Indian Furniture Makers

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Indian furniture makers | Turning the Tables; Rajasthan's furniture-makers ride the unpredictable waves of globalisation. Economist, Oct 22, 2016.
http://www.economist.com/news/bu ... tion-turning-tables

Note:
(a) "carpenters distress the paint on a newly-made chest of drawers to make it look as if it has come straight from a flea market in Brooklyn."

distress (vt): "give (furniture or clothing) simulated marks of age and wear"
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/distress

(b) "Jodhpur, on the edge of a desert with few trees to feed sawmills, is an unlikely woodworking hub. But when tourists came to survey the arid landscape and the 15th-century fort that overlooks the city, many also admired the hardwood carvings by skilled artisans (pictured). When India liberalised its economy in the early 1990s, a small group of European exporting agents encouraged independent furniture-makers. Then volumes grew, cheap power tools came from China, furniture fashions changed, and [indigenous] latticework made way for those Scandinavian, minimalist designs."
(i) Jodhpur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodhpur
(was founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha ['son of Rao Ranmal']
(ii) Rajasthan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajasthan(literally, "Land of Kings")
(iii) Rao
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rao
(Rao was a title (sharing the same root with raja, from Sanskrit of the same spelling for king; both rao and raja are Hindi (variants) ], which became a surname)
(iv) The "desert" is Thar Desert.
New World Encyclopedia, undated
www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thar_Desert
("The Thar Desert's name derives from the word t'hul, the general term for the region's sand ridges")
(v) The "15th-century fort" is Mehrangarh Fort (built around 1460 by Rao Jodha; etymology: 'Mihir' (Sanskrit) -sun or Sun-deity; 'garh' (Sanskrit)-fort; ie 'Sun-fort')  Wikipoedia
(vi) "the hardwood carvings by skilled artisans (pictured)"
(A) Diana Mayfield, Guard Looking from Facade Window of Ornate Sandstone in interior of Meherangarh Fort. Getty Image, undated (Creative #: 148807850).
http://www.gettyimages.com/detai ... otography/148807850

That is sandstone facade with hardwood windows.
(B) The perspective of the same facade suggests the facades encloses a quadrangle.
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/mehrangarh-fort-facade.html

(c) "What the world wanted from Rajasthan a few years ago wasn't tables and stools but an obscure crop called guar. Once a niche bean, producing gum used to thicken sauces and ice cream, it somehow became a key ingredient for fracking (hydraulic fracturing) shale oil in America. Around two-thirds of the world's guar gum comes from Rajasthan * * * the guar boom ended"
(i) guar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guar
(The origin of Cyamopsis tetragonoloba is unknown, since it has never been found in the wild; lives in symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria)
(ii) Texas farmers wanted to get into the act (growing guar), too. But farmers in India and Pakistan grew more (guar) to to satisfy demand. "By the end of 2012, however, the price [of guar, because following the invisible hand, farmers of south Asia increased supplies] was already sinking. Recent low oil prices have exacerbated the problem."
Steve LeVine, Investors Have Lost Millions Backing This Humble Legume. Quartz, Jan 20, 2015.
http://qz.com/329786/investors-h ... this-humble-legume/