Dastkari Haat comes to Goa

Dastkari Haat is one of India’s best known crafts organisations/fairs and I’ve been looking forward to the first fair in Goa ever since they announced it a few weeks ago.

The choice of location was not a good one. The International Centre in Dona Paula is out of the way and as expected, footfalls were few.

It was hot. The sun was blazing and there was no shade. 

There were many colourful things, but it was a disappointment. I had expected more stalls. I had expected more variety. The sales-men behind the counters grumbled about the heat. They grumbled about not making any sales. They grumbled about the lack of visitors. I wonder how much it cost them to come to Goa and if they would recover their costs at all.

Perhaps future fairs will have more to offer. Here’s a glimpse of what was here this time:

There were baskets in purples, greens and in colours of autumn leaves.

There were parrots and puppets

elephants

and horses (this one came home with us).

There was a puppet show, especially for our little M (as a thank-you for buying things from the Rajasthani stall)

 

We went back the next evening when it was cooler and we knew what to expect. There were more people around, but sales didn’t seem to be brisk. We bought several things – useful things and decorative things. Some were reasonably priced, others expensive. We thought about some purchases, others were more impulsive. We pretended we were tourists in another state and assuaged our wallets with that thought.

Have you been to a similar crafts fair recently? What did you think?