With the Holi festival approaching nearer, the market places in Dehradun remained crowded with shoppers on a buying spree on Monday. Some were seen busy purchasing sweets for their family or those near to them while the teen-agers and the children were found purchasing pitchkari, gulal and the like with a gusto.
Holi being two days away, many children and youngsters were seen with their faces smeared with gulal and colours. Students were seen this way outside the educational institutions on Monday.
Shimran, BA first year student of DBS (PG) College, said,” I enjoyed a lot while playing Holi with my friends ahead of the festival. I had purchased colour from the markets on Sunday. This would continue till Thursday –the day of official Holi,” she said.
Moreover, to attract the customers, the shopkeepers in the markets were seen displaying different types of Pitchkari, including one having photo of politicians. Colours and gulals were found in abundance too at the shops at Paltan Bazaar and other markets in the city.
The prices of Pitchkari varies from Rs 20 to Rs 750. However, the big retailers are selling them for prices that vary from Rs 50 to Rs 2500. Plenty of Chinese made festive items like Pitchkari, and colour were also seen flooding the markets.
A shopkeeper in Paltan Bazaar said that the sale of Pitchkari is not satisfactory so far. People come at the shop and ask for various types of Pitchkari but few of them purchase, he said, adding that there was no taker for pitchkari priced at Rs 750 or more. “They have brought Holi items from Delhi instead,” he said despairingly.
Ashok, another shopkeeper, said, “We are happy that large number of customers has turned up for purchasing festive items in the market. Keeping in mind of low and high income customers, we have kept various types of Pitchkari whose prices vary from Rs 20 to Rs 750.”
Sohan Bisht, resident of Salawala said that he had found the prices of the Holi items like Pitchkari having gone up by five to 10 per cent as compared to last year.