Thousands displaced persons to celebrate Eid away from homes Gloomy markets in the flood-hit areas of Kashmir clearly indicates that the scene in Kashmir is totally different on Eid this time. Eid ul Zuha is being celebrated on October 6. Thousands of homeless people will have to celebrate Eid away from their homes this time. They are presently living with their relatives, friends or in tents. The houses of most of them have either collapsed or developed massive cracks making those unsafe for living. Thousands of others, whose houses were also flooded, have since returned mostly due to the fear of thefts and burglaries. Tanveer Ahmad, a government official, is not happy. Since our house is not safe now for living, we have to celebrate the Eid at our relatives house. While our relatives are trying our level best to make us feel at home but celebrating Eid at our house has its own charm and taste, said Tanveer Ahmad. He added that his children particularly miss their home and want to be back there at the earliest. Tanveer said that he along with his family used to do lot of shopping particularly at Lal Chowk area. But this time there is no shopping. Lal Chowk and other adjoining markets which used to witness huge rush before Eid present an entirely opposite picture this time. There is no rush this time. No customers are at the bakery and sweet shops. Similar is the situation at ready-made garments, bangles, jewellery and toy shops. The shops are either closed or undergoing cleaning after the recent flood. However, some footpath vendors have started selling some items at Lal Chowk, Residency Road, Regal Chowk, Polo View, Saraibala, Hari Singh High Street and Maharajbazar. In the past, most people from the city would converge at Lal Chowk and other adjoining areas to do Eid related shopping. The rush would start almost a week before Eid and would gain momentum with every passing day. In view of the huge rush the authorities used to impose ban on the movement of passenger buses through Residency Road and Lal Chowk for three days prior to Eid. This time there are no such restrictions for the buses as there is no Eid rush. However, some kind of rush is visible in the markets in non-flood areas including old city of Srinagar. But the rush is not of the scale that was seen on Eids in the past. The flood led to huge losses. The impact is on both - the shopkeepers and customers. We used to do lot of business on Eid, said Toufiq Ahmad, owner of a bakery shop. He added that despite preparing huge quantity of bakery items, they were exhausted it within days. One day before Eid some customers would get disappointed not finding any bakery item left at our shop. These days we could not make any bakery and have had to spend our time simply cleaning our shop regularly, Toufiq said.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 12:06:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015