With the Diwali festival drawing nearer, the people in enormous number is thronging around the markets in the city. Diwali being the festival of light, Doon residents are found purchasing candles, earthen diyas and decorative items on Friday.
Gaurav, owner of a candle shop, Paltan Bazaar said that various kinds of candles which attract the customers are available in his shop is in ample quantity. This is his family business, albeit a seasonal one. Around 10 members of the family have remained involved in the business over the past 30 years. This was so because things were thriving then.
However, with the traditional earthen diyas now losing out to the electric lights, the margin of profit keeps plummeting alarmingly. “How things are proving difficult for us can be gauged from the fact that the margin of profit has dipped ten times down as compared to what it was ten years ago,” he said.
Gaurav said, “There is a myriad kind of candles like flouting candle, Jel candle, aroma candle, heart- shaped candle, fruit candle, T-light candle aside from earthen diyas. These all are available in the shop. The cost of making such candles varies from Rs20 to Rs350. We have also kept candles priced Rsfive for the customers who are not inclined to go for costly ones, he said.
He further said, “Around ten years back, we used to make and sell candles all round the year. But now with electric lamp elbowing out the traditional diyas, we get into the business of making the candles two months before the Diwali comes. As per our trading experiences, the candles are sold presently only during the Diwali. We have no longer any buyer at times other than Diwali. That stands in sharp contrast to what things were a decade or so back.”
He further said they had purchased the candles’ frames from Hyderabad while the ingredients were brought from Nainital. After Diwali festival is over, we branch out to other business. Getting tethered to this trade alone is not feasible now, given the shrinking market of the things we produce and sell. Things might get worse in the coming days if the trend of the people running for China-made Diwali items continue.
Other shopkeepers in the market area echoed Gaurav on the matter. The common refrain running among them is that the mounting demand of electrical items mostly manufactured in China land them in dire straits. “The candle traders are finding it difficult to survive with the trend of the people scrambling for Chinese items taking frenzied proportions,” one of them rued.
Another shopkeeper Mahipal Negi at Karanpur said that though varieties of candles are available the number of buyers is disappointing. “We are face stiff competitions. Things are worse off for those whose family business is candle making. Once it was easy and profitable too to involve oneself in the trade. The frames and the ingredients were easily available in the markets. But now earthen diyas and the candles that were once the indispensable part of the Diwali paraphernalia are mere traditions bereft of the oomph of the past. Glitter now matters more than keeping up with the traditions. Things are unlikely to change. Rather they might get worse,” he said.
A trader at lakhibagh recounted the same sad story of their trade paling into insignificance behind the splendour of electric lights with the people setting more stores by what is gaudy and cheap rather than by what is relatively lack-lustre, yet more evocative of the true and timeless Diwali spirit.