Visitors check out products at Toshali National Craft Mela at Janata Maidan in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 21: The seventh Toshali National Crafts Mela on at Janata Maidan is giving the customers plenty of reasons to go on a shopping spree. Artefacts from Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal are attracting buyers at the fair.

Products of these Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries include an array of decorative items for the house, rare coins, wooden handicrafts and much more.

Nirmal Karunatilak, an entrepreneur from Sri Lanka, is promoting his country’s handicrafts in India. Karunatilak said that he had received good response from customers so far and his purses, wall hangings and letter holders had been received well by people in Odisha and hopes to come to Toshali fair next year too. “It is more about experience than sales. People are so inquisitive about our colourful garments,” said the seller from the pearl of Indian Ocean. Labzang Namgay from Bhutan too was quite excited about the sale of his products.

Besides maple and pine wood cups, bamboo products and herbal toiletries, Namgay has brought with him a number of old Bhutanese coins, some of which were minted in 1979. So far a fair number of numismatists have approached him for these coins. He is happy with the response he has received so far.

On the contrary, Kavi Nagar from Nepal is a little disappointed.

“Most customers come, enquire about the intricacy and the prices of the woodwork items in my stall but don’t buy them,” said the vendor. He further added that most visitors were not appreciating the craftsmanship required for fine wood carving and only bothered about its price which they felt were exorbitant.

He may not be very keen on coming back next year, but Nagar sounded pleased that at least he was promoting his country’s trademark items.

Apart from sellers from foreign shores, nearly 300 kiosks selling products from 23 Indian states are also doing brisk business.

Handloom, fancy home décor items, jewellery and fashion accessories for women are a huge hit. Items such as Punjabi shoes, tribal ornaments of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and several other artefacts are pulling crowd. Food stalls are also a great to the visitors, who can turn up till the fair ends on December 27.