When life is unfair
The other night, Slug (short for Sulagna) and I dropped in to a handicraft exhibition that is being held in my neighbourhood, as part of the Mumbai festival.
It is always interesting to attend a handicraft/home decor/accessories exhibition with Slug. Her profile as a purchase executive for an upcoming home solutions store needs her to source all of the above from various places across India, the more exotic the better.
So, she knows the exact origins of a miniature Taj Mahal is made or a terracota urn, along with the original prices as well as profit margins. So, I know when I am getting gypped!
Anyways, the main reason for writing about this is that at this particular fair, there was an entry fee of Rs 30. We paid it and entered, and found it rather odd that the place should be deserted. People in Mumbai are ardent shoppers.
We walked around a bit. Neat stuff. I picked up a pink bag with three cats peering out from the front.
Coming back to why the place was deserted. Last year, the stall owners were very happy with the response to the fair and hence decided to come back this time round, too. But Siddharth Kak who’s company Surabhi productions was organising the fair, decided to charge an entry fee. Now if you have say, 4 kids or are a family of 3 or four, paying an entry fee as well as buying stuff could prove heavy on the pockets.
Most of the stall owners, had paid a bomb and had come down from faraway destinations like Pakistan, the north east, Rajasthan etc. Business was so lax, that some of them were in tears. No wonder they sported such forlorn expressions as we entered.
One of the chattier ones, this lady who made chocolates for a living was very verbose on the whole thing. They even had a couple of demonstrations demanding a waiver on the entry fee.
I hope the entry is revoked. Even it if isn’t it’s too late for these stall owners to withdraw from the place, simply because they have already invested a non-refundable amount, which runs into thousands.
