Our Story

Our Story

A Name Born From Jaisalmer

I have worked alongside Mr. Paras Ram Khatri for nearly 40 years, and this is the story as I have lived it, from the very beginning.

In 1985, our founder Mr. Paras Ram Khatri picked up his first piece of leather in the golden lanes of Jaisalmer, believing something he still says today: *"बनाओ ऐसा कि हाथ में उठाकर भी ग्राहक उसे महसूस करे"* : make something people can feel even before they understand it. I joined him two years later, in 1987, and learned everything standing at that same workbench : no websites then, no photographs, only handmade work and honest conversation.

A City Built on Trade and Trust

Jaisalmer has always been a city of travellers. Centuries ago, camel caravans crossed its sands on ancient trade routes, and traders here built their lives on patience and trust. Leather was part of that life ; saddles, juttis, bags for long journeys : and that same spirit found its way into our hands.

Famous Long Before The Internet

Jaisalmer was never a quiet town. Its forts and dunes drew film crews from Bollywood and the South, and being close to the Pakistan border, ministers and bureaucrats often passed through too : many finding their way to our small shop, walking away with a bag or wallet made by hand. There was no social media then, no website to review it : just word of mouth, one traveller telling another, long before EL VEENU had a name.

Every smile over a piece we had made, every customer who returned years later, gave us the courage to keep going — proof that honest work could travel further than we imagined.

The Letter That Changed Everything

In 2001, a young traveller named Louis Schmidt walked into that same workshop. Originally from Spain, now living in Greece, something about the leather : the smell, the stitching, the imperfections that made it real : stopped him in his tracks. He bought a bag and a wallet, and Paras took a photograph with him before he left.

Months later, a letter arrived from Greece. Louis was travelling through Italy when a friend noticed the bag he carried, asking where such a thing could be found. Louis showed him the photograph from Jaisalmer, and told him about an evening they had all laughed together over dinner.

How EL VEENU Got Its Name

As his friend admired the bag, Louis turned to him and said something that stayed with all of us — *"El,"* he said, simply *the* — this is not just a bag, this is **the** bag, the one with a soul. His friend smiled and agreed at once : he had never felt anything quite like it. In that one word, Louis felt Jaisalmer, Greece, and Italy quietly come together.

That word — El — became the seed of everything we are today. "VEENU" was already ours : our home, our roots. Together, they became **EL VEENU**, a bridge between the golden sands of Jaisalmer and people around the world.

Louis never really left after that. He has returned to Jaisalmer eight times since 2001 : each visit a little more like coming home.

A Family That Kept Growing

After Louis, they kept coming : one traveller leading to the next. Max from the UK, Maria from Argentina, Thao from Vietnam, and many more after them, year after year, each one staying connected long after they left Jaisalmer. What began with one letter slowly became a family that stretched across continents.

The Turning Point

For years, we grew this way : through film sets, ministers' visits, and travellers who kept returning, long before the internet made anything instant.

Then Covid arrived, and the world seemed to stop overnight. Cities fell silent, strikes broke out, and countless people lost their jobs to lockdown after lockdown. Through it all, Paras held on to patience, and a refusal to let his people down. Every karigar received their full salary each month, without fail. Even the women in nearby villages who did our embossing work were never forgotten — money reached their homes through whatever means we could find. Covid was temporary. The EL VEENU family's promise was not.

In that stillness, one question stayed with us: after nearly four decades of making for others, why not carry our own name forward?

Carrying It Forward

When the world slowly began to breathe again, so did we. Business had to be rebuilt almost from nothing, just as it had in 1985. To restart, and to give something back, we opened a new retail showroom right here in Jaisalmer : creating work for more hands, so new families could stand a little taller with us.

With 37 years behind him, Paras began guiding the next generation : not to change what he had built, but to carry it further. *"मैं तो सिर्फ चमड़ा नहीं, भरोसा बनाता हूं,"* he still says : I don't just make leather, I make trust.

This brand was never built in a rush. It grew through film crews and ministers, through Louis, Max, Maria, Thao, and every traveller who kept coming back, and through every karigar who stayed even when the world stood still. That is the true weight every EL VEENU piece carries.

Welcome to the EL VEENU journey. We hope, one day, you write us a letter too.