Day one of Bhimthadi: Rural fare and rustic flavours

Some stalls offered Maharashtrian delicacies for visitors.

AS nomads from the Potraj community swayed their bodies rhythmically to their tribal tunes, Dilshad, who practices the Kasuti art — a traditional form of folk embroidery practised in Karnataka — arranged her fare neatly into columns at her stall. The 12th edition of Bhimthadi Jatra, a rural art fair, began on Friday at the Agricultural College grounds.

“Everything at our stall is handmade. The Kasuti work is dying with time and this is our attempt to keep it alive. It is also a medium for us to earn our livelihood,” said Dilshad.

At the rural fair or jatra, as it is called in Marathi, one can witness several such stories of perseverance and self-making. Hailing from Ballari in Karnataka, Lakshmibai had a stall of ethnic apparels from her land. She is associated with the Sandur Kushala Kala Kendra, in which 700 rural women work. Lakshmibai said the income helped her with providing good education to her children.

The event, which is arguably one of the biggest rustic carnivals, provides a platform to many rural artists and self-help groups to explore their luck at popularising their products, and it is also a destination for art lovers in Pune.

At the carnival, among the fares on display were handspun and handwoven clothing, jewellery ranging from the street style to rare tribal jewellery pieces, potters from rural areas and stalls of women self-help groups selling knick-knacks from rangolis to torans. An unconventional sight in an urban area, one saw stalls that were selling flour grinding stones, a live chatai (mat) making stall and even stalls that were selling chicken. There was also a stall with a bullock that could “predict the future”.

The festival is known as much for its food as for the shopping opportunities it presents. From its famed chulivar bhaakar (bhakri on chulha) to puranpolis, chicken and seafood specialities in rural recipes to Maharashtrian delicacies like vyangachi bharit (brinjal specialty), there was much on the menu.

This year’s specialty segment was the organic farming and products section. One of the participating groups was ‘Nisargsamvad’, which consisted of more than 70 people from different professional backgrounds.