Kashmir 10 sept 2008

This Eid, markets lack fervish pitch in Kashmir

Srinagar, Sept 10:

Even as hundreds of Eid shoppers thronged markets in Kashmir Valley, the feverish pitch remained missing all along in wake of the prevailing unrest.

“This Eid, it was looking for a lost key to joy,” says Nasir Ahmad, who runs a readymade garment in Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of this summer capital.

“Normally the preparations for Eid begin two weeks ago and this time it was squeezed by shutdowns and curfews,” he adds.

He said not many people visited readymade garment and shoe shops. “One can clearly make that essential commodities are most sort after and subsidiary items are in least demand,” he said underlining that three months unrest has started to tell on the pockets of the people.

Nasir is not the only shopkeeper to be affected by the three months turmoil in the valley that saw pitched street battles between law enforcing agencies and stone-pelting mobs.

“People did come to shop but there was no enthusiasm among shoppers,” says Gulzar Ahmad, owner of shoe shop here.

He said that sales had declined to a large extent this festival. “Most of the shoppers who visited my shop were very cautious. I think people are more concerned about future and wanted to keep more money at hand,” he added.

There was no let up in the rush in the markets in Srinagar city and elsewhere for the second day today but most of the shoppers were making purchases of essential commodities.

Roads in the uptown areas of Srinagar were jammed and most of the people had a tough time managing there way through the congested streets.

“The past situation is definitely telling on pockets and one has to move cautiously. You can wear old cloths but can’t let stomach hungry as such people go for essentials,” says, Bashir Ahmad Beigh, teacher in an old town school.

Despite two decades of conflict, Eid celebrations have never been a complex issue in the Kashmir but continuing strike, coupled with official restrictions have telling effect on people this festival.

The Eid had certain traditional form, religious aura and emotional timbre in past. But now the festivities seem to have lost some of its virtue alongside the unremitting unrest that has claimed 70 lives since June 11.