I took this shot at Santacruz, today. I have always passed through this signal and I've also seen these handicraft goods being displayed here, although I never really thought deeply into it.
Today, as I was curious to know, I asked a local about this display - these handicrafts are made by low-income household artistes who design this and tailor this according to their creativity and vision. Majority of their goods are sold to the whole-sale dealer, who buys these and sells it off to the bigger stores and many a times also exports it to other countries! The result of this is - these handicrafts, for which the original creators/artistes get paid a really low amount, actually get sold, at a bigger store, for a price as high as at least 10-20times the cost, at which it was bought!
This Economics is common in all fields. But, what really upsets me is that we, common men, the buyers, despite walking pass this road exhibition hardly buy anything from the creators, hardly ask them about their creativity, hardly applaud or at least appreciate their passion and potential! As they rightly say - when you make noise, you tend to gather the crowd...but when you are silent, despite being honest, you need to be patient and wait for attention!
For the original artistes and their art...
Today, as I was curious to know, I asked a local about this display - these handicrafts are made by low-income household artistes who design this and tailor this according to their creativity and vision. Majority of their goods are sold to the whole-sale dealer, who buys these and sells it off to the bigger stores and many a times also exports it to other countries! The result of this is - these handicrafts, for which the original creators/artistes get paid a really low amount, actually get sold, at a bigger store, for a price as high as at least 10-20times the cost, at which it was bought!
This Economics is common in all fields. But, what really upsets me is that we, common men, the buyers, despite walking pass this road exhibition hardly buy anything from the creators, hardly ask them about their creativity, hardly applaud or at least appreciate their passion and potential! As they rightly say - when you make noise, you tend to gather the crowd...but when you are silent, despite being honest, you need to be patient and wait for attention!
For the original artistes and their art...
4 comments:
This stuff is quite lovely -- and the people who create it deserve to get a fair price for it. I wonder if there's some fair-trade cooperative they could join?
(And did you buy anything from them, Rahul?)
I don't think I could walk past here without buying something or without chatting up the artistes. I am always curious as to how the creative process works. I may not be creative myself, but I have such an appreciation for those who are. Such as you, Rahul!
:) Alexa, maybe they would be very soon!!:) Watch out for that...I'll fill you up on that soon!!:)
Unfortunately, I couldn't cross the road and ask them...I would the next time I pass this place...:)
:) Rose - I loved what Sir Ken Robinson keeps saying - we're all creative...we just choose to believe that we aren't!!:)
Creativity, I feel, isn't about thinking out of the box...creativity is about simply thinking...as while thinking you are "creating" thoughts...which in the process get developed into ideas...which when executed tags you as "creative" :)
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