ॐ श्री गुरुभ्यो नमः ॐ श्री शिवानन्दाय नमः ॐ श्री चिदानन्दाय नमः ॐ श्री दुर्गायै नमः
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I am Mala Chandrashekhar from India – the country ruled since time immemorial by the spiritually evolved ancient Aryan race and the extremely art-loving Dravidian race – the race known for being connoisseurs of fine arts.
India as you know is a country with a very rich cultural heritage. Every region in our country abounds in amazingly beautiful handicrafts and handlooms, designed and developed by extraordinarily talented artisans, both Hindus & Muslims, who are living below poverty line in our country.
We have so many corporate giants in our country, but none to promote the exotic art forms of our nation in the real corporate style. The only organisations, that are promoting this kind of work in their own humble way, are the State Government Emporiums and Government Handloom Houses.
These Government Emporiums do have an exotic collection of exquisite handicrafts, but they are not familiar with the aggressive marketing strategies of the private sector giants , for creating huge demands for these items worldwide. Neither do they have the expertise or funds to design and develop a captivating and inviting online retail showroom like the mega online store Amazon.com, and subsequently promote it, so that even without visiting our country customers from around the globe can have an enjoyable experience of shopping in our country.
I am a wife of an Ex Indian Army Doctor, and have stayed throughout the length and breadth of India during my husband’s tenure in the Indian Army. I am therefore, well familiar with the rich cultural heritage of every nook and corner of our country. Every region in our country abounds in amazingly beautiful creative wealth and has something to offer to the global customer, be it handicrafts or handlooms or handmade carpets or the irresistible regional cuisine.
There is a small village called Krishnanagar in a remote corner of West Bengal in India. The artisans in this village make such wonderful clay models that you will feel these clay dolls would come to life anytime. The themes are mostly from rural Bengal. How many people in India itself know about these regions and these crafts, leave apart people from other countries.
The North Eastern states in India has such exotic, mind boggling cane and bamboo work. Every single furniture,every single fruit basket , every single wall hanging is so artistically designed with cane that you will gaze spellbound at them, if you ever visit the interiors of this region. These are just a small example of the enormous treasure that India has.
Engraved furniture of Saharanpur, Woolen carpets of Bhadohi, Brass work of Moradabad, Bronze icons of Swamimalai, Kangra paintings of Himachal, Kalamkari paintings of Andhra Pradesh, Pichwai paintings of Rajasthan, Silk Carpets of Kashmir, Intricate Glass embroidery work of Banaskantha, Exotic cora mats of Patthamadai, Hornwork of Mahabalipuram, Coir work of Kerala, Sandal wood crafts of Karnataka, Applique work of Orissa, Khurja and Chinhat pottery of Uttar Pradesh – The list is endless, and one needs a lifetime to explore them, or may be even that is not sufficient.
There is great demand for Indian handicrafts in developed nations and the demand is constantly growing every year. Our handicrafts exports were $ 85.355 million in 1986 and in 2004 it was $ 2682.927 million .This clearly shows that the demand is growing every year.
None of the handicrafts exporters in India are utilizing the full power of the internet for promoting their sales to the extent it is possible.
I had always dreamt of launching a great Online Retail Showroom on the internet for top-class Indian handicrafts, handlooms, hand printed textiles, engraved furniture, cane furniture, handmade carpets, Agarbattis (incense sticks), Indian classical music and dance CDs and VCDs, books on Indian philosophy/ Hindu scriptures/ Indian cookery/ Yoga/ Ayurveda/ Astrology etc.etc from every nook and corner of our country.
I wanted my Online Showroom to have anything and everything which reflects the rich cultural heritage of India. I wanted my showroom to have all the great features of the mega online store Amazon.com or if possible even more than that.
I had always dreamt of sending the great works of our talented master artisans andour rich cultural heritage to every nook and corner of the globe, utilizing the full power of the internet. But my health never permitted me to do so. This gigantic work would require tremendous amount of travelling around the length and breadth of India and my health conditions would never permit me to travel around so freely around the country.
I decided that the only way I can contribute towards the promotion of Indian arts and crafts across the globe is through my Blog. This is the reason why I have created this Blog on the internet. Through my Blog, I intend promoting everything that reflects the rich cultural heritage India, including our tourism, our traditional marriages with Vedic chants, our temples which are great architectural wonder, our cuisines which are simply irresistible and countless in number and our spiritual discourses which have always moved the world like a storm and has brought about revolutionary changes in human race.
Through my Blog, I will direct my readers from around the globe to great Indian stores where they can purchase top-class, authentic Indian handicrafts, handlooms, handmade carpets etc, if they are so fascinated by our arts and crafts.
We do have stores selling great ethnic products, but we do not have great online stores, where buyers can purchase online from any part of the globe. If my Blog can create great demand for these items worldwide, I am sure these stores will take giant steps to become great online stores in the days to come.This is a subject very dear to my heart. This is too gigantic a project for me to handle single handedly. I am sure everyone from around the globe, including large corporate houses will make this Blog a big success and thereby create livelihood for the talented master artisans and weavers of India in a real big way.
