Padmavati Handicrafts

We are based at 196 Kika Street, right in the middle of Gulal Wadi inside the Swami Narayan Bhavan building. Our shop is on the ground floor, which is lucky because we have a lot of heavy boxes of handicrafts coming in and going out all the time. Kika Street is a very old and crowded part of Mumbai, so there’s always a bit of chaos right outside our door. Inside, the shelves are packed with all kinds of handmade items that we’ve collected. It’s a bit of a maze in here sometimes, and we might have to move a few things around just to let someone walk through. We don’t have a fancy display or modern lighting. It’s just a traditional shop where we keep track of our inventory on paper ledgers and old computers. Most of our day is spent unpacking new stock or wrapping items up for customers who stop by. We’ve been in Swami Narayan Bhavan for a long time, and we like the feeling of being in such a historic building. It gets very hot in the afternoons, but we have our old ceiling fans to keep us going. We aren't here to make big sales pitches. We just show people what we have and let the work speak for itself. It’s a simple, busy life in a very colorful neighborhood.