Cottage Industries Exposition Ltd

Down here in Gali No.31 in New Delhi, our building is right in the middle of a very active neighborhood. House number 54 is where we store a lot of our inventory for Cottage Industries Exposition Ltd. It’s a narrow street, so it’s always a bit of a challenge when the delivery trucks come through, but we make it work. The building itself is older, with high ceilings that stay a bit cooler in the summer. We spend most of our time organizing the different sections—textiles in one corner, woodwork in another. It’s not a sterile environment; you can smell the cedar and the dye from the wool. We don't have a marketing team or anyone like that. It’s just us, the staff, making sure the inventory is counted and the quality is what it should be. Sometimes a button is loose or a thread needs clipping, and we take care of that right here. It’s a hands-on kind of place. People from the area stop by to chat or see what’s new. We don’t have fancy brochures to hand out. We just show you the items and tell you what we know about the people who made them. It’s a bit noisy with the street sounds, but it’s our home base and it works for us. We just keep things simple and honest, focusing on the crafts we have in stock. It’s a real place with real people doing the work every single day.