rid of that meditation is a must. The technology is dominat-ing in today’s virtual and visual world making life too mechanical. Humans are bombarded from all sides with ma-chine-made goods that have deprived them the simple joy of enjoying indi-vidualised, handmade products. Nicky speaks of the trend London has em-braced, of late. It is to discard machine made and opt for the man made. The de-mand for hand-made things is on the rise across the globe. Personalised, individu-alised handcrafted products fetch more value and are preferred over mass-made products that look alike and are cheap, pricewise.

Nicky believes, “There is great beau-ty in imperfection.” She points out that we are increasingly surrounded by flaw-less machine-made objects - all simi-lar in look and feel, cast from a single mould. Their price is also uniform. But they don’t woo us anymore as they lack human touch. Nicky wishes to celebrate the handmade; every stone at Blue Lo-tus Gems has a charm in its irregularity and some of the metal work may not be quite straight or polished to perfection. “To my eye, these flaws show the patina, the crafted marks which tell of my enjoy-ment and of my frustration too,” smiles this self-taught artist, designer, doctor and entrepreneur.

KARAN SEHGAL

The Goan: You have recently started the showroom. How has the experi-ence been with the brand UM Motor-cycles in Goa?

Evencio Quadros: The experience has been very good. We have already de-livered 6 bikes to test the market and have received very good feedback from those buyers. By the middle of this month, we are expecting to deliver 12 more bikes. Overall, we have 60 bookings. This is when the showroom has not even been formally inaugurated. We started in Jan-uary this year and are going to have inau-guration only next month.

TG: UM Motorcycles is the third cruis-er bike brand in Goa, as we already have Royal Enfield and Harley-Da-vidson. Could you tell us about your brand positioning?

EQ: The brand UM Motorcycles will create an altogether different segment. We are aimed at bikers in the age group of early 30s to early 40s, who earlier had a bike when they were in their 20s, and would now like to come back to motor-cycling.

Therefore, the cruise and the sports bikes we have will give you more relaxed feel. What we are trying to say is that this is not a mass brand. Rather than selling en masse, we are trying to cultivate a mo-torcycling culture by having a UM bikers club. We will also be having a café inside the showroom, where UM bikers can come, talk to each other and chill out.

We are doing all of this, while keeping the price very affordable. So, ‘Renegade Commando’ is priced at Rs 1.98 lakh on-

road, while ‘Renegade Sports’ is priced at Rs 1.87 lakh.

TG: How are ‘Renegade Commando’ and ‘Renegade Sports’ different from each other?

EQ: Well, both these bikes are powered by the same 280cc liquid cooled engine. The technology is entirely American, as these bikes are also used by US military. The difference is in the look and the kind of feel they will give to you, when you take them for a ride. ‘Renegade Comman-do’ has matte military green colour, while ‘Renegade Sports’ has more contempo-

rary colour and design scheme. We have a strong feeling that once we

start selling these bikes full-flow, a lot of customers will customise their bike the way they want.

Due to that, the company will be offer-ing a lot of accessories in the showroom itself.

TG: Service is often an issue in Goa. Often, bike dealers don’t have spare parts, which make it very tough for customers. How are you going to deal with this issue?

EQ: We are a dealer of five two-wheeler

brands in Goa - Suzuki, Vespa, Yamaha, Mahindra and now UM Motorcycles. We have always emphasised on giving good service to our customers. Besides, cus-tomers have seen that Quadros Group means good service.

For UM Motorcycles brand as well, our whole attention will be on service. We know that the customer of this brand is a very knowledgeable one. We will en-sure that our service standards meet his requirements.

TG: I always wanted to ask you that no one in Goa has brought so many auto brands to the state as you have done. What is the reason behind this?

EQ: I am not a conservative business-man. I think one needs to be innovative. We were the first to bring so many brands to Goa like Vespa, Mahindra, Suzuki, Re-nault and now UM Motorcycles. Besides,

for UM Motorcycles, the concept and its strategy and segment itself is so unique that it will be the first time that Goa will see something like this.

TG: As of now, there is only one show-room of UM Motorcycles in Goa. How do we see it growing?

EQ: We are the only exclusive UM Motorcycles dealer in Goa. As of now, we have a showroom in Taleigao, but if South Goa needs one, we will open a showroom there as well. In fact, next UM Motorcycles’s showroom will be in Mar-gao.

TG: Will Quadros Group bring new auto brands to Goa in future?

EQ: Yes, we will continue bringing new brands for Goan auto-lovers. We will even bring new international brands to the state.

Never shying away from bringing new automobile brands to Goa, the Quadros Group has brought to bike-lovers a brand new showroom of American bike brand - ‘UM Motorcycles’ - in Taleigao. The Goan Everyday caught up with the chairman and managing director of the group, Evencio Quadros. Evencio Quadros, chairman and managing director, Quadros Group.

Sagun Gawade

TG: How do you see motorcycling trends changing in Goa? EQ: I think bikers in Goa are beginning to follow internation-

al trends. More important than anything else, they want to buy a motorcycle, which is different from what others have. Earlier, everyone had the same scooter. That’s clearly not the case now. Like I said, customers, who will buy UM Motorcycles’s bikes, are going to buy different accessories to give a unique look and feel to their bikes.

And, the fact that these bikes are priced at less than Rs 2 lakh shows that most customers will belong to middle-income bracket. This shows that bike customisation is no longer limit-ed to the niche segment of customers, who buy really expensive motorcycles.

Brass has a grounding earth energy protecting the wearer and Copper is a conductor of positive thoughts and healing energy while Rose Gold is known for love, warmth and spirituality