Darika: The Daughter of Dikhow Who Turned Assam’s Fruits Into a Revolution

In Sivasagar, there is a small river that quietly threads its way through paddy fields and homesteads before joining the mighty Dikhow. Locals call this gentle stream Darika — a name that, in Sanskrit, means daughter. It is a word that carries warmth, tenderness, and an unspoken promise of continuity.

So when Aditi Buragohain chose this name for her brand, it wasn’t accidental. It was a tribute — to the land she grew up on, to the fruits that fed her childhood, and to the countless women across Assam who nurture households, farms, and traditions without ever being celebrated.

Today, Darika has become a quiet revolution in Assam’s food and handcrafted wine landscape. But like all good stories, this one begins at home.

Where Fruits Were Plentiful but Opportunities Were Not

Assam is a land that almost spoils you with its abundance. Walk through any village and you will find fruit trees bending under their own weight — mango, roselle, guava, pineapple, jackfruit, jujube, olive, elephant apple. Yet, year after year, baskets of these fruits fell to the ground and rotted away.

The problem was never a lack of produce. It was the lack of a market.

Aditi saw this waste everywhere. No matter how rich the fruit, its journey ended in the backyard.

“Watching such good produce go to waste felt wrong,” she says. “These fruits had value, but nobody was capturing it.”

This thought stayed with her long enough to become a mission.

A Backyard Experiment That Changed Everything

In 2018, Aditi decided to attempt something she had never tried before — making wine from her homegrown passion fruits. It was simple, improvised, and done without any expectations.

She gave the bottles to friends and relatives, unsure of how they would react.

Their response surprised her.

“They told me the wine tasted exceptional,” she recalls, smiling. “They insisted I turn it into a business.”

That encouragement was the turning point.

Aditi experimented further — ginger wine, orange wine, eventually black rice wine. During the Covid lockdown, with time in hand and curiosity as her companion, she explored even more flavours: roselle, mulberry, pineapple-ginger, banana, wood apple, Burmese grapes.

Every new batch carried the scent of the land she came from.

All her wines were sent for chemical testing at government-authorised centres. The results were positive, and for the first time, her idea seemed not just doable, but promising.

But a much bigger hurdle stood in her way.

The Dream That Had to Wait for a Law

Until 2023, Assam did not have any excise rules for small-scale wine production.
Aditi waited. She wrote letters. She visited offices. She pressed for clarity that simply did not exist.

Other northeastern states had policies. But Assam — with all its fruit wealth — lagged behind.

Finally, in June 2023, the Assam Excise Department published its wine policy. But it only covered large-scale industries, leaving small entrepreneurs like her in the shadows.

Still, she refused to abandon her dream.

If the state wouldn’t allow large-scale production, she would continue legally under the category of handcrafted beverages, producing everything by hand — chemical-free, additive-free, completely organic.

And that is how Darika began to take shape.

A Brand Rooted in Soil, Community, and Slow Craft

Today, Darika produces: 36 varieties of fruit wines, Pickles from indigenous fruits and vegetables, Jams and squashes from leftover pulp, Lemon candy and lemon squash, Dry fruit powders from wine waste, Seasonal beverages.

Every product is handmade. No machines. No chemical shortcuts. Only time, patience, and the natural antioxidants present in the fruits themselves. This is what sets Darika apart: it honours the land and the people who nurture it.

A huge part of Aditi’s model focuses on purchasing surplus produce from local growers. Families who once let fruits fall to the ground now see value in every tree they own. The ripples of her work are felt in villages where farmers finally receive a fair price for fruits that were once ignored.

A Small Brand Built Quietly, by Trust Alone

Darika did not begin with glossy advertisements or aggressive promotions. Its foundation was much simpler.

People tasted her products. People trusted her products. People talked about her products. Word of mouth built Darika. Local exhibitions strengthened it. Neighbourhood stores helped it reach new homes.

At every exhibition, Darika sells hundreds of bottles of wine, dozens of jars of pickles and jams, and nearly all their baked goods. On average, her small team sells around 100 bottles monthly through regular orders alone.

The brand now earns between ₹3 to ₹5 lakh a year, operating with minimal staff and maximum passion.

A Dream That Goes Beyond the Kitchen

What Aditi wants next goes far beyond her own business.

Her goal is to establish a Fruit Processing Industry where: women can find employment, youth can build meaningful livelihoods, farmers have a stable market and Assam’s indigenous fruits find their rightful place in national and global markets.

Darika has already showcased at major events — World Food India, IITF New Delhi, Momentum North East, Advantage Assam, Rongali, and many more. Everywhere they go, the reaction is the same: surprise that something so refined, so flavourful, so rooted in tradition could come from a small-scale Assamese unit.

Darika: A Daughter Returning Value to Her Land

What makes this story special is not just the wines or the pickles or the innovative zero-waste approach. It is the spirit behind it — a daughter of Assam giving back to her soil by ensuring nothing is wasted and everything is valued.

If the river Darika symbolises continuity and quiet resilience, then the brand Darika is its reflection in entrepreneurial form.

It preserves. It nurtures. It uplifts. It flows forward.

And in the hands of Aditi Buragohain, Darika is no longer just a brand — it is a movement that brings together farmers, women, youth, and forgotten fruits into one collective story of growth.

A story that could have only been born in Assam. A story that, much like its name, carries the gentle strength of a daughter.

ALSO READ: Bikalpa: How One Woman’s Innovation Is Shaping an Alternative for Everyday Essentials