History has linked art work to Mahaballipuram in a very fine way. The sculptures here are excellent examples of Pallava art. The monuments are mostly rock-cut and monolithic.
If you are a die-hard fan of Sculpture Art and paintings, then Mahaballipuram is a good visiting spot for you where you can browse hassle-free and buy variety of stuffs from the fixed-price Handicrafts Emporium or from the craft shops that line the main roads.
I happened to visit one such shop last week .Shopkeeper named
‘Sajjad’ takes care of the whole range of products in ‘Dreams and Themes’ Art
gallery shop. He sells Bags, Accessories, shawls, Bed sheets, carpets, statues
and many more. He is 6 years old in this profession, basically from Kashmir. He
gets all the stock from different places in India like Rajasthan, Nepal, Delhi,
and Kashmir. He has been dealing with these whole sellers since long, hence he
has a good know how of the industry.
 |
He started
the shop with some basic Jewellery items and shawls but as the demand grew, he
has expanded to many new items ranging from INR 200 and goes above 5000 currently.
His customers are basically the tourists of Mahaballipuram, i.e. people from
different parts of India as well as world.
During all
the sales, he takes special care of the customized demand that comes from the
customers for particular style of bags and other items. He places order on
behalf of them so as to satisfy the customer to full.
As he says ‘Honesty
and Truth is very important in his profession’. Whenever a customer asks for a particular thing, he explains the
use, background and material used for the same. Once the customer gets the whole
idea of it, he/she is ready to buy. It requires a lot of patience and good
convincing skills on his side.
November-March is on season for sale as the whole place is
filled up with tourists and they come over to buy this stuff. During the off
season i.e. the other part of the year, he does not have much work.
Also, he has made sure to display each of these items in
front so that he can attract the customers and if required can show him/her
more of a kind. He adds that there is no particular strategy followed for
attracting the customers. There are 2000+ tourists during the on season and
hence they get divided among all the shops. But there are certain customers
with whom he has made good contacts, so they only visit him whenever they come down.
They also spread his name among their friends and family if they really like
the products.
He also pointed out that ‘Motivation is required to keep the customer attracted and make him buy’.
Also he knows basics of many languages other than English, Hindi and Tamil
which helps him in knowing the requirements and creating a comfort level for foreign
tourists.
At times, some customers may also ask for bulk order, but it
is very rare. Also, now a day the whole sellers visit this place and sell their
stuff directly to the shop keepers contrary to earlier days when shop keepers
used to approach them. He makes the payment by Cheque.
He also believes in sincerity
towards the customer and believes that if the customers feel cheated
they will never return to your shop. He is in constant touch with many of his
customers by phone/ mail etc.
Ruchika Salhotra
FT13466
No comments:
Post a Comment