A small, student-led group documenting the lanes of Lower Parel, one shop, one conversation, one Saturday at a time.
Jaivardhan Drolia
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Jaivardhan Drolia
Aditya Birla World Academy, Grade 12
I'm Jaivardhan Drolia, the Founder and CEO of The Lower Parel Project, a student-led initiative dedicated to documenting and celebrating the small businesses that give Lower Parel its character. I started this project as a resident of Lower Parel, after noticing that so many local businesses on my block were doing genuinely good work but going almost entirely unnoticed despite being in one of Mumbai's busiest neighbourhoods. Outside of this project, I serve as Head of IT at The InnerBliss Foundation, a youth-led mental health initiative reaching students across Mumbai, and I have delivered a TEDx Club talk at Aditya Birla World Academy. I'm deeply passionate about business, technology, and community impact, and I plan to study business and economics at university.
Aashvi Modi
Chief Operating Officer
Aashvi Modi
Grade 12, Jayshree Periwal International School, Jaipur
I'm the Chief Operating Officer of The Lower Parel Project. I think about systems for a living, from building a reintegration framework for justice affected youth through Bridge, to running the opportunity ecosystem over 20,000 students now use through Skillzo. Here, it means making sure a shopkeeper's story actually makes it onto a page someone finds. I've built a biodegradable sanitary pad out of aloe vera waste and a protein powder out of mahua crop waste, and the lesson that stuck is that most good ideas die from bad logistics, not bad intentions. That's the job, keeping the logistics honest so the walking, the talking, and the documenting hold together.
Help the guide grow
Know a Lower Parel store we should walk to?
Send the name and the lane. We'll go on foot, talk to the owner, and add it to the guide, free, no strings.
