Most small businesses start with one product because they have not figured out the second one yet. We started with one product because we decided that was enough. This is the thinking behind that decision, and why we believe it makes Nithyam better at what it does. When you make one thing, you have nowhere to hide. Every hour of attention, every material decision, every finish choice goes into that one object. There is no second product to deflect to when the first one has a

Every material decision in a handmade object is a values decision. The wood we use, the finish we apply, the way we treat the surface before it leaves our studio, each of these choices reflects what we believe the object should be and how long we expect it to last. This article explains those choices in detail. The board of every Nithyam calendar is made from medium density fibreboard with a veneer finish. We made this choice deliberately and we want to be transparent about w

When we decided to make language-specific editions of the Nithyam calendar, the easy version of that decision would have been to launch the Tamil Edition first, see if it sold, and then add other languages one by one based on demand. That is the lean startup approach. It is sensible in many contexts. It was wrong for this product. Here is why. The Nithyam calendar is not a product that works by accident of language. The language is not a feature or a filter applied to an othe

Karamadai is a small town in the Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. It sits about 25 kilometres from Coimbatore city, in the foothills of the Nilgiris. It is not a design hub. It is not a craft district with a famous history of woodworking. It is a town where we have our workshop, where we know the suppliers who stock our materials, and where the people who make Nithyam calendars live and work. We mention Karamadai in every piece of communication we produce, on the website, o

I started Nithyam because I could not find what I was looking for. I wanted something on my wall that showed the date every day in Tamil, my language, the language I grew up reading, the language I think in when I am not thinking about what language I am thinking in. I wanted it to be made from wood. I wanted it to be something I could move each morning without it feeling like a task. I wanted it to last. I did not want to replace it. I did not want a subscription or a reorde