Poila Baishakh: Shedding light on the changing dynamics of celebration
No matter how much we follow the Gregorian calendar and centre our lives around it, for a Bengali, 14 or 15 April is not just another day of the year.
A soaring sale of fish in departmental stores though not in some of the city markets where shoppers unlike the mall hoppers stopped short of paying through their nose for the ingredients which would grace the Poila Baishakh table, marked the spirit of the city to be on a linear curve on the eve of the first day of Bengali New Year.
Sensing the nerve of the Bengalis’ eternal love for fish, a departmental store in Kolkata has come up with 75 kinds of fish, ranging from small, medium to large ones, in its various stores. Imported fish from Norway, Mayanmar and Vietnam are also available.
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According to the Chief Group advisor of the departmental store, salmons from Norway have unexpectedly received a tremendous response. The attraction of the season remains a huge 25 kg Katla fish from Gandhi Sagar reservoir in Madhya Pradesh. Also medium sized Rohu and Katla at Rs.148 per kg are in great demand.
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The volume of sale of fish, however, in such departmental stores has brought sorrows to the traditional fish markets of the city. Vendors in fish market at Gariahat lamented about the poor sale as compared to previous years.
“The growth of uncontrolled shops outside the corporation market has affected our sale adversely,” said Sumona Bhunyia, a fish seller who comes from Canning daily.
“During Poila Baishakh, the sales used to go as high as Rs 20,000 per day. But now, it is hard to even reach up to Rs 3,000 per day,” she added.
Expressing a similar grief, a vendor at fish market in Lake area, said, “The sale of fish departmental stores and other online sale have led to a very poor influx of customers in our traditional markets.”
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