OdishaPlus Bureau
Come Durga Puja festival in Millennium city, fortune smiles upon the traditional artisans and craftsmen. Like previous years, with the commencement of the five-day puja festival, hundreds of artisans and craftsmen not only from different parts across the state but also from the outsides have arrived in the city with a hope to have some ample income by selling their produces.
Setting up makeshift shops by covering polythene sheet propped up by some pieces of bamboo or wood on the footpath of Kathajodi Ring Road stretching from Malachndia Chhak to Devigada, they have started making brisk business. Revelers now facing an uphill task for marketing from the shops in the city due to heavy rush are preferring to go for shopping household commodities freely on the riverside, the half-kilometer long ring road’s footpath now has turned in to a busy market yard.
Sixty-Five years old Pramod Pradhan of Bindhanima in Tigiria block of Cuttack district is selling bamboo made basket, winnowing fan, tray, case, etc.“I have been coming to the city with my father since my childhood to sell our family made products during puja time. There is a great demand for our localities’ products especially the bamboo plate made basket, winnowing fan and tray for using in puja rituals,” said Pramod.
Similarly, while 50-year-old Raghunath Behera, a potter from Nischintakoili locality is busy selling his homemade earthenware products, 45-year-old Bhagaban Sahoo is selling stone-carved household items like plate, dish, grindstone, mortar, pestle, etc.
“The earthen pitcher, pot, pipkin, lamp, saucer, and smoke pot are being demanded in Puja time. I have already sold 50 percent of my stock,” said Raghunath.
60-year-old Ashok Debnath who has come from Digha in West Bengal is selling different varieties of conch and conch made products.“I have been coming to Cuttack to make business during Dussehra for the last five years and has been earning a remarkable profit,” said Debnath adding that his business would maximize on the last two days during immersion ceremony. The artisans and craftsmen, however, have expected that they would able to make good business if the weather remains fair.
As they have been doing it for years, most of them have also opted to shift their makeshift stalls to Choudwar Rupa Yatra starting from Kumarpurnima, then to the Panchuka celebration at Dhabaleswar shrine and then to Baliyatra in Cuttack.