State emporia should shape up or shut down
Central Cottage Industries Emporium — once fondly known as 'Cottage' to craft lovers all over India — ended in disappointment this week. The unwieldy split-level store was almost entirely empty at 4 pm on a weekday afternoon; and that includes the staff as none were to be seen except for the doorman. The pottery department (my destination) was even more deserted as many shelves were empty, and the rest very sparsely filled.
Now that there are crafts aplenty available both online and in stores, heading to a government-owned emporium was perhaps naive. Who goes there these days anyway? Only people of my generation or older, presumably, for whom these were once the only places to access India's amazing traditional art and crafts. The paucity of stores selling crafts in the bad old days of socialism made state emporia the only option for traditional weaves, homeware, and even gifts.
Some of them were better than others, of course. During my college days, we were fans of mirrorwork kurtas and shawls from Gurjari; the best Chanderi and Maheshwari sarees were from Mrignayani (Madhya Pradesh), Utkalika was a favourite haunt not only for its Sambalpuri ikat sarees but also for patachitra paintings, Lepakshi for Pochampalli and pearls, Poompuhar for wooden Ganeshas and Tanjore plates, Phulkari for, well, phulkari....
By then — the 1980s — NGOs had begun to tempt us too with good quality, better-designed crafts, like Dastkar, Urmul, Sewa Gujarat and Sewa Lucknow, and Dilli Haat. But that was no reason for the emporia to sit
