Swagata Borah
What is Holi without Gulaal? With the colour festival arriving at the doorstep, the market vendors in Guwahati are busy making preparations to meet the people demands for colours, water guns and other holi-related accessories.
The market wore a festive mood with vendors getting ready to showcase their best materials afore customers.
On Tuesday, Pratidin Time took a sneak-peak into the sales of colours near Anuradha Market in Guwahati, one of the busiest market places in the city.
While speaking one of the vendors, it was learned that the sale of these assorted colors has seen a drastic drop – as huge a margin as 50 percent.
“This year the market has brought massive loss for us. The customer count has seen a drop by 50 percent. The sell isn’t much as compared to the previous years. It would not be wrong if I say the sale of colours were higher before the prevalence on Covid-19 pandemic,” Sujit, one of the vendors said.
A section of traders have also claimed that there is a wrong conception among the people that these colors are China-made.
A vendor said, “We generally purchase the products of our stalls from Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh etc. However, certain advisory from the Government have affected the market in a negative way.”
Another vendor, who was in the vicinity, highlighted, “I have also invested a lot of cash in organic colours in my stall, keeping in view the skin problems that people face due to the same. However, people hardly stop by my stall to purchase any of these. If this continues throughout the season then what will be the profit of switching from cheap synthetic to organic colours that cost extravagant?”
Upon asking why they think the sale of colours have witnessed drastic drop, he said, “People these days concentrate more on liquor partying rather than playing with gulaal. Moreover, there are people who do not like purchasing products from small stalls. They prefer going to big fancy shops to purchase the same to maintain their standards.”
For generations, Holi has been one of the most eagerly anticipated of all festivals. However, with the changing passage of time and growth of modernization, there seem to be lack of excitement and enthusiasm for the festival.
Moreover, there is an increasing consciousness of social inequalities among youngsters these days. They have great empathy for those who are less fortunate and for them, frivolous activities to celebrate Holi is callous and upright condemnable. Instead of participating, they instead prefer to take up social causes like helping spread awareness in such occasions.
Above all, there is cultural globalization which has been expedited by the new generation. It is indisputable that the global culture has brought many changes and Holi is not celebrated on the same scale as it was in the year that has passed.
Moreover, people now-a-days prefer other ways to celebrate without any wastage of money while enjoying quality time with family and friends.
