Kolkata: In Covid times, secular spirit drives New Market Puja sales

KOLKATA: After two hours of shopping in New Market, Md Imran and Ayesha Khatoon head back home with their purchase: she with two dresses; he with a couple of tees and shirts.
Zaid Alam, from Park Circus, is also shopping for clothes at New Market with his mother. They had visited some malls but had not found a nice frock for a two-year-old in the family.
In Covid times, around half of New Market’s festival-season sales are coming from communities that do not celebrate Durga Puja as a religious festival. Scores of Muslim families from surrounding localities — Free School Street, Royd Street, Elliot Road, Taltala, Mehdi Bagan, Bowbazar, Colootola Street Park Circus and even Kidderpore, are shopping at the heritage market to enjoy the festival round-the-corner: Durga Puja.
“Durga Puja is a religious festival. But it is also the biggest social occasion here. We, too, enjoy stepping out in new clothes, meeting friends and eating out,” says Imran, highlighting the Puja spirit, which transcends religion to embrace all communities.
For many families, shopping for clothes and footwear was pretty low on the priority list since March 2020, owing to the pandemic. But things are changing now, with the reduction in cases. “A lot of my business associates have Durga Puja at home, and they invite me and my family every year. This year, too, many have invited me after a gap of one year. So we went shopping for my wife, son and myself. I like to visit wearing traditional attire,” says Irfan Ahmed, a businessman and resident of Mahatma Gandhi Road.
Stocks get replenished and traders in New Market offer good discounts during festivals like Eid, Durga Puja and Christmas. “Unfortunately, the two waves of Covid-19 coincided with Eid and even Eid-uz-Zoha. But now, shops and malls are open and are offering good deals on new stock. It is a good time to buy some clothes and footwear for family members,” says Farhana Rasul, a resident of New CIT Road. “There are several Durga Puja gatherings of college friends that we attend, so replenishing the wardrobe has become important.”
Ashok Gupta, president of SS Hogg Market Traders’ Association, says the secular nature of the festival and the enthusiasm with which all communities embrace the occasion has saved the market from doom.
“Usually, around this time of year, less than a month before Durga Puja, 75% customers are Bengali Hindus shopping for Puja. Though the footfall is currently around 45% of what it was in September 2019, nearly half the customers in New Market are Muslims who live within a 5km radius. Had it not been for them, many shops that are currently operational because they are just about breaking even would have been shut to reduce losses,” Gupta tells TOI.
Amit Saha, who has a salwar suite boutique in the market, says almost two-thirds of his customers have been Muslim women. “Durga Puja is a festival that everyone enjoys, irrespective of religious beliefs,” he says. “It is a huge socio-cultural occasion. Apart from clothes, shoes and jewellery are flying off the shelves.”
Muslim customers also say that Eid-ul-Fitr in May and Eid-uz-Zoha in July had been washed out by Covid restrictions and hence, they had not been able to buy new clothes and step out then. “Everyone, particularly children and youngsters, are looking forward to the festive season,” Alam says.
Association general secretary Uday Kumar Shaoo says local Muslims always patronised the market but their presence has now become much more noticeable because of three reasons: the absence of Bangladeshi customers due to restrictions in travel between the two countries; a drop in local Bengali customers as they have moved out; and lack of customers from the suburbs, as local trains are yet to start functioning.
“Many Bengalis have moved out from central Kolkata to the fringe areas and now shop at markets closer home in Behala, Jadavpur and Gariahat. Thus, the purchase pie of Muslim customers has gone up,” Shaoo argues, adding that local Muslims had supported the market even during the challenging days following the reopening of the market. “At the time, 95% of customers were local Muslims,” he points out.