Gear up for a celebration of crafts and heirlooms as the popular Dastkari Haat Crafts Bazaar comes to the City Of Pearls. The not-for-profit organization that spotlights the work of artisans will feature over 80 stalls of around 100 artisans from 18 different states to exhibit the finest of Indian handicrafts in Gachibowli from February 21 to February 28.
Visitors can expect a wide range of hand-made artisanal products like paper stationery, traditional silk saris, organic cotton fabrics, black pottery, wood and inlay work, handcrafted baskets and more. Expect to come across an exquisite curation of age-old crafts like Pattachitra of Odisha, Pichhwai gold leaf embossing, Madhubani art of Bihar, and miniature and terracotta artworks from Rajasthan, amongst many art forms you will see at the festival.
Apart from honouring crafts, visitors can relish authentic dishes from renowned old Delhi booths and can revel in live folk music by the traditional percussion group Bhutte Khan Manganiar. There will also be interactive skill demonstrations where participants can try to learn new crafts and try them with artisans.
The idea behind Dastkari Haat Crafts Bazaar was conceived by Jaya Jaitly, president and founder of the Dastkari Haat Samiti who is a renowned social and political activist. For the last 40 years, she has been at the forefront to preserve crafts with a DilliHaat model that is expected to be implemented across 30 Indian cities like Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Mysore and more.
This time, bringing a weeklong exhibition to Hyderabad, Jaya Jaitly says, “We are eagerly looking forward to bringing our popular Dastkari Haat to Hyderabad which is full of eager craft lovers waiting to discover something new, and Telangana has such excellent craftspeople that it will be an honour to be among them again.”
From 11 am to 8 pm at the National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management (NITHM), Gachibowli.
Mail: priyamvada@newindianexpress.com
Twitter: @ranapriyamvada