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| Rakhis on sale at a shop in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture |
Bhubaneswar, July 21: Raksha bandhan may be 20 days away, but plenty of ideas and crafty rakhis are already being offered to residents.
Alluring exhibitions are being held in the city giving the sisters and brothers options to start shopping for the festival.
A five-day silk exhibition — Silk Mark India — is on till July 23 at a hotel at Ram Mandir Square. An initiative by Union ministry of textiles, the exhibition has put a wide range of pure silk garments on display. The exhibition, now in its fourth year, saw artisans coming from Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir setting up 40-odd kiosks.
The highlight of the exhibition is the fine work done on mulberry, tussar, eri and muga silk. Buyers will have the option of choosing anything from crepe and georgette silk saris to the Banarasi ones. Depending upon the craftwork and intricacy of the motifs, saris and suit pieces are available from Rs 500 to Rs 25,000 meant for various occasions. Both ethnic and contemporary designs could be found at the expo. “I have selected a few items. I will bring my brother here soon and make sure he gets me all of them,” said Sagarika, a college goer, who seemed upbeat about raksha bandhan.
However, an artisan said the business was yet to gather momentum. “The business has been lukewarm till now as the rain refuses to go away. We hope that from tomorrow more people will visit the exhibition,” said Kashmir Sari Kendra’s Mukhtar Ahmed, who is taking part in the expo for the first time.
Also, a two-day exhibition titled The Mavericks held at a Jayadev Vihar concluded on July 19. Showing handmade goodies, the exhibition displayed items meant to gift the loved ones. Cuttack-based duo Mamata Khemka, 39, and Shruti Bagaria, 26, had conceptualised Saaj, a brand that presented an array of crafts made of paper, wood, paper, board and quill stationary. Customised cards, scrapbook albums, photo albums, chocolate boxes, wall clocks, photo frames, tissue boxes, jewellery boxes, wall centre-pieces and lots more were created by the duo who said these were made with affection and diligence.
“We are planning to collaborate with showrooms to market our product,” said Shruti, a management graduate. On the same occasion, under the brand name of Oorja, owned by Cuttack-based Sweta Ginodia, saris, tunics, suits made by Calcutta-based designers were showcased.
Kamna Halan and Shradha Modi presented fascinating designs of rakhis. A few women entrepreneurs of Calcutta and Mumbai had also taken part at the exhibition.