After 2 years, Banastarim’s matoli bazaar is packed with produce, but low on charm

For at least six decades, in the run-up to Ganesh Chaturthi, the matoli bazaar at Banastarim has been flooded with mounds of wild fruits and vegetables. For residents of nearly all urban areas of North Goa, this annual market has been the main point to source the traditional items hung on the matoli above the Ganesh idol.
This year, after a two-year break due to the Covid pandemic, the annual bazaar is slowly making its way to its former self. However, the traditional market is nothing like its traditional version, bustling with over 400 vendors. And the sellers fear that the market could be losing its sheen permanently thanks to several matoli markets sprouting in urban areas during the festival and an increasing shortage of wild fruits and vegetables.
Eighty-year-old Prema Naik has been doing business at the Banastarim market located in the village of Adcon, for almost 50 years.
“The hills from where these fruits and vegetables used to be sourced have completely transformed. After the pandemic, many have lost their jobs and anyone is seen sitting by the roadsides selling items for the matoli. At Banastarim market too, sellers from neighbouring states, from areas like Kankauli, have started setting up stalls,” said Prema from Durbhat, Ponda, who now procures items from other areas
like Sattari and Quepem.
Citrus fruits like toring and mauling, local variety of cucumbers and melons like chibud, wild inedible fruits like kanglam, ghagre and kundalam, wild flowers like harne, and a collection of leaves called gavar are some of the items in demand during Ganesh Chaturthi.
Unlike Prema, Suman Gaude from Vantem, Sattari, is not a vendor at the Banastarim market held on Wednesdays and Fridays. Suman comes to the
matoli bazaar only once a year for the four to five days before Ganesh Chaturthi in the hopes of earning extra income. But her hopes have been dashed over the last three years.
“Around four-five years ago I would have no time to speak. I would get 100 bunches of bananas and all would be gone in no time. This time I brought 10 and it has been difficult to sell them. I would usually make `50,000 over two to four days during the matoli bazaar. We would not go home and would sleep near the market. Now with the business having gone down, we come here only for a few hours to set up a stall,” said Suman.
Sushma Gaude from Priol recalls a time when a steady stream of customers would not allow them to close the stalls until 11pm during the matoli bazaar.
The weekly Banastarim market can be traced back to the Portuguese era when the ‘banas’ or clay pots sold here saw people arrive by boats using the ‘tar’ or waterways to make their purchases. However, in the post-Liberation era, urbanisation in pockets gave rise to the matoli bazaar at Banastarim, where city residents could find all their matoli requirements at a single point.
But along with other factors, rising prices and the Covid pandemic has dimmed the enthusiasm in customers, feel vendors.
Today, two raw mangoes at the matoli bazaar can cost Rs100.
“We purchase them for Rs60 to Rs80 ourselves. There was a time when for Rs5 to Rs10, we would purchase 100 white radishes. The increasing competition among vendors and inflation is taking the prices up. The sellers have outnumbered the buyers here,” said Prema.