HYDERABAD: A couple from the city had ordered an expensive toy from the US for their little one and couldn’t wait to see his reaction. Once it arrived, Prithhvi played with it for about 5 minutes, lost interest and tossed it in a corner.
The parents were both disappointed and baffled to see that a toy that made them wait for three months took their son 5 minutes to move over. After some thinking and research, Tisha and her husband Harsh Varidani saw great need to set up a toy renting store.
Called Toys and Tales, the aim of the founders is simple: rent toys to children for however long they are interested to play with them and pass them on to the next kid later. “We couldn’t force our child to play with it, at the same time, we knew he needed to have other and more toys that aid his growth and development. We realised that other parents had the same issue and came up with the idea. People can now buy the toy that comes for an affordable price and that’s how the toy keeps finding newer homes,” says Tisha.
Talking about the importance of play, she says it’s as important as food for children. “Children learn the most from play than through any kind of rote learning. It opens up various avenues for creativity and imagination, develops their motor skills and grey cells. People tend to frown at playtime, that needs to change -- we aim to make more and more parents aware about this important phase that a child goes through.”
Sharing another reason for coming up with Toys and Tales, Tisha says, “The planet is not growing any more liveable. Landfills and oceans are being filled with filth every day and throwing away toys will only add to the problem. Renting toys also means saving money. Children sometimes tend to lose parts of their toys and parents eventually have to throw them away. By renting toys, children are also learning a valuable lesson of being good stewards of the toys they have.”
So particular is the couple about conscious living that all their toys are transported in green vehicles. “We make use of only electric cars, autos and bikes in the city to deliver our toys. Even our packaging is sustainable,” Tisha adds.
The pandemic obviously raises questions of hygiene and assures her customers of the best safety standards. Tisha says, “Covid or not, it’s important for the toys to be clean. My husband and I have tried and tested over 100 sanitisers in the market to finally zero in on one that is not heavily based on alcohol, and so is safe for kids. The toys are sanitised before being packed and after they are delivered. Our own son was our guniea pig, we wouldn’t put another child in danger for our commercial gain.”
Most of the toys at Toys and Tales are priced reasonably and charged on a daily basis. The prices would go up if the parents choose to extend the rental period.