LUCKNOW, Feb. 3 -- Even as the Sanatkada Lucknow Festival is celebrating the confluence of Lucknow and Kolkata, a section of a marketplace set up as part of the event at Safed Baradari here traces the legacy of Kolkata's Boro Bazaar. Its key attraction is stalls. One of the sellers there is a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur Meghna Khanna, who has transformed the business of 'bindi' into a premium enterprise. Till 2020, Khanna had been running a jewelry and handicrafts business in Bengaluru for nearly 20 years. After her business took the hit of Covid-19, she wanted to create "something original and distinctive". "While fashion has undergone revolutionary changes over the past five decades, bindi has remained largely unchanged. A style of bindi popularised by actresses like Rekha and Shabana Azmi in the 1970s and 80s has gradually lost its uniqueness in mainstream fashion, becoming more of a formality than a statement." "I made bindi using gold, natural wax, and special adhesives. These bindis are opulent, reusable. My bindis are handmade and eco-friendly. I craft them using leather, handloom, textiles, and metal. I incorporate semi-precious stones such as amethyst and garnet. These bindis are not use-and-throw items. Using a special glue, they can be worn several times like fine jewelry," said Khanna. Another seller Shompi Shah (43) has set up a stall of Katha-stitch jewellery. "I wanted to use the traditional Katha stitch in the form of modern jewellery. Traditionally, stitches are used for sarees and dupattas. With this jewellery business, I support over 40 tribal girls and women in West Bengal," said Shah, who is also associated with Shanti Niketan. Shoma Badoni and Rishabh Badoni said they dealt in 'gamchha' or traditional cotton towels. "My father is a doctor who treated gamchha weavers in 2015 and saw them struggle to earn their livelihood. That was the point when we thought of repurposing 'gamchha' for accessories and garments," said Shoma....