‘Flea’kers of creativity

 

“At a time when ecommerce and online shopping are ruling the roost, it’s hard to draw people out to enjoy a flea market. Even if they do, it becomes important to give them a creative experience while curating a host of eclectic products,” says Anjum. While their brainchild attempts to sit snugly in the booming flea market culture in the city, they hope to make it an experience for the entire family. “A lot of us identify with characters from Sholay – Gabbar and Kaalia, Jai and Veeru, Basanthi and Dhanoo, so we decided to weave it into the experience,” says Pavithra about the life size artistic props, the live display stalls and the photo booths that are going up at the sprawling grounds.

 

As budding entrepreneurs to seasoned creative heads get together to showcase art, clothing, fashion accessories, home décor, handicrafts and food to tantalise your tastebuds, the founders of the flea think that being talented is just not enough to make it in the creative field. “We’ve often believed that it’s an acquired skill, not inherent. It not just requires you to identify your calling, which in itself could take awhile, but it requires research, training and a lot of discipline,” they say. 

 

The duo was drawn to the idea of hosting exhibitions early on, thanks to their introduction to diversity at the Queens School of Fashion in Mysuru. “While studying fashion, we were enchanted by the discoveries we’d made – the art of embroidery, fabric weaving, ethnic designs and the influence of the Far East and Middle East into India’s wide variety and uniqueness,” says Pavithra. Since then, although family life beckoned, they refused to forget their passion and got together to curate several flea markets. “Our families have been quite supportive. Our husbands give us a lot of inputs too – they take care of the kids when we are busy and treat our work with the same importance as they would treat their own,” says Anjum, as they prep to get their creative juices flowing over good coffee and conversation – the fuel to their creativity.