In the small segment of Channapatna we visited, the houses were abuzz with activities yet in a curiously quiet way. Filling them with sights and sounds and smells that may not escape the houses too often. Just like the scent and warmth of filter coffee, trapped in the earthen pots that sit quietly on the floor.The whirl of machines and watching an artisan give shape to a toy can be hypnotising. Between their nimble fingerwork and tireless work, they sip tumblers of filter coffee to keep their bodies and minds running. And that, honestly, seems enough. 

Every place has a taste. You remember spots with colours, or long for a corner of the world for the special scents and tastes they carry. The sweetness of coffee blends and loses boundaries with the intense smell of lacquer. Coffee smells like old friendships and cosy hugs. But here, in this craft town, coffee also smells like hard work and relentless dedication to work from morning till evening. Tumblers of filter kaapi keep the fuel for deadlines running and the bond between the artisans intact. They smell of hope, for the continuity of a craft form that puts Karnataka on the world map.