By A SHOPAHOLIC

SKIP OR take your own sweet time to visit all the other sales in town but never, never miss a Khadi Gramodyog sale, especially when it is a district-level spread like the one currently on at the Club Nacional in Panaji. There about 30 stalls here from the various neighbouring states (e.g. Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra) and they have a varied range of cottage industry products ranging from delectable honey (five filtered varieties!) to cashewnut “chocolate” (try it, it looks like white chocolate and although a wee bit on the sweeter side makes for a most agreeable “chocolate”) to exquisitely crafted leather handbags and footwear and not to forget, vegetable-dyed dupattas and textiles of the organic, eco-friendly kind. Most of the products come from the country's very own mammoth cottage industry network and is hand-made, offering millions of folk a decent living. It is true that in recent years Khadi products have gone upmarket and prices have been steadily going up, but they still offer some of the best value for money.

Tasting honey at the Khadi Gramodyog exibition-cum-sale on the Clube Nacional.... all kinds of cottage industry temptations for hiusehold use. Last day: Nov. 9th

Stop at the very first corner stall and discover the cashewnut “chocolate” made by Arolkar Food Products of Vengurla (Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra), the Rs.5 and Rs.10-priced bars are actually cashewnut katli but presented chocolate-style and make for a very agreeable flavour. Children would love it and so would adults by way of a snack break or an after-dinner dessert. This is truly an innovative product and there is no reason why there can't be peanut and almond and walnut or mixed nut “chocolate” available in various grades of sweetness, possibly a few varieties using alternate sweeteners like jaggery? Nearby is the Pune-based Satmaha Cottage Industries with their five varieties of honey, namely of jambhul, hirda-gela , eucalyptus, mustard, sunflower and karvi extraction ( karvi is not there but they also extract karvi honey, karvi is a flower of the Western Ghats which blooms once in five or seven years). Honey has medicinal properties apart from the fact that it is a superior natural food and according to a spokesperson here the various honey varieties make for supplementary food for diabetic patients, aid faster recovery from infections, joint pains, and generally make for excellent health tonics. A plus point is the honey is not heat processed filtered and bottled (alas, in plastic pet bottles) for better nutritional values. Yes, you may taste and buy! Also check out another health product, the gulkand (a rose petal piece de resistance).

Elsewhere there is potteryware (pretty decent mugs selling at Rs.10 and Rs.20), incense products like quality agarbattis and dhoop cones, traditional gold-plated jewellery, at the Belgaum stalls towels, hankies, durries, chaddars of austere yet pleasing spun unbleached cotton thread, also disinfectants and neem soaps…some real bargain buys here. There are wonderful kurtas for men and women and sumptuous 100 percent pure silk sarees (Rs.2,400 and Rs.1,680 after the rebate and very exquisitely beautiful) as also a new silk-look-alike fabric called “Polykhadi” made from a mix of 65 percent polyester and 35 percent cotton, but pure silk is an all natural material and unbeatable.

According to Manager, Khadi Gramodyog, Goa, Mr. D. Mukherjee, “Goa as such does not have a popular Khadi culture as in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh but in the last 10 years exhibition sales like this one at district level have been introducing Goans to Khadi products and the results are good…” It is high time Goans discovered khadi (as in cottage industry context) culture and lifestyle for hand-made products have their charm and economical utility value. Most of the products are innovative and amazingly tempting and in fact have acquired such a sophisticated upmarket status abroad that maybe soon exports will exceed domestic consumption and that would be a pity!

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