Kalpadruma, for gifts and more, in Chennai

It’s Tuesday afternoon, your best friend is getting married tomorrow, and you are yet to pick up a gift. Craft or home furnishing? Jewellery or art? No clues what to buy, anxiety and tension mounting within like a volcano ready to erupt. Your best bet at this point would be to drive down to Cathedral Road, and into Kalpadruma, a one-stop shop that has gifts for every occasion. What’s more, it is also a perfect place to pick up a few wonderful home-décor pieces if you are planning to revamp your home.

Feast your eyes on some fine handicraft items from different parts of the country. Or else, be prepared to be wooed by the glitter and shimmer of the cushion covers, table mats, beautifully hand-crafted bronze and terracotta figurines, wall hangings, and antique furnishings. For a moment you wish you could take them all home and show off. Alas, you are here on a mission and a budget.

An export house that has come a long way, Kalpadruma today is a hot spot in Chennai that every local and visitor make a trip to. The smartly-organised store has different sections, each gloriously strutting its stuff. Let your eyes glide across the resplendent home furnishings and caress the sculpted Tanjavur and Kalamkari pieces. Spoilt for choice, you gaze longingly at the chest of drawers that would just lend that perfect retro touch to your living room.

If you’ve had your fill, cross the short distance to the cosy handicraft boutique where you are overwhelmed with a few more art pieces, each hand made and unique. Sitting in the corner, is that coffee table with bronze sculptures adorning it—an ideal gift for your newly-wed friend.

“Soulful journey that was”, you reminisce putting away books in the chest of drawer that managed to find its way home.

Need I say more?