A basket of goodies

The spirit of Christmas oozed through the walls of Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath (CKP) recently, where the Community Service of Bangalore (CSB) held its annual ‘CSB Christmas Santhe’.

The halls of the college were stark with colour as tables lined the walls and knick-knacks over-flowed from the stalls. The event was held to support 13 charitable organisations in and around the City.

The festive season added more colour and taste to the bazaar, with delicacies like Christmas cakes and cookies, wine, decorations and bobbles making their way onto the tables. There were more goodies available like banana cake, sponge cake, chocolate cake, cupcakes and pound cake, that were made by the members of CSB.

Shaista Farouqui, the vice president of CSB, said, “We have been organising this bazaar for years. This is our way of helping a number of organisations. The main activities we have are baking and making handicraft.”

The CSB committee members had two stalls, one with baked goods and another one with hand-stitched products. “A major part of our time is spent on the handicraft work. We make aprons, bedsheets, dolls, mittens, fruit baskets and more. We specially design them and they are products you don’t get elsewhere. While we do buy the material from outside, we make everything ourselves,” she adds.

With over two dozen stalls, the bazaar was a success. There were other products like Tupperware, handcrafted jewellery, upcycled fabric products, custom-made chocolates for Christmas, knit bags from the Chettinad region, cloth bags and more.

Kanak, a visitor, said, “I’m an entrepreneur from The Netherlands and I work with artisans. Whenever I come to India, I’m on the lookout for artisans whom I can promote out there. I go to such events because you find the right kind of people.”