Business mood in Durga Puja markets in malls and footpaths

This year, Durga Puja starts on October 1 and the markets are in business mood. Apart from malls, the shops in New Market, Gariahat and other footpaths are gearing up to woo the customers. While the shopping malls display pomp and show apart from glamor, the roadside shops have an advantage of their own. Their overheads are less in comparison to malls. Hence, they can offer products at much lesser prices and customers can even bargain to get the items at cheaper rates. This makes for fair competition and there is all round satisfaction. The common people are the patrons and they have to weigh their wants with their finances. While the rich can afford to gorge on pizzas and ice creams in air-conditioned comfort between shopping, the not-so-fortunate ones have to make do with jhal muri and tele bhaja.

There are the two famous malls in south Kolkata. One is the South City Mall on Prince Anwar Shah Road, the other is the Acropolis Mall near Kasba. This year, the Covid threat perception is considerably low. As a result, businesses expect good returns. The rush has led to traffic jams in and around these malls. Obviously, the festive season has arrived and footfalls are on the rise. These are in thousands. The authorities of the malls confirm this. Puja early shoppers crowd Kolkata malls, markets to trigger revival hopes. This festival brings out the best in not only fashion but also in the general outlook of the people. Some of them work out plans to move away from the hustle and bustle of city life and enjoy the holidays among nature.

Durga Puja from outside India –

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Games that children play

The other day there was an interesting post on Facebook that gave pictorial presentation of games that children used to play even in the 60s and 70s – girls played games like the hula hoop, hop scotch, rope skipping, while the boys played seven tiles, yoyo, marbles, and top etcetera.
Each of these games helped to tone up the muscles of the child’s body and keep it fit. During lunch break the kids used to be kept busy making teams on their own and playing. The games were instrumental in imparting knowledge to the kids – knowledge on leadership, control and managing. These came to them naturally. They acquired the knowledge through practical experiences.

Moreover, these games made them mentally tough and they learnt that every game has a winner and a loser – they learnt to accept defeat with a smiling face or be subject to ridicule from their own. Obviously, education did not end with bookish knowledge but also included other aspects of life that taught the child how to live and interact in a community.
However, over a period of time, the thinking and outlook of not only the children but their parents and guardians have also gone through a major transformation. The exact time when this change began to happen is difficult to pinpoint but, it all started with the gradual breakup of the joint family system and crystallization of the nuclear families or families with one or two child norms.
Another contributory factor was the son of the family migrating to greener pastures away from home or the daughter getting married and going away to a distant place. And, coupled to these was the hidden desire of the parents to see the fulfillment of their unfulfilled desires through their children.
In the bargain, the children have lost their childhood. They are straddled with tons of books, they have to mug off page after page so that they can score high marks in examinations. Last week it was announced that cutoff mark for admission to DU was 100%!!
Obviously, children of today have no time to appreciate the beauty of the birds and flowers, no time to interact with Nature. Outing to them means spending the weekend in some restaurant gorging on pizzas and pastas.
And, whatever leisure time they have, they spend in front of the TV watching cartoons. Or – play video games on the mobile. (to be continued …)
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)
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Mangoes are forever

Ripe mangoes and mango cakes or amsatta