Prashant Handicrafts

Our shop is tucked away in the APMC market in Vashi. If you know the area, you know how busy it gets with trucks and people moving crates all the time. We are over in Phase II, Section 19. The space is filled with all sorts of things people have made by hand. It’s not the neatest place you’ve ever seen. We have shelves stacked high with wooden carvings, brass items, and some clay pots. Every time a new shipment arrives from the rural areas, we have to find space where there isn't any. It can get quite dusty in here since the market doors are always open to the breeze. We spend a lot of our time unwrapping items from newspaper and checking if anything got bumped during the trip. Dealing with the artists is the interesting part. They bring their work in, and every piece looks a little different from the last one. We don't use a computer for everything, mostly just a handwritten book for the sales. Customers usually spend a long time just looking around because there is so much to see in such a small room. Sometimes it feels more like a warehouse than a shop, but that’s just the way it works here in the market. We take our tea breaks when the crowd thins out in the afternoon. It is a busy life but we enjoy seeing the things people can make with their hands.