A few weekends back, I was invited to visit Eka – an art and homewares store in Ulsoor.
This is a store I’ve always wanted to visit as the window displays are absolutely beautiful. Still, I never got around to it because whenever I see it, I’m always driving somewhere or the other with kids, and this is not a store to visit if you have butter-fingered kids around 😃.
Anyway, I was thrilled to visit the store with my friends and see some of the lovely stuff they had.
The invite was for the Ganesha season. Ganesha Chathurthi is tomorrow, and they have some wonderful Visarjan Ganesha (the kind you immerse in the water after the requisite number of days).
These Ganeshas are a limited range of environmentally-friendly Visarjan Ganeshas created in collaboration with Pune-based NGO eCoexist. Handcrafted purely from clay and colored only with natural elements such as multani mitti, haldi, kumkum, and geru, these Ganeshas can be immersed in a bucket of water, which can then be poured into your garden or potted plants! These benevolent Ganeshas are the answer to preserving our local water bodies from pollution.
See the third Ganesha in the image below – the Visarjan Ganesha.
Apart from the Visarjan Ganesha, they had many other varieties of Ganesha and several other idols I adored. The ones with the red and green stones were particularly exquisite.
One of the favorite things that I saw and immediately wanted for my home was this lovely, whimsical chandelier.
This would be perfect for my daughter’s bedroom and totally suit her personality—what with the flowers and butterflies. It was so beautiful that I was a bit scared to inquire about the price. Now I so wish I had at least asked a question about it. Come to think of it, I am not even sure whether it was for sale or whether it was part of the shop furnishings.
That’s so dumb of me!
Anyway, here are some other cool things that I saw.
I loved these dolls dressed in traditional South Indian clothing – a veshti for the boy and a pattu paavadai for the girl. I was torn between buying a couple of these for my kids or buying a Visarjan Ganesha for the Ganesha pooja. I eventually dropped these and went for the Ganesha instead. But if I’m ever in the area again, I will stop by to see if they still have these in stock. A pair of them runs for about Rs.1200/-, so I might just keep these as show-pieces rather than give them to my kids to play.
The bowls in the photo below were beautiful, intricately carved, and heavy to carry. They are Tibetan in origin (I think), and are used for meditation. Moving the mallet around the bowl produces a strong and beautiful sound that is very calming and healing.
Unfortunately for me, and fortunately for my wallet, I was unable to produce any sound whatsoever. I think I am not strong enough or maybe not enlightened enough to produce the music. I just watched jealously on as all my friends effortlessly produced music from the bowl. The surprising thing was that each bowl produces the sound at a unique pitch or timbre. It was so fascinating to hear as all these bowls played together in total harmony.
If you’re still not quite sure how these bowls work, take a look at this video.
I am running on too long with this post, so I”ll conclude with a shot of more Ganesha idols. They had so much variety, it was unbelievable!
The collection extends across idols from 1 inch to over 4 feet in height, bells and lamps with Ganesha motifs and ornamentation, sculptures, wall art, paintings, mugs, trays, t-shirts, souvenirs and more. There is something for everyone and at all price points.
Overall, this was a most pleasurable visit.
Details:
House of Eka,
#19 Gangadhar Chetty Road, opposite RBANMS Grounds, near Ulsoor Lake, Bangalore 560042.
Tel: 25544371 / 9845477648.
Eka is OPEN ALL DAYS 11am to 8pm.
