Jun 19, 2012

An Adventure in The City Of Joy - Searching for Location - 2

It has been one month since we reached Kolkata! Really don't know where this one month flew by.  In this short period of time, we have managed to secure a home for ourselves, a car, a maid (yay!) and the most important one, a good and reliable driver!  Yes, we need to have a charioteer to help us navigate and negotiate the alleys and by-alleys, the avenues and streets of this major metropolis! It's a little disconcerting having no control over the wheels of our own car but putting all things into perspective, it is much less stressful when we already have a bucket-full of stress awaiting us!

We have been frantically looking for a location that suits the needs of our vision pertaining to the lifestyle store-cafe.  Kolkata had some amazing old architecturally rich bungalows and houses which have been rampantly replaced by multi-storyed buildings.  It is proving harder for us to find that dream location but we haven't given up yet.  In the process, we have learnt how things work here.  The pace and agility are sluggish.  There are always layers to peel when it comes to what something appears from the surface vs, what it actually is!  However, there is always a way to get things done, may not always be straightforward!


In the meantime, we took a short trip to the weaver village to look for some new source materials, textures, designs and more.  Things have also changed there as demand for certain kinds of textiles has grown so much that the original value offering from this region, the gorgeous Tussar Silk, is now seeing a demise in demand and production!  We have now taken it upon ourselves to find a way to revive the past glory of this Silk and it's varietals.  However, it was great to see some really beautiful new designs and patterns emerge from the creative minds of our weavers.