Bharat Bhushan, a toy maker who handcrafts smiles

Just as the festive season hit, Delhi sees several small carnivals, also called melas in different corners of the city. Almost everyone has their childhood memories of such melas, with loud music, lots of food and stalls to shop from. Children, during this festive season, get a chance to become a hero themselves, to transform into the god they so fondly have heard the stories of with toys such as mola, gada, bow & arrow, sword and more. However, questions like where do these toys come from, what factory are they manufactured in remain out of sight.

Bharat Bhushan (56), a resident of Moti Nagar, is a man who stays quite busy during the festive season from July to October while making these toys for children. With no apparent intention of making huge profits of these toys, Bharat makes them to keep this traditional business alive and more than that, for his passion. These hand-crafted toys are made up of cardboard, woods and clothes.

Bharat is a retired grand dad who, apart from making toys, spends most of his time with his grand daughter. While his children are now well educated with reputed jobs, making toys was Bhushan's family business for generations before. He is the last one of his family to still continue the business. Bharat Bhusan Says, "I know that after me, no one will do this work. This is my family business and this keeps me occupied in my free time."

While talking about why he makes these toys, he shares that he wants to make traditional toys available for the new generation, so that they can connect to the mythical stories of our gods. Also, he says that a lot of vendors, who he supplies these toys to, depend on his financially. If he stops making these toys, those vendors will be left with nothing to sell.

Apart from being very reasonably prices, these toys are organic in nature too. No Plastic or any harmful material is being used in the making of the toys. Bharat says, "The pasting gum we use in the toys is also made by Maida (refined flour) in our house."