Giving a crafty look to the newly opened boulevard are the small stalls where several artists are immersed in their art. On weekends, one will find a lot of people spending time shopping or casually walking by looking curiously at the artists working.
City Express came across a man sitting on a raised platform spinning his charakha as people walked by curiously looking at him. He seemed to be at peace spinning khadi even though there was so much hullabaloo around.
He was 61-year-old Mahdevappa, who has been a khadi worker for the last 30 years. He said, “My main motto behind sitting here and spinning is to bring in awareness among people, most importantly the younger generation, about the art of spinning khadi. It seems as though a lot of people have forgotten how Gandhiji used to sit and spin khadi every day for almost an hour. He wanted people to wear clothes made from khadi. By buying these clothes, one is actually paying a khadi worker in some village whose only means of employment is this. People from villages will no longer have to migrate to cities in search of jobs; they will no longer have to leave their homes. If only people were aware of it.” They have a small outlet where they sell clothes made from khadi which are dyed using natural colours. They even sell charakhas and have provisions for teaching one on how to use it.
A little further ahead, closer to the Trinity metro station, one can find a few artists from the Regional Design and Technical Development Centre sitting and religiously practicing their art. One of the artists, Ravi Kumar, who specialises in block printing, tie and die, batik painting among many others said, "This platform is perfect to showcase different art forms to people who are not aware of it, especially children who show keen interest. Some even come and watch us and then ask if they could try it too. On weekends, a lot of people walk by and watch us work. A few insist on teaching them how to do it too. It is really nice to see so many people interested."
On the other end of the boulevard are a few more stalls that have handicrafts on exhibit and sale. Amongst them is one stall owned by the Moghe couple who started making handicrafts way back in 1992 and have been doing it ever since. They have a variety of collections including silk painting, glass mosaic, 3D paintings among others.
Junk jewellery lovers can have a field day here.