About 25 km from Kishangarh, Ajmer lies a small town called Tiloniya — home to the Barefoot college which was established in 1972 by renowned social activist and educator Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy. There are different departments like education, solar energy and water under its wing.
However, it is the Hatheli Sansthan, or Tilonia Bazaar, that caught the attention of Chennai-based Srini Swaminathan, who has been volunteering with several projects for four years at the college. The initiative is a platform for rural Rajasthani artisans to sell their products that are mostly manufactured at the Barefoot college where over 15,000 women have trained in the past 47 years. Srini, who is on the board of Tilonia and the curator, had earlier brought a small batch of their products to The Farm in January and avers that it was a roaring success. Now all set for a larger showcase, at Patina, he tells us to expect stationery to utility pouches to notebooks wrapped in Indian traditional prints and storage containers.
The bazaar will have wooden alphabets, oven gloves, travel bags (the highest priced product at
` 900), yoga mat carriers and the most sought-after product — the iPad storage box. “These storage boxes are made from sturdy iPad boxes, that are then wrapped in fabric. It’s also a great source of revenue for the upcycling unit at Barefoot, called Kabaad se Jugaad,” explains Srini. All the patchwork, stitching, embroidery and hand block printing for the products are one in-house at the college, including learning different techniques like applique, bandhej and silk weaving. A big part of the pop-up will also include a collection of pre-owned and new souvenirs that he has collected from around the world. Having travelled around 43 countries for work, Srini realised the upcycling culture goes beyond India, and it was in Scandinavia that he picked up this idea when he saw people re-selling pre-owned souvenirs.
He points out that barring flea markets, he has only seen Parampara in Kasturi Rangan Road in Chennai doing the same. From his collection, you can find musical boxes from Europe, that one can wind up, and upcycled paper products by Clean Upper Dharamsala Project (CUD) that are made by Tibetan grandmothers, over 80 fridge magnets, and about 25 different categories of trinkets — from castles, tins, diaries, boxes shaped like Santa and Eiffel Towers, a bread toaster and even a coffee bean grinder!
From `30 to `500.
On June 1 and 2. From noon.
At Patina - Indian Diner.