Chocolates always make people happy,” believes Rohan Keshewar, 25, from Chembur. To spread a little cheer amid the lockdown gloom in Kasol, Himachal Pradesh, where he got stuck during a vacation in March last year, Keshewar started making chocolates. Having toyed with the idea of chocolate-making as a source of employment for women in Ladakh, the social entrepreneurship graduate from TISS decided to test the waters in Kasol. “When I realised the idea was selling, I started looking for a place to rent, moved to Patli Kul on the Kullu Manali highway, and started the licensing procedure,” shares Keshewar about the start of The Himalayan Chocolates (THC), which offers handmade bars infused with Pahadi ingredients and employs women from the villages of Kullu-Manali.

Rohan Keshewar