Ganesh Chaturthi in Kolkata: 100% jump in sweet business; flower sales shoot up

KOLKATA: As the lockdown lifted on Friday night, workers at sweet factories and workshops swung into action to ready thousands of kilograms of laddus and modaks—the two “favourites” of Ganesha—so that on Saturday, there was no dearth of offerings during the Ganesh Chaturthi pujas.
Most sweet shops opened shutters by 5am, while Kumartuli and Jagannath as well as Mullick Ghat were abuzz with activities from the crack of dawn as last-minute purchase of idols and flowers began.

Though sweet shops did brisk business throughout Saturday, the owners rued they lost out on sales on locked down Thursday and Friday; traditionally, at least 90% laddus and modaks were sold the days before Ganesh Chaturthi. However, the huge demand drove up sales on Saturday, leading to over 100% jump in business, with most shops running out of stock by early evening. They had to start production all over again.
“Despite the lockdown, orders came pouring in online and we also took orders on phone. It looked quite daunting when we started work at 10pm on Friday night. Laddus were popular for years but modaks have become a craze for the past five years or so. Apart from traditional modaks made of rice flour and grated coconut, we have experimented with myriad flavours,” said Sudip Mullick of Balaram Mullick.
The popularity of modaks, a Maharashtrian favourite, has caught on with customers in the city so much that most traditional Bengali sweet shops are selling them now.
“We, too, made modaks in more than 10 flavours and experimented with fillings. Those sold more than laddus this time,” said Tapan Das of Nalin Chandra Das.
The Haldiram’s store near Rabindra Sadan saw brisk sales, too, but owner Avni Agarwal rued that stocks could not be given to many distributors on the city fringes owing to the lockdown days before that. “Usually, the two days prior to Chaturthi sees 60% sales of laddus alone. We made up for that on Saturday though,” she said.
The flower market at Mullick Ghat below Howrah bridge teemed with people since early in the morning. While many people bought the idols on Wednesday, flowers couldn’t be stored three days in advance. “We will be going to Kumartuli to buy the idol after purchasing flowers. It is going to be a very basic affair this time without relatives joining in,” said Puja Rajgaria, a resident of Kankurgachhi.