Artisans at handicrafts fair struggle for customers

GURGAON: Till a few years back it was one of the most visited fairs in the city but now it looks like a poor cousin of the Gurgaon Shopping Festival (GSF), which has been drawing huge crowds ever since it started.
Happening just behind the Leisure Valley Park in Sector 29 is the Sheetla Saras Mela, a rural handicrafts fair. The fair used to be a big seller a few years back but now the artisans who have lined up their wares expecting a big rush are still waiting for their first customers.With participants from 21 states across India, the mela was inaugurated on September 29. After registering a strong footfall over the first week, things have suddenly gone quiet. As Sandeep Lohia, a terracotta and fibre artist from Delhi, puts it: They are all going to the GSF. We are just behind the Leisure Valley Park. But people are no longer visiting us. We are also not getting any sponsors or even any publicity.
Basanta, a cane and bamboo artist from Assam, agrees. The crowd is lesser this year as compared to the previous years, he said. Optimism is now the only thing that keeps the organizers and the artists going on . We have erected an entrance towards the exit of the Leisure Valley Park. I am sure we will have more visitors in the days to come, said nodal officer of the mela organizing committee B S Chhokar. The committee has also extended the closing date of the mela by three days, hoping to rope in some more visitors. The mela, which was to get over on October 10, will now end on Wednesday. But will that be enough? They have such beautiful things here. But there are no takers. I wonder why, asked Richa Dua, a visitor.