Bartania Handicrafts

Being over here at 39, Jon Kolyon in Lajpat Nagar keeps us pretty busy. If you know this part of Delhi, you know how crowded it gets. Bartania Handicrafts is right in the middle of it all. Most mornings start with us moving things around to make space. We have a lot of items coming in and going out, so the floors are rarely clear. It’s a bit of a mess sometimes, but that’s just how it goes when you’re dealing with physical goods. The walls are lined with stuff we’ve collected or are getting ready to send off. It’s not like those shiny shops you see in the mall. We’ve got old fans that rattle and a kettle that takes forever to boil. We spend a lot of time just checking on the quality of the things we have. Lajpat Nagar is a loud place, so there’s always honking or people shouting outside our door. It keeps us awake, I guess. Our team is small, just a few of us who have been doing this for years. We don’t have fancy job titles. Someone picks up the phone, someone packs the boxes, and someone else handles the paperwork. It’s very straightforward. We’ve been at this location for a long time, so we know the tea stall guy and the other shop owners nearby. It’s a decent enough place to work every day and we just keep at it.