OUR STORY · A FAMILY LEGACY
Some stories are written by hand.
Before there was Brooks & Oaks, there was a handbook. A friendship. And a world of care waiting between the pages.
Begin the storyFAMILY ROOTS IN INDIA 1930–1940
01 / THE DISCOVERY
A grandfather’s handwriting. A grandson’s beginning.
Some inheritances arrive with an explanation. Others wait quietly for someone to understand what they hold.
When Sandip Mittal found his grandfather’s handwritten formulation handbook, he found more than a collection of preparations. He found a way to meet Late Sh. Nanna Ram through the work he had left behind.
The pages belonged to another time: the India of the 1930s and 1940s. Their subject was the intimate, everyday world of men’s grooming, perfumes, body oils and personal care. Yet for Sandip, their meaning reached beyond the formulations themselves. Here was his grandfather’s curiosity, given a form that could still be held in the hands.
A family name can be passed from one generation to the next. Handwriting makes that inheritance feel different. It brings a person closer. It reminds us that before a legacy became a story, it was someone’s daily work.
02 / THE MAN BEHIND THE PAGES
Late Sh. Nanna Ram
An industrialist of his time. A maker at heart.
Nanna Ram’s place in this story begins with enterprise, but it lives on through something more personal: the formulations he helped create and the handbook in which that work survived.
There is a particular generosity in recording what you have learned. A written formulation carries knowledge beyond the moment of its making. It gives another pair of hands a starting point; another mind something to question, study and understand.
Years later, those hands would belong to his grandson. Sandip could not return to the days in which the book had been written. But he could choose what its discovery would mean for the years ahead.
03 / A FRIENDSHIP BEYOND BORDERS
Two friends. One shared pursuit.
The handbook’s story also belongs to a friendship. Alongside Nanna Ram worked an English friend, united with him by an interest in creating formulations for grooming, fragrance, body oils and more.
They came from different backgrounds. In the work they chose to share, there was common ground: the willingness to explore, to exchange ideas and to make something together.
Against the backdrop of British-era India, this personal collaboration gives the family story its particular character. Its warmth lies in the friendship itself—in knowledge shared across a table, and in the possibility that another person might help you see your own craft differently.
Their work endured in the handbook. The spirit of that friendship now has a place in the story of Brooks & Oaks.
04 / BETWEEN THE COVERS
A small book. A world of care.
Explore the themes of the handbook through four short reflections.
NOTES ON EVERYDAY CARE
An inheritance
of curiosity.
A reading of the handbook’s themes
REFLECTION 01 / 04
Men’s grooming
The dignity of a daily ritual.
The handbook’s grooming formulations bring attention to the ordinary acts with which a man prepares for his day. Familiar gestures can hold a quiet sense of self-respect: taking a little time, paying a little attention, beginning with care.
That idea remains at the heart of Brooks & Oaks. The everyday deserves to be considered.
REFLECTION 02 / 04
Perfumes
A moment, remembered.
Fragrance gives this inheritance an especially intimate dimension. A scent can become part of how we remember a person, a place or a time. The perfume formulations connect the practical work of making with something much harder to measure: feeling.
In this part of the story, craft reaches beyond the bottle.
REFLECTION 03 / 04
Body oils
Care, made tangible.
Body oils belong to the slower side of personal care: the pause, the texture, the simple attention given to oneself. Their presence in the handbook speaks to the breadth of the two friends’ interests and to a world of care beyond grooming alone.
Sometimes, the smallest ritual is the part of a day that belongs entirely to you.
REFLECTION 04 / 04
The art of formulation
Curiosity, carried forward.
The handbook brings these different preparations together. For Sandip, its lasting value is both the knowledge recorded within it and the impulse that made someone record it in the first place.
To observe. To learn. To create with care. These are the qualities a new generation can inherit, even as the world around it changes.
05 / THE NEXT CHAPTER
What do you do with a legacy you can hold?
You begin by paying attention.
For Sandip Mittal, the discovery became a point of connection: between the grandfather whose work had filled the handbook and the brand he would found. Brooks & Oaks is that next chapter.
Its emotional beginning lies in the wish to give a family inheritance a living place in the present. The book offered a reason to look back with gratitude—and a reason to move forward with purpose.
Carrying a legacy forward means choosing what to preserve: the curiosity, the care, the respect for work thoughtfully done. Historic formulations belong to their own time. Today’s products must earn their place through the standards, assessment and care appropriate to the people who use them now.
The handbook is a source of inspiration and responsibility—a reminder that the next chapter must be written with as much care as the first.
IN LOVING MEMORY
A grandfather’s work. A grandson’s promise.
Dedicated to Late Sh. Nanna Ram, whose handwritten legacy inspired Sandip Mittal to begin a new chapter with Brooks & Oaks.
Late Sh. Nanna Ram
Remembered with love. Carried forward with care.
THE STORY CONTINUES WITH YOU
Make a little room for ritual.
From a family handbook to the care you choose each day. Discover the world of Brooks & Oaks.
Explore the collectionBrooks & Oaks
THE ART OF EVERYDAY CARE
Illustrations interpret the family story; they are not archival photographs or reproductions of the original handbook.
