Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Oct 3: With just two days left for Eid-ul-Azha, the people devastated by the ruinous floods, have no enthusiasm to celebrate the coming festival with traditional fervour.
In the Valley, most markets places especially Lal Chowk known as hub of business activities, which would otherwise have been busy in cuisine to the rush of Eid shoppers, are these days busy in erasing the scares of debris and devastation which the floods early this month brought in. "We have nothing to celebrate," said Muhammad Shabaan Mir, from Jawahar Nagar whose house got completely damaged in the recent floods. "Last year I sacrificed two animals (sheep) on Eid-ul-Azha but this time I don't think, I can afford even one," Mir said with broken words and his eyes moist. Heaps of garbage are still lying on the roadside in the commercial hub of Lal Chowk and surrounding areas.
"The markets in Srinagar and elsewhere in the Valley would have been bustling with shoppers by this time but this Eid will be without celebrations," Sanjay lone, a shopkeeper in Lal Chowk, said. In past, on occasions of Eid and other festivals, the markets of Srinagar and other major towns of the Valley will wore a colourful look with shopkeepers offering Eid Special items from clothing to shoes, from bakery to sweets, from toys to many other things. The markets which would once attract thousands of potential customers daily on such occasions have become lifeless these days. Muhammad Yaseen Dar, a Shopkeeper in his early fifties from Kursoo area of Raj Bagh who broke into tears while talking to Early Times said, "There is no Eid for us." The devastating floods have taken away everything from us. It had made us homeless, how can we celebrate?"
More than three weeks have passed now and not a single shop in the historic city center of Kashmir, Lal Chowk, has opened for customers. This time there is no hustle-bustle in the markets of Kashmir, no Eid specials are being offered, no stalls of bakery and sweets have been set-up yet. Even the sacrificial animals - which would go on sale at least 15 days before the Eid - have not arrived in the city and other parts of the Valley in numbers as used to be the case before the floods. Though a market of sacrificial animals has been put up at Srinagar's Eidgah, there are few People who coming forward to buy sheep and goat for sacrifice. "We have also reduced our import due to lack of demand," Mohammad Nayeem Ganaie, a livestock dealer, said.
Many local residents say they will not observe the Eid-ul-Azha with grand celebrations but there will be only rituals to celebrate the Eid. "As First of all, we are still in a state of mourning. The loss of lives, loss of property and the large scale devastation does not leave much scope for celebrations. |
