SO. MADAME Butterfly’s off fluttering her wings on foreign shores and here I was wondering if I could step into her mingled-in-high-society shoes and attend a few events. Was it possible for someone socially challenged to dress up, put on a confident I-belong-here-as-much-as-you-do face and make an entrance at a page 3 do?

Sadly, the socially challenged side of me prevailed and I decided to stick to my comfort zone… where I can get lost in the crowd of the Goan masses and yet report on an event of some significance: the North-East Handicrafts and Handloom Fair that was held in the Kala Academy grounds from January 23-February 3, 2010. I’ve been attending the annual fair for the past 4-5 years now and I must confess that it’s one of my favourites for some of the most creative handicrafts come out of the North-East. Plus, it is far more gratifying to look at and buy stuff made by indigenous craftsmen than the gaudy clothes and Chinese-made products often sold at the regular exhibitions in the city.

CRAFTS

THIS time around, the fair was set up in two enclosures: a small one where the usual fare of bedspreads, faux flowers and other knick-knacks were on sale and a large one where cane furniture, paper lanterns, wicker baskets, bamboo products (blinds, mats, lamps, trays, fans, etc) and replicas of bamboo houses were on display. In the past, the fair was replete with lovely, bright wooden handicraft toys, cotton shawls with an embroidery and print typical to the North-East, various leather items as well as bamboo jewellery. Participants were native craftsmen who were immensely proud of their work and took great joy in speaking about and selling their products.

This year, however, there were a fair number of officials from the North Eastern Handicrafts and Handlooms Development Corporation Limited (NEHHDC), none of whom appeared to be from the North East incidentally. I was also disappointed to note that the exhibition appeared to have gone they way of other exhibitions in that there were a large number of stalls selling flowers. Of course, the flowers made of wood shavings, sola wood, dried peepal leaves, etc were beautiful, but it seemed as if every other stall sold flowers. Perhaps the NEHHDC were aware that most Goans do not leave an exhibition without, at least, purchasing faux flowers to give their homes a little colour. The flowers sold here may not have been the real thing, but at least they were made from natural raw materials and nowhere near the awful plastic ones sold in the Panaji market.

Yen, a craftsman from Nagaland, was selling these beautiful long-stemmed flowers made of Sola wood, and dried peepal leaves which were arranged with ferns to make glorious nature bouquets. The dry peepal leaves especially caught my attention and Yen explained that these are made by first soaking the leaves in water for 3-4 weeks. The top layers of the leaves are then slowly peeled away, leaving only the skeletons behind. These skeletons are then died with various colours and shaped into flowers.

Another stall that piqued my interest was one manned by Himangsur Sutradar from Tripura. He had the most intricate statues of Lord Ganesh, carved from bamboo roots! He also had pretty lamps with wood trunks and bamboo shades. The large enclosure consisted mostly of surly looking women selling flowers and paper products who did not seem keen on making a sale, but preferred to sit in a corner of their stalls either knitting or using their mobile phones. Far from the usual craftsmen and women, these young people had forsaken their traditional attire for skinny jeans and flip-flops!

RUDE OFFICIALS

I was hoping to buy wooden toys as gifts for the large number of children that seem to be around me these days, but was disappointed to see that the toy collection this year was rather small. There were only two dirty-looking kitchen sets made from rosewood apart from spinning tops of various sizes as well as showpiece motorcycles and other pretty enough looking but not workable toys. Syed Nayaz informed me that the toys were sourced from Bengaluru (North-East?!). Funnily enough, there were also bedspreads from Aurangabad and wooden items from Lucknow on sale. In fact, a majority of the stalls in the small enclosure had products from states of India that do not form the North-East.

I’d visited the fair thrice with friends and family before I decided to speak to the babu organisers and ask them on what basis the participants were selected. After all, there were people and products from elsewhere and those who were from the North-East sold run of the mill stuff that, unlike in the past, did not seem to represent the handicrafts of the North-East. When asked to speak to the person in charge, a rather rude official asked me when the news item would be published. When she realised that the article would only appear after the exhibition wrapped up, she dismissed me saying, “Oh, it will not serve our purpose.” I tried explaining that MY purpose was to bring about awareness on the crafts from the North-East, she shoved a few brochures in my hands and got back to counting the money the organisers had made over the course of the fair. It’s a story of the times we live in today. People won’t even talk to you unless it serves their ‘purpose’!

I learnt the fair will be held in December, ie later this year. Hope the ‘fare’ will be better and the babus stay back in Delhi.

KUNBI-WEAVING

AFTER being snubbed by the NEHHDC officials, I decided to stop at our very own Wendell Rodricks’ Design Space in Campal and take a look at this eco-friendly designer with a conscience’s fabric in the Kunbi style. Wendell presented the first weave to Governor S S Sidhu on Republic Day and I was dying to see how the versatile designer had incorporated the fabric in his designs. For the moment, only shawls or stoles in the fabric are available. Woven entirely with pure cotton, the fabric has also been naturally dyed using guava leaves, rice kanji, iron filings and manjishta. Shells, beads and sequins have been used to give the shawls a little glamour. I couldn’t help look around and read Wendell’s messages to patrons scribbled on the walls on care and usage of his designs. Nothing like adding a personal touch to warm up to potential buyers and we do love Wendell for his clothes come in small, medium and ‘voluptuous goddess’ (not large).

We’ll let you know as soon as Wendell comes out with his first collection with fabric exclusively woven in Kunbi style. We must encourage this attempt at reviving a traditional weave.

– Mademoiselle Moth.