Futurechat

The Dastkar Nature Bazaar comes and goes each year.

Before: There are frantic phone calls from participants ‘Hey we are going to be there please come!’

During : ‘Hey I am going to the Bazaar are you coming’

After : ‘Oh Nature was so slow this year nothing new..’

(Its  so easy to pull a good thing down ……)

The Dastkar Nature Bazaar is the only platform where one can network in every sense of networking. Now that the Bazaar has been so well established each year we know that everyone will be coming to Delhi during that time. It’s a great place to just simply meet with everyone. Artisans, designers, craft groups all contribute to it.

This wonderful Indian bazaar recreated.

Due to reasons unknown (or we don’t want to know) the Nature Bazaar cannot take place in Dilli Haat and now it cannot even get place in IGNCA, but the environment of the crafts museum this year just adds to the bazaar.

Each year I go and meet all the people I had met a year ago and catch up with them. I discuss all the interesting projects each one is involved with and their work in the year gone by. It feels good to hear of the projects that are happening all over the country. Projects, that not many know off. These quiet visionaries, who have toiled for years in each of their regions need to be talked about, each one of them that has made a contribution to the nation need a platform that is larger and more inclusive.

Dastkar does it’s bit, But I feel the need to do more.

Should we build a virtual platform for everyone at Dastkar Nature Bazaar. Should this become the Ethical Tradeshow India ? Can we make it international and call buyers? Expand reach, scope and visibility.

Lets get some support, government or companies, to enable non exporting groups to reach out to larger markets. Organize forums where the particiapnts can tell their story, their work, where they come from and what they are doing.

But I wonder if this will lead to over exposure? Would the calm and quite of the Nature be threatened? Will it still be the wonderful warm network of people I know and truly care for.

It’s not easy to get a solution but your opinions will matter…!

This post was originally posted on Living Principles