The Lilly Pool Lawn at The Ashok has been converted into a hub of activity with the Asian Heritage Foundation (AHF) organising a Lotus Bazaar and a food festival to showcase the time honoured skills of South Asia. The bazaar has on offer some of South Asia’s best design-led interventions by leading NGO’, craft practitioners, designers and artists. The bazaar also has on offer food from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Mayanmar, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal at a food festival called Sanjha Chulha that has been curated by food critic and scholar Pushpesh Pant and offers an oasis to sit and meet with artisans and soak in the culture on offer at the bazaar.
Home based workers from seven South Asian countries have set up stalls apart from a host of stalls from India that have on offer items ranging from garments and home decor to organic food and art. On display is the age old tradition and skill that rural India boasts of. The artistic skills have been reinterpreted by some of the leading designers to produce something unique.
Says Astha Kapoor, a shopper at the bazaar “I can’t believe that some of the designers here are using practices that have been around for so many years. All it needed was a little push and smart designing to bring back to vogue traditional practices. We should be proud of our heritage.”
The bazaar is a part of a larger project which will see cultural collaboration between the nine participating countries in a programme called “Sasian Journey” which is a trans-disciplinary program being steered by AHF and Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), in collaboration with prominent NGOs of the region in engagement with the Smithsonian Institution, USA.
The project will have innovative events to highlight the region’s creative and cultural industries at the Smithsonian Institution’s Folklife program in June-July, 2018, at the National Mall, Washington DC, USA .
The programme will then travel to different destinations as an ongoing celebration. The Lotus Bazaar is the South Asian version of the AHF’s flagship market development package and the theme for the bazaar is traditional skills of South Asia as means of conflict resolution.
A major part of organising the bazaar is to have a symposium to get personalities from across the sub-continent to have consultations and deliberate on several issues relevant to the promotion of legacy enterprises. One of the major points that will come up for discussion is the creation of a South Asian fund for skill development. The proposed fund will pioneer cross sectoral and cross national associations with mapping exercises identifying stakeholders while sponsoring innovative projects for implementation.
The bazaar is on till March 31 and entry is free. Participation at the events in the symposium is by invite or by registration.
