Before joining Meesho, I downloaded the app and was wondering…"Why does the UI feel So low-res?"

Well, the answer to that question lies in Kolkata.

Like every new joinee, I was assigned something called DICE Immersion, a ground-level onboarding program where we meet suppliers, customers, delivery partners.

I was sent to Kolkata. And to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. It felt like another induction formality.

But what I saw in a narrow alley there..

…completely changed how I understand ecommerce  and India.

When I arrived at the location, the cab couldn’t even enter the street.  So I walked.  Past chai stalls. Hand-painted signboards. Kids playing cricket in bylanes.

That’s where I met Ejaz Ul Haq the man behind Weekidz, a homegrown kidswear brand from Kolkata.

But this wasn’t just a business. It was a family-run operation built out of a 2-room house:

• Ejaz handled production and coordination with tailors

• His wife took care of tech, printing shipping labels, uploading products

• Their kids managed packaging, quality check, and dispatch
  

All of this ran from their home. And during sale periods, they earned up to ₹10 lakhs a month.

No warehouse. No MBA.  No agency playbook.

The day I joined Meesho, I saw a quote somewhere:

“We’re Building for Bharat.”

At the time, it felt like just another vision statement.

But after meeting Ejaz, I realised , it’s a mission that’s already happening.

Because Bharat isn’t just a market segment. It’s a million families like Ejaz’s, running businesses not out of boardrooms, but their rooms.

Ejaz told me, “I only use Meesho.”  At first, I thought he was just being polite, I was wearing the Meesho ID card, after all. But then he added something that stuck with me:

“Meri biwi ne khud hi karke seekh liya ye.” (“My wife figured it all out on her own.”)

No tutorial.  Just a simple interface, built for people who’ve never heard the word “UX” in their life.

Well, standing in a crammed-up space somewhere in the outskirts of Kolkata, where signal drops, data is limited, and WiFi is a luxury, I finally understood.

The “low-res” app wasn’t a compromise. It was a strategy for the BHARAT.

From the Bharat (Seller, Supplier, Delivery Partners)

 To the Bharat (Consumer)

 That's what Meesho is building for.