Product Design & Photography | Meet Menuolhoulie Kire

Today’s incredible social media growth and its level of invasion in our private lives have driven most of the youth to feel the much-feared word – ‘FOMO’ aka Fear Of Missing Out. And although it can have a very negative effect on us, it can also play out positively depending on how we turn things around.

FOMO is not about just peer pressure anymore. It is also about stacking up your career against everyone you know on the digital platforms. And it’s not surprising, that only pursuing our daily lives without pursuing other hobbies and interests is considered, if nothing else, boring. This time at R&L, we caught up with one such talent who is pursuing two careers and is scaling heights. We met up with Menuolhoulie Kire (M.Kire) from Nagaland who’s delving into two very creative fields – furniture design and photography.

Picture Courtesy: M.Kire

R&L : Hi. Tell us a bit about yourself!

M.Kire : I am a dreamer and love to push myself to materialise new ideas. I did my Masters in Design from IIT Guwahati. I think I’ve always loved product design as well as photography. I design and create products under the brand name Kharu Design.

R&L : Why do you choose bamboo as a material to create your furniture ?

M.Kire : I strongly believe in sustainability. Bamboo is, of course, more sustainable than most furniture materials that are used commercially. It also brings a lot of ecological advantages to the table, especially when each one of us really needs to do our part in conserving our planet’s resources. I hail from Nagaland, a state whose people have a rich understanding of how bamboo can be useful to us. We can see that knowledge exhibited through our traditional crafts and wares. Bamboo is also unique because it is a very flexible material along with being structurally strong.

Picture Courtesy: M.Kire

“Kharu Design brings to you custom designed furniture to give your home a redefined, cosy and eco-friendly look.”

Picture Courtesy: M.Kire

R&L : What’s the price range of your products? Are you supplying them to other Indian cities?

Menuo : Our products start from as low as Rs 200. We have not fully begun supplying our products to the rest of India but we did fulfill a couple of custom orders from customers in other cities.

Picture Courtesy: M.Kire

“Kharu is a traditional gate found in the Angami villages of Nagaland. Kharu design is a place where traditional craft and contemporary design meet – a gateway between the past and future.”

Picture Courtesy: M.Kire

R&L : We hear you’re working on some new, exciting projects. What’s keeping you busy?

M.Kire : Well, currently we’re working on bringing out our next line of products in the area of urban gardening. We are also looking forward to launching Kharu design’s first retail outlet with a partner.

R&L : Wow, exciting times! Let’s talk about your other interest area that’s photography. What kinda projects do you take up usually?

M.Kire : I’m mostly into wedding photography commercially but I also shoot nature and culture for my personal projects.

Picture Courtesy: M.Kire

R&L : What has been your most memorable shoot till today?

M.Kire : Every wedding is memorable. When people open the door to the most important day of their lives to you, it’s wonderful to feel and capture the love they share in photographs. But if I do have to pick one out of many such memories, a shoot that remains etched in my memory especially because of its difficulty and the beautiful photos we produced later, it would be a post-wedding shoot I did in the Dzükou Valley.