IndiaMART takes money and still sends you enquiries that go nowhere. We tried the logic. The charges are real. The business, for us, was not.
So the catalogue lives on padmalights.com. Prices are indicative. You talk on WhatsApp. Trade starts at 10 pieces. One to five pieces: retail, no discount. You buy from the works, not a listing that could be anyone in the lane. Payment and freight details sit on About and shipping.
What a portal cannot show you
A portal card does not tell you the holder is B22 unless someone typed it. It does not tell you custom lanterns need a sample and 50+ pieces. It does not tell you we have never shipped an export crate yet — I will say that on a call, because importers trust the empty space more than a flag icon.
Aligarh goods get copy-pasted onto portals by people who never stood on our floor. If you found “our” lantern on a marketplace, check the legal name on the bill against what we publish on About. If it does not match, you are not buying from this works.
How to order from the works
About 4 days for around 10 stock pieces; 1–2 weeks when the lot is bigger. Invoice in INR. Read shipping for freight. If a portal is how you like to browse, fine. When a lantern has to sit through a monsoon, buy from the people who cast it.
The site is the shop window. WhatsApp is the counter. That is the whole policy.
“If the listing could be anyone, the monsoon will find that out.”