Super Woman from Vijay Nagari

An entrepreneur at heart, Mrs. Usha Divekar, a resident of Vijay Nagari, started her first salon in Thane in 2003. After garnering tremendous success, she was encouraged to start more branches. She opened three of them and expanded her services to different parts of the city.

While everything was going well, unforeseen circumstances compelled her to shut up shop. Mrs. Divekar suffered from severe health issues, which did not allow her to carry out business actively. However, the health concern was just a small hurdle in her business race, as she overcame it to start afresh. She was back with a bang in 2019 with a plush salon under the name Rush Lavanya. The salon offered an avalanche of services, including facials, bridal makeup, and modern treatments. Besides running her show, Mrs. Divekar works as a freelance makeup artist. Previously, she has worked as a personal hair and makeup artist for events, including Lakme Fashion Week, artist photoshoots, and bridal packages.

Adding a feather to her decked-up hat, Mrs. Divekar launched a saree brand, “Haathmang.” She describes her brand as hand-made (woven by hand, not machine) sarees. Mrs. Divekar says, “I love wearing sarees in general and am very fond of colours. I have always been obsessed with bright nail polishes and other accessories. So one day, while scrolling through Instagram reels, I thought of combining my love for sarees and colours to launch a saree brand.”
Sarees made of Chanderi Silk, Maheshwari, and Linen are available at Haathmang, in addition to the Bhagalpuri Sarees. It also has plans to introduce Irakal sarees soon. Customers can get personalised sarees from Haathmang. They can place the orders on Haathmang’s Instagram page. The price of the saree is between ₹1800 and ₹3000. Marathi celebrities have expressed a preference for Haathmang sarees.

Running two businesses simultaneously is a challenge, but Mrs. Divekar explains, “I never get bored of my work since, daily, I interact with different people at the salon and talk a lot, and when there are no customers, I handle my saree line. I enjoy multitasking. Managing two businesses has been possible because of my family’s unconditional support. My son always teaches me how to use social media to operate my business, and my husband provides me a lot of mental support.” Mrs. Divekar hopes to see Haathmang emerge as a major saree brand in the coming years.