Anjali Madhubani Hastakala Industries

Our little shop is tucked away inside Chaudhary Market at Shop Number 7 on Ashok Rajpath. It is right across from the Allahabad Bank and very close to BN College. If you know this part of the city, you know it is always crowded with students and people heading in and out of the bank. Inside our shop, it feels like a completely different world. We have Madhubani art pieces hanging and stacked everywhere you look. Some are done on thin paper, while others are on long pieces of cloth. It is a lot of bright color packed into a very small space. We are not a big factory or anything like that; it is a very traditional way of doing things. Most of the work is done entirely by hand, and you can often see the tiny little mistakes that make the pieces feel real. I spend most of my days sorting through the new stock or talking to the artists who bring their work in from the villages. Sometimes the shop feels a bit cramped because there is so much stuff packed into the corners. Ashok Rajpath is always noisy with all the traffic and the constant honking, but we have just grown used to the sound over the years. People often pop in while they are waiting for their bus or finishing up at the bank across the street.