It is a blue double bedcover made in Bihar. Of course, it is beautiful, all handmade things are. But I buy it for another reason. We had the exact same one while I was growing up in Calcutta.
The Crafts Bazaar (organised by the Crafts Council of Tamil Nadu) held out pockets of happy memories for me. Such as the Chanderi saris my mom wore that had small buttis on them, not the big garish ones that are everywhere these days.
I have been looking for them all these years and I find them here. In jewel tones and with small, beautiful gold motifs. They are called ‘piping butti’, Kamal Sing and his son Asha Ram inform me. They are weavers from Chanderi and they say piping buttis are rare these days as they are not economically viable.
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Just next to the Chanderi stall is one from West Bengal and, lo and behold, Alfaz Hussain from Hooghly offers the famous cutwork petticoats. I am transported instantly to Gariahat in Calcutta where small shops by the hundreds display them. Alfaz also has pretty white pillow cases with embroidered flowers on them — again typically Cal!
Anyone one wanting to replenish their stock of bedcovers, Crafts Bazaar is where you should do it. Beautiful cutwork bedspreads, ones with patchwork and some incredibly pretty ikat counterpanes are available in terrific colour combinations.
Presley Ngasainao is from Manipur. As she arranges stone-ware on her counter, she says these are traditional cooking vessels from where she comes, a place called Ukrul. A special kind of stone is crushed into powder, mixed with water and baked at 1200 degrees Centigrade. This makes them heat resistant and they can be used to cook on open fires, the gas stove and also the microwave. There are darling teapots, mugs, vessels with lids and great big salad bowls that look absolutely lovely.
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Not too far from Presley is Vasuki. She makes silver and bead jewellery. Vasuki also trains young girls from Anaikatti to make them. She also gets them to make some for her. Many stalls here have handicrafts that have empowered women in faraway villages. Take for instance, Stree Shakti. Women living in the foothills of the Himalayas have patched, quilted, appliquéd, embroidered and sewn baby quilts, bottle covers, cushion covers, handbags stoles and so on. Rajasthan’s Gramin Vikas and Chetana Sansthan from Barmer, does something similar.
What is a bazaar without saris, and there are plenty of those too. Uppada, Narayanpeth, Mangalgiri…saris that are beautiful on their own now look like artwork with beautiful Kalamkari work on them. A master weaver from Lucknow has delicate chikankari saris. And, check out the Bobbili sari, incredibly light in a two by 120 count. The sari is perfect for the punishing heat in the area where it is woven. Then there are bangles, jute slippers, puppets, handmade notebooks and wooden toys add more colour and gaiety to the event.
If you have the time to spend with these astonishingly artistic craftspeople, there are many things to be learnt from them. They come from Gujarat, Manipur, Kashmir, West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, and our own Tamil Nadu…And bring with them tiny bits of our country many of us can only dream of visiting. Their work is a legacy they have inherited. They continue to create simple and elegantly utilitarian stuff, in the exact same way their ancestors did. Even if you don’t want to shop, it is well worth visiting the Crafts Bazaar, spending time with these artists and catching a glimpse of an India we should all be so immensely proud of.
The Crafts Bazaar is on till July 22 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Ramakrishna Kalyana Mandapam.