It takes a village…

Delhi’s Hauz Khas village is 25 years old. Popularised as the captial’s first fashion haunt in the Eighties by fashion designer Bina Ramani,it had an edginess about it,in reality but more in perception. If you were “fashion–able”,by intent,expression and pocket,you hung around there. Oxidised silver,colourful chappals,jhola bags,printed sarongs,hippie style clothes with little identity and some early variants of the Indian ‘tunic’–which would later become a rage as the versatile kurti—sold there. Ramani sold from there for a while as did textile revivalists and other craftsy designers. They were not a polarised community in those days: all were on the side of India rising. Sharp ethnicity in look–extreme mirrorwork or leheriya prints—was not a fashion crime,it was in fact,style.

Recently,when we read reports that Bina Ramani was not given permission to celebrate “25 years of Hauz Khas,” I wondered if there was a story there? To check out the village’s changing character,if any,I went there this weekend. Hauz Khas has changed,only as much as things change to remain the same. Old vendors of arts and crafts have moved to make space for newer people but in the same genre. Some designers shut shop but others have opened here. Surely,haunts like photographer and writer Ajay Jain’s Kunzum Cafe (a traveller’s den,free coffee,free Wi-fi) didn’t exist two decades back but then our wandering whims needn’t need technological announcements. “The market had lifted up but its sullen again,” said Rakesh who works at Orient Arts & Crafts. His store sells old cuckoo clocks,quaint radios that don’t play,antique vases from Tibet and Nepal,old brocade saris and embroideries sourced from rich families,little knick knacks. Its like stepping back into time and looking straight into the eyes of an Owl who lived many decades back. (you can buy a brass owl or a wooden one too).

Dusty,with construction work still in progress around and villagers who have turned into spectators,if the New,New,Hauz Khas Village is distinct it because of one change: the restaurant boom. Besides the highly recommended Elma’s Tea Room with its floral crockery and curtains,dainty little cups,hot scones with fresh cream and little blue kettles that have all come out of an Enid Blyton story book; there is chef Ritu Dalmia’s Italian Piccola; Naivedyam for South Indian cuisine; Golconda Bowl for Hyderabadi,Kafe d’ Or and Amour for Continental and more. Interestingly,the village is also the place for design entrepreneurs who don’t want to be seen dead displaying in malls: luxury or regular retail. Nappa Dori leather and cloth products and Nana by NID designer Shruti Reddy who makes felt cushions and textile bags fall into this new,responsible category—see our products,not our logos.

Hauz Khas can indeed become a studio space for those who must tell an organic story of style polarised to DLF Emporio. It can be turned around as the address for logo-less luxury. For that to happen,bling will have to be pushed into the background (see the image sari or joke?) and craftsy stores with a mission like Maati (check out the clutch in the Hindi alphabet,it is made by a rickshaw puller in West Bengal) must take centrestage. To become a cross between New York’s Greenwich Village and rural,artisan-dependent villages of Ubud in Bali,Hauz Khas needs an identity in architecture and planning. At the moment,it has much too much of little things.

PS: And I still haven’t figured out what Bina Ramani intended to do and why she can’t. But watch this space.