Pattachitra, Paika drums and Koraput coffee: 'Odisha Parab' takes over the Hastkala Sankul for three days

For three days the Deendayal Hastkala Sankul has been keeping a second address. 'Odisha Parab', a showcase of Odisha's crafts, dances and kitchens organised by Uttar Pradesh's tourism and culture department, runs at the Sankul from 22 to 24 August, and it has drawn the kind of unhurried crowd that a craft mela deserves. The craft floor is where most visitors slow down. Pattachitra scroll painters work in front of you; nearby sit palm-leaf engravers, Dhokra metal casters, silversmiths at their fine filigree, and handloom weavers with Kotpad cloth. Brass and bell metal, and a row of jute products, round out the stalls — a set of traditions a Banarasi weaver can read at a glance, because the logic of the loom does not change much from one river to another. Evenings belong to the stage. Odissi and Gotipua, Sambalpuri song and dance, Ghumra and Dhemsa from the tribal districts, and the martial drumming of a Paika Akhada have each had their turn. Ten food stalls carry the rest of the argument: pitha, aloo dum, millet preparations, chhena poda, and organic coffee grown in Koraput. State tourism and culture minister Jaiveer Singh described the festival as the opening of a new chapter in tourism cooperation between the two states, with linked circuits — Varanasi to Puri, Ayodhya to Konark — as the longer-term idea. For Kashi, it is one more weekend when a neighbouring state's craft economy set up shop in the city and made itself easy to walk through.

Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: Amar Ujala — Varanasi · Amar Ujala — Odisha Parab · Live Aaryaavart · Saahas Samachar