Bangalore’s Furniture Fair happened last weekend. As this year is one without the Salone, I was terribly curious to find out what this event was about. And this, it turned out, was about half of the work…

As I arrive, I see people squeezing big sofas in their small cars and carrying folding aluminium picnic tables under their arms.

After paying the entrance ticket (Rs 40) and refusing to leave my details in the lucky draw box, I made my way into the cool stadium hall… and entered the very special world of Indian furniture.

It is the perfect place if you want to find:

• large wooden-framed, sculpted sofas with glittering upholstery – note that a swing version of this item is available, but you’d probably need an elephant to carry the frame
• glass topped coffee tables which allow you to peer through their surface and admire a dancing elephant or a muscular male wearing only a turban and not much else
• water features
• fish tanks that glow in the dark
• decorative plastic swords
• plastic Diwali lights

and many many more things that you didn’t know existed… it is all very overwhelming.

The furniture on display is mostly imported from Asian countries like Malaysia or Hong Kong. Finding outdoor furniture is difficult in Bangalore and I was surprised to see several modern ranges.

The best slogan on show was “Italian style, Chinese price, proudly Indian”.

And no Indian show would be complete without the vegetable-chopping-widget-demo-stand. There were certainly many of them hidden behind mounds of vegetable peelings – my final memorable sight as I left.

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