Why I’m Closing Prune India: A Founder’s Honest Goodbye to Winter Bride & Signature Silk

2025 started as a year I never wanted to step into. I was not only broken, but also heartbroken. As a society — especially Indian society — we hold very little space for emotions, failure, or downtime.

I’ll quote one of my favorite people here, Gary Vee, who says:
“If in business you have to be the most positive porcupine.”

Announcing the closure wasn’t easy. Moments later, I came to the office and announced it to my staff — and yes, I cried.

I won’t pretend to be the most composed person and tell you I’ve been all smiles. No. I have cried — cried a million times this year. I questioned my existence, questioned everything around me. And every time I cried, my father called me weak.

Maybe I am.
And I’m okay being called weak.

It gave me the courage to accept: okay, I failed — and I did.

The silver lining of this year is my mother’s text that I wake up to every morning. She makes sure to send me all the love in the world, every single day, without any expectation.
And it is my father’s words saying, “Fikar not, tu sher hai.”

I have silenced my inner voice for many years. And even now, there are people who tell me I am too much.

From a girl in college who said, “I’ll complete college, get a job, and get married,” to a girl who aspired to build something — this journey has never been mine alone.

I was 18, an intern at Shahi Exports, Faridabad. I was scared every single day to go there. My father would drop me each morning, and I would silently pray to have a good day. For an 18-year-old, Shahi was neither a comfortable workplace nor where I saw my future. I could either stay in the rat race and have a bad day every day — or move beyond it.

Since it was my first organization, my first learning experience, and my first step into the working world, I absorbed the good.

I still remember how kind they were to interns as an organization. I learned basic skills from tailors, master jis, and the aunties who sat on the floor making tassels.

The little me told everyone, “One day, I will have an export house as big as this.”
Little did she know — one day, we did.

Not big or small.
But we did.

Prune carries many of the life skills and ethics I learned at Shahi Exports, and my respect for them has only grown over the years.