Shri Hare Krishna Handicrafts

Our place is right in the middle of Bartan Bazar in Lohagarh. If you’ve ever been here, you know how crowded and loud the market gets. Shri Hare Krishna Handicrafts is tucked away between the other shops. We mostly deal with handmade stuff, so there’s always a lot of tools and bits of wood or metal laying around. It’s not the cleanest place in the world, but we know where everything is. Usually, I’m here early to open up before the sun gets too hot. My nephew helps me out with the heavy lifting and the packing. We don’t have a website or fancy brochures. Most of what we do is just based on what people ask for when they walk in. Sometimes we sit on the stools outside and have tea while waiting for a delivery. The bazar has a lot of history and we’ve seen shops come and go, but we’ve managed to stay put. We just try to make things that people find useful or nice to look at. Sometimes the paint takes too long to dry because of the humidity, and we have to tell people to wait an extra day. They usually understand. It’s just how it is working by hand. We aren’t a big factory, just a small crew doing our bit in the market every day. It gets tiring but it is what we do. We just focus on the task at hand and try to stay organized among all the clutter of the bazar.