Five years and counting: Maya Bazaar is back in Bengaluru this weekend

Maya Bazaar is back in Bengaluru this weekend with their fifth edition 

Maya Bazaar, Bengaluru’s annual celebration of diversity and acceptance is back with its fifth edition, and is taking it a notch higher by including persons with disabilities (PwD) and the Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi (DBA) communities this year.

“Since we talk the language of the marginalised, the Bazaar has organically drawn in the intersectionalities of different identities. There are now people with disabilities, Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi, and others from different communities ,” says co-founder Veena Kulkarni, elaborating on how they have moved from the LGBTQ+ tag to, “Pride Meets Purpose from all marginalised communities to the world.”

Founders Sanam Dembla and Veena Kulkarni say this fifth edition is a special one for them. “We started off on a lark, wanting to contribute to the economy in a fun way and get our brands out there. Back then, we did not think we would become this big,” says Veena, admitting, the journey has been a challenging one. “We wear our politics on our sleeve, so it has not been the easiest thing to achieve.”

“The idea for Maya Bazaar started on a cricket ground, where a couple of us from the LGBTQ community who were sitting around came up with the idea for a space where we could be ourselves, do business and have some fun around around it,” says Sanam Dembla.

“There is a lot of creativity within the community and there was a need for a platform to showcase it,” she adds.

Sanam drew on her experiences in the events background and the duo settled on Goa as the venue for their first show in 2020 . “This was soon after the initial lockdown and many people were working from holiday destinations. The response was great — we had about 40 entrepreneurs from all over the country and around 700 visitors in two days.”

For both Sanam and Veena, the unabashed and unexpected acceptance they received from both millennials and senior citizens, clinched the deal for them.