Dinesh Kamath's news 'Dampened Diwali for some while others enjoyed the festival' that was published in Newsband

Dampened Diwali for some while others enjoyed the festival

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: This Diwali was a dampener for many people who are fond of dry fruits. The exceptional steep prices of dry fruits at both wholesale and retail markets in Navi Mumbai dampened the spirit of those who always look forward to enjoying and distributing the dry fruits.

During last Diwali, the stalls selling the dry fruits used to be packed with customers to buy the dry fruits packaged in various attractive ways. Those were the days when even the pavements used to consist of sellers of boxes of dry fruits. Business was brisk then. But this year, the same was not the case owing to tremendous hike in prices of dry fruits.

The shopkeepers at APMC market too were finding it extremely difficult to attract customers to buy their expensive dry fruits. They could not even keep the dry fruits packed in boxes and had to wait to do that till they received the orders from the customers. In fact, the owners of many shops in APMC were expecting the business to be bad and hence they focused their attention on selling Diwali goods other than dry fruits. Those sellers who depended solely on dry fruits to do their business were the worst hit since they could hardly make any profit.

The dry fruits are imported from Afghanistan and the Middle East and they are not only highly priced but even have high duties and taxes are imposed on them. India cannot produce all the dry fruits here and hence they have to depend on the foreign countries for dry fruits other than walnuts and cashew nuts. But the thing is even the dry fruits that are produced locally are high priced. This fact has disappointed both the customers and the shopkeepers during this Diwali season.

While the dry fruit lovers found this Diwali dampened, there were others who used lots of colourful lamps, diyas and torans to make the occasion very special. The interesting thing about these lamps, diyas and torans were they were made by special children, who have been working on these products long before the festival arrived.

These children had undergone vocational training at special school and here they were taught to make handicrafts and gift items. These special children went on to make a range of items such as diyas, paper bags, boxes, thalis, candles, lanterns, and spices, which they displayed at an exhibition and sale in the school. The items were reasonably priced according to their qualities.

Thus even though the festival was a dampener for some, there were others who went on to enjoy Diwali like they did every year in the past.