Laila sharma demonstrates Himalaya's personal care products

He wears a faint but unmistakable nama on his forehead. His mobile has a ring tone that sounds somewhat like "Kausalya Supraja Rama.." He makes a Power Point presentation of the benefits of Ayurveda for modern living.

Rangesh Paramesh, the senior medical advisor at the research and development wing of the Himalaya Drug Company could well be the company's brand ambassador. Like the dadima of the company earlier ads who said we need both traditional herbs and faster processors to keep pace with the jet set times.

At a media event organizsed by his company at Golden Palms Hotel and Spa, Dr. Paramesh was equally at ease advising you to get up at Brahma muhurta and speaking about what a big hit the company's anti-dandruff shampoo is with the IT professionals the world over.

But it was recently, after it entered into the realm of personal care and consumer health products, that Himalaya decided to have a make-over and move with the times.

And M. Manal, the father of the company who rode around in his bicycles in the Thirties, would scarcely have recognized this new face. The story goes that the late Manal came across a herb the mahouts used to control irate elephants on his trip to Burma.

On a hunch, he experimented with its benefits for humans, and came up with a tablet he christened Serpina - the world's first anti-hypertensive drug.

His company later made products such as Liv.52 and Bonnisan, which have remained in the market for decades. The company was content with this success till recently.

It was in the late Nineties that a number of New Age products rolled out of the Himalaya stables - night-repair cream, anti-wrinkle cream, fairness cream. With them came the New age, of course, with a rider - contained as they were in new tubes and jars, the "key ingredients", the company promised, remained "pure herbs" tested by generations of traditional users.

Speaking at the media event, Soumitro Banerji, the business head of the personal care division, said: "We found that people loved our products, but didn't want to display them on the dressing table." The new sleek design and sleeker exclusive shops in which the products were displayed worked the magic, especially with the target group the entire world seems to be wooing: the 15-to-35 age group.

And this age group is caught in a lifestyle where Dr. Paramesh's advice on living in accordance with nature can't possibly work. Let alone get up, a call center employee is not likely to have even hit the bed at Brahma muhurta! But then, right on cue, the shelves are crowded with natural products that do damage control.

And this goodness of nature comes with value addition - good looks and good smells.

If one wanted more proof of the importance of these value additions, one only had to hear beautician Laila Sharma gush over the lovely smells of Himalaya products as she gently rubbed the apricot scrub on a svelte model's face in the course of a demonstration.

She held Himalaya's toner in her hand and smiled: "This is the most important product ever made for a woman!"