Nature or Nurture? Here’s how her nurturing inspired a love for nature for Tannistha Baral, how she joined Decathlon Salt Lake, Kolkata, and reignited her passion for traveling.


“It has been a kind of a tradition in my family since my childhood days for us to travel for a family vacation together. My parents, aunts, uncles, kids, we would all try to go on a 15-20 day trip during our summer holidays every alternate year. Thanks to my family and upbringing, I got to see so many beautiful places in India like Shimla, Sikkim, Manali, Kashmir and more.” - Tannistha Baral.


“Out of all the places we visited, our visit to Kashmir still stands out. When you go there, you see how humble the people are. The best part about Kashmir, along with the nature, are the people. They are so welcoming.”


“I’m born and raised in Kolkata, and I’ve studied fashion design from Apparel Training and Design Center. I got a scar on my forehead from when I was two years of age. My mom remembers going to the kitchen for just two minutes, neither of us know what happened but somehow I fell and hurt myself. I don’t feel scared of falling or getting back up.”


Motivated to explore

Tannistha on her trip to Uttarakhand

 “I heard about Decathlon from a friend who worked there. As I have a fashion background, I was interested to explore the opportunity to work for a brand like Decathlon. My experience as a customer also attracted me to want to be a part of the Decathlon organisation. One of the things that appealed to me about joining Decathlon is that in Decathlon you get to explore a career across many different roles in retail, production, logistics, etc. and then you have many roles within those sectors. It was appealing to me to join one company and work on growing myself. I joined Decathlon on 21st November 2021 as an Omni Sport Leader in Mountain Sports, and today I’m coaching teammates in my sports cluster.”


“I think Decathlon in a way has motivated me a lot to have a mindset to explore. We have 60+ sports, 6,000+ products, unless we use our sports’ products ourselves on the field, we won’t understand how to use it and what are the benefits. When we practice our sport, we can then recommend it to others.

When work is love

Tannistha with the Travel Backpack 500 Organizer 40L

“I’m loving it in Decathlon. I love the work culture. I’ve seen some other workplaces, and this appealed to me more than any others. In Decathlon, I also got to conduct workshops for customers. My first workshop in Decathlon Salt Lake was with Altitude Adventure Holidays. It felt so good to connect with so many people from different backgrounds who are so passionate about traveling.”


“We also conduct events and workshops for people who want to learn about trekking, traveling and more. My first workshop at Decathlon Salt Lake was with Altitude Adventure Holidays. It felt so good to be able to connect with so many people, seeing their questions and having the answers. We started engaging our community of Kolkata Trekkers.


“Interacting with the customers is very rewarding for me. When I suggest sport advice and the customer finds it useful, it feels really good that I could help people on their travel and adventures. My interest in trekking grew deeper after working closely with so many fun and useful products, and now I’m able to share my personal experiences when advising customers. When someone comes back from their travels after using a product I recommended, and they tell me about how it helped them, I really value those moments.”

Exploring the great outdoors

“I’m someone who loves to work, I love the process. Places change, people change, but I believe that if you love your work, you can always deliver. Only then can you do good work. I take care of theDiversity and Inclusivity topic for Decathlon Salt Lake. It makes me happy to see that in our store we have women teammates coaching other teammates in sports like fitness, mountain sports and running. I used to coach school kids, I have that inclination to impart teaching in me. I’ve taught students all subjects, and they used to get good marks too! Connecting with people, trying to understand how to get through to them, how I can help them.”


“Women leaders in my store today lead more than 65% of the business, one of the many reasons that makes me proud to be a part of our organisation.” - Akhil Ravindran, Store Leader, Decathlon Salt Lake, Kolkata.


Her first solo trip


“As I started growing up, I started going on trips without my family. Trips with my friends, going on trips during my college days. Seeing so many reels about women going on solo trips, I’ve always been curious about going on one myself. I saw a lot of content creators who are solo travellers from Kolkata. Last year, I finally went on a solo travel to Chennai, thinking ‘Chalo ek baar kar hi lete hai.”


“It was really eye opening to go on a solo trip. There’s a different type of enjoyment travelling solo. You, find yourself. You also make new friends from other states, get to know their culture, their food habits, and so much more. You go to extents you would not have gone to in general.”


Tannistha’s pick for her treks - Travel Backpack 500 Organizer 40L


Travel Backpack 500 Organizer 40L

“In my last solo trip, I took a bag from Decathlon, the Travel Backpack 500 Organizer 40L. One of the reasons I selected this backpack was because the compartments made it easy for me to organise and pack. I used it for a week long solo trip in Chennai, Auroville and Pondicherry.” 


Hear the mountains calling? Come visit your nearest Decathlon store to get started on your journey. Here's your Guide to all 5 Decathlon Stores in Kolkata - Salt Lake, Shakespeare Sarani, Newtown, Garia and Park Street Connect.

‍

Check out Decathlon's Hiking and Trekking collection
Related tags
Related tags :
Trekking
Whey protein