Jaipur Literature Festival Buzzaar: Homegrown Brands Combine Culture & Nostalgia

The Quint spoke with five people who've brought their homegrown brands to the festival in Jaipur.

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

26-year-old Ayushi Jain from Jaipur trained to be an interior designer. Between the woes of her professional commitments, her passion somehow took a backseat. In 2020, when the pandemic hit, Jain got back to her first love – crafts. She’d refurbish diaries, hand paint on things, and just create art. With a little push from her father, she started her own store Varnan.

While showcasing her work at the Jaipur Literature Festival’s Buzzaar, Jain tells The Quint, “We not only exhibit products that I've made, but also collaborate with local artisans and other homegrown brands to give them a place to sell their creations as well. The journey has been difficult so far trying to juggle between both the business and the creative side, as well as training our artisans, but it's been fulfilling too.”

Like Jain, Savik, the 32-year-old founder of Flourish from Bengaluru, is also trying to give space to artisans who create “eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyle products.” He says, “We want to empower the artisans, while also encouraging people to opt for planet-conscious things.”

Before coming to the Festival Buzzaar, Flourish also partnered with Jaggery, another sustainability-conscious small business to bring forth what the latter does best – upcycling seatbelts, parachutes, and army canvases into beautiful bags and pouches. 

For 42-year-old Sunita Jakhar though, the inspiration for her products comes from nostalgia. Jakhar, a textile designer by training, grew up in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan in Sikar, which inspired her to start her own brand Fatfatiya. 

She tells The Quint, “The three-wheeler autos in Sikar are called Fatfatiyas. They are bright and funky, which led to me creating the same kind of designs too. My work is inspired by the havelis and windows that you’ll find in the Shekhawati region, which we are slowly losing.”

This concern for ‘losing tradition’ unknowingly binds Jakhar with Sanjay Singh Rathore, who has brought the Marodi artform to the festival. 

Marodi comes from the word ‘Mod’. In this artform, you engrave intricate artwork on brass or silver. Rathore, a 31-year-old from Jaipur, started the House of Edwa as a tribute to his father and to the artform.

He says, “My father was always into Marodi artwork. I've grown up seeing very intricate Marodi designs, but I realised that there are very few artisans left who can do such intricate work now. I'm trying to revive the art form by training artisans, getting their work out in the market. When you look at an MF Hussain painting, you can immediately recognise it. We want to make Marodi artwork as identifiable as that.”

That, in some ways, is also what Monica, a 32-year-old from Naggar in Himachal Pradesh, is trying to do at the festival – showcase products handcrafted and hand woven by artisans in the Kullu valley to the world. She tells The Quint, “For us, it’s very important to empower both women and artisans as much as we can. We also want people to see the rich culture of Himachal, so here we are, presenting it to the world.”

At the Jaipur Literature Festival 2024, the Festival Buzzaar is all about culture, nostalgia, sustainability, and more as small business owners bring together their crafts and stories forth through their products.

The Quint spoke with five people who've brought their homegrown brands to the festival in Jaipur.