A cozy cultural hub

Get out and about, watch a performance, share a few laughs, croon along a soulful tune, paint a canvas, participate in a fun activity or learn about the environment and be a part of the city’s behemoth cultural hub. Meet four young entrepreneurs Sriram Jagath (34), Dhanesh Agarwal (35),

Ryan Lee White (34) and Tushar Kalra (34) who along with their day jobs, decided to plunge into entrepreneurship with Treehouse Kitchen & Culture. Their sole idea was to promote different art forms and this space is covered in green foliage and is almost like reliving your childhood dream of a tree house. Currently, a biodiversity drive spotting alien invasive species campaign is on for the first time in the city.

The idea of a culture and food hub was born when Sriram met Ryan at a Diwali party. Sriram recalls, “I quit my day job with HP, with an idea of starting an online tea store to sell tea through the art of storytelling and went to Darjeeling to learn about tea, but it didn’t materialise, so I invited my school friend Dhanesh to start a café with creativity, culture and design as its core. Everything here is DIY - Do It Yourself decor, lighting and is done in-house; there’s a library full of books that keeps growing, board games, affordable art by local artists from the city, great music, Lego, live acoustic music, as well as interactive theater and more. Even the recipes for the pan-Asian dishes we serve have been picked by us on our travels to Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore etc. As part of the current alien invasive species campaign, there are activities that increase knowledge about trees, plants and other animals that are part of our city’s urban landscape. Those looking at Citizen Science can know more on biodiversity, conversation, landscape or simply nature. Dr. Ankila Hiremath, a Fellow at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment is part of this campaign. The database will be part of the India Biodiversity Portal which maintains an inventory of location and names of different species, the world over.”

Ryan adds, “Since I have a day job at FirstSource, I spend the rest of my time working at Treehouse. All four of us are now great friends and besides our day jobs, spend a lot of time discussing ideas. It’s a heady concoction.”

Dhanesh states, “I used to own and run four retail stores in Siliguri. While I was successful as a businessman, I was always thirsting for an entrepreneurial journey and when my friend Sriram got in touch, I threw the gauntlet, as they say, sold off my businesses, and came to Bengaluru. I also started and run a garments manufacturing company in the city, so I divide my time between the two.”

Tushar Kalra met Sriram at a popular watering hole and became friends at a party later and then met with Ryan and Dhanesh shares, “I have a job with Wipro, and since I can’t spend too much time at Treehouse, I try helping with all the back end work.”