Once Upon a Slime After School

“Slime is not just for children, it’s for everyone!” declares Avi Natesan, full of zest. Her effervescent personality shines as she brings out tubs of goo, complex origami patterns, and a handmade miniature kitchen. These quirky artifacts are not just outcomes of her summer-time hobbies and passions—hours went into hands-on experimentation before she built her career as a teenage entrepreneur.

Currently pursuing her undergraduate in Computer Science, Avi has always embraced her creative side. “When I was in ninth grade, my sister was studying at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT). She used to bring home fun assignments! I would get excited and ask her to teach me how to knit and dye,” she recalls, “One time she was working on an origami project. I was pretty mediocre at the rest, but I was really good at origami, and so I started trying out more intricate patterns.” Her obsession with the art form was followed by invitations from architecture and engineering institutes, and NGOs to conduct origami workshops. “My aim at these workshops would be to help people understand origami in a scientific setting.” She has conducted seven workshops at institutes around the state, such as VIT, and now even has an Instagram page under the handle @_foldit where she demonstrates her…