Center Stage at Every Age

Past midnight, her kitchen doubles into a personal laboratory with experiments on several different products ranging from soaps, scrubs, and hair oils, among others. Fingers dug deep into her favored solvents and surrounded with the heavenly fragrance of her elements, Kauser says the process of making a product is nothing less than therapy in itself. Passionate about her pursuit, she started her journey with a signature hair oil that to date stands as her personal favorite. Versatile but classic, accessible but eclectic, she personifies several traits of her most preferred ingredient, Neem oil.

Although her enterprise, ‘KSR Apothecary’ has just started, she is swiftly developing a loyal audience base in those that have benefited beyond leaps and bounds from her products. An introvert by nature, she pushes herself out of her comfort zone, joining communities that give her greater visibility, standing tall as an example that one is never too old to learn the art of socializing. Her greatest challenge along the course of setting up her venture has been to juggle between work and family. She does, however, get adequate help from her children when it comes to keeping the house a certain way, which indirectly helps keep her business afloat and thriving. Envisioning the expansion of the same across India and the UAE shortly, the herbalist dreams of it turning into a family business someday.

The calmness of the beige walls of Mojgan Endjavi Barbe’s new home gallery is interrupted by edgy pieces that are no less than revolutionary. Born into an intellectual Iranian family often visited by poets and painters of the community, Mojgan’s childhood was enriched with a heavy influence of verbal and visual art. While she is formally a student of political science, today, she is a curator of contemporary art and represents several independent artists on international platforms as a voice of their notable opinions. Hopping from the United States to Paris, and from Tokyo to London, it was a life-altering conversation with an Iranian artist that brought her to the realization that she must represent the raw talent of her homeland, that was cut off from the western world following the forty-year prolonged turmoil in the subcontinent. Furthermore, she purchased old historical homes in Shiraz, Iran, and renovated them into boutique hotels, so they could be accessible all over again. This, she says, is her “small gift to her homeland.”

A philosopher in herself, Mojgan holds independent artists in regard as high as she holds the legendary Van Gough. For her, every piece is extraordinary in its own magnificent way. Artists, she says, are like the five fingers of the same hand, all unique and irreplaceable.