From pin to elephant! Later, when I discuss my experience with Mr S.K. Saria, Managing Director of Soongachi Tea Industries Pvt Ltd, and a member of the Tea Board, whose tea estates in Dooars and Darjeeling record an annual production of around 2 million kg of tea, he says: "Oh yes, that market is simply mind-boggling... you name it and it is available here." Sinclairs' Deputy Manager Avijit Ghosh is more dramatic: "You can buy from a pin to an elephant here." Well, one did not see any elephants here; that had to wait till an expedition to the Garumara Wildlife Sanctuary the next day, but the rest of it was all there. There was an astounding display of wares, ranging from colourful sarees, salwars, dupattas, blankets, shoes and other apparel and accessories, to seeds, grains and pulses, cooking oil, crockery and cutlery, scythes, sickles, big and small knives, saplings, colourful flowers, fruits and vegetables, eggs and dried fish... and, of course, the Bengali staple of paan and supari... it was all there.
These wares were peddled by scores of sellers. As I watched, absolutely fascinated, the paan seller expertly peeled out fresh supari (betel nut) from the fruit and made ready the paan-supari combine. [Amal Mukhi] chuckled and, reading my mind, said: " Aap yeh nahi kha sakte, yeh geeli supari mei nasha hota hei. (You can't sample this; wet supari is intoxicating). People take it for nasha." Not wishing to disabuse him of the image he had formed, I walked on. Rows and rows of 6x6 ft stalls stretched as far as the eye could see and, according to Nabi-ul-Alam, a regular here from Batwari, about 8 km away, more than 3,000-3,500 sellers come to peddle their wares at this weekly haat.
from BUSINESS LINE, January 19, 2010 From the sylvan surroundings of the luxurious Sinclairs Retreat in Chalsa, Dooars, about 85 km from Bagdogra, the last airport in West Bengal and the gateway to Darjeeling, Gangtok and the border areas of Bhutan, a mere 2 km drive to Mangalbari is an experience to cherish.
It is Thursday and this little, nondescript village has sprung to life, buzzing with the kind of economic activity one can hardly associate with a small Indian village. The weekly haat or bazaar was on and the number of footfalls this village saw by sundown would make the best of marketers envious.
My driver, Amal Mukhi, tells me I should visit the weekly haat, and I keep the camera ready, hoping to capture a few cute/quaint pictures, but as he walks me through the nearly 2 km-long 'market', what unfolds before the eye is sheer magic. It is also education in how people with modest means - farmers, small traders and rural consumers - survive these difficult times, when food prices have gone through the roof.
From pin to elephant! Later, when I discuss my experience with Mr S.K. Saria, Managing Director of Soongachi Tea Industries Pvt Ltd, and a member of the Tea Board, whose tea estates in Dooars and Darjeeling record an annual production of around 2 million kg of tea, he says: "Oh yes, that market is simply mind-boggling... you name it and it is available here." Sinclairs' Deputy Manager Avijit Ghosh is more dramatic: "You can buy from a pin to an elephant here." Well, one did not see any elephants here; that had to wait till an expedition to the Garumara Wildlife Sanctuary the next day, but the rest of it was all there. There was an astounding display of wares, ranging from colourful sarees, salwars, dupattas, blankets, shoes and other apparel and accessories, to seeds, grains and pulses, cooking oil, crockery and cutlery, scythes, sickles, big and small knives, saplings, colourful flowers, fruits and vegetables, eggs and dried fish... and, of course, the Bengali staple of paan and supari... it was all there.
These wares were peddled by scores of sellers. As I watched, absolutely fascinated, the paan seller expertly peeled out fresh supari (betel nut) from the fruit and made ready the paan-supari combine. Amal chuckled and, reading my mind, said: " Aap yeh nahi kha sakte, yeh geeli supari mei nasha hota hei. (You can't sample this; wet supari is intoxicating). People take it for nasha." Not wishing to disabuse him of the image he had formed, I walked on. Rows and rows of 6x6 ft stalls stretched as far as the eye could see and, according to Nabi-ul-Alam, a regular here from Batwari, about 8 km away, more than 3,000-3,500 sellers come to peddle their wares at this weekly haat.
He is a Muslim and the next day being a Friday, he will use it "for prayer and rest". But for the rest of the week he will take his fare - finely ground as well as whole spices, mounds of fresh green chillies, and ready-made masala packets, tea and coffee powder, etc., to other weekly marts in a 100-km vicinity.
Most of the shoppers at this buzzing mart are women, and they are mainly hovering around the vegetable stalls... over a couple of hundred in number. Quizzed about the financial turnover at this weekly mart, Alam consults a couple of other sellers and estimates that about 35,000-40,000 people would visit the market by the evening.
High turnover As most of the traders one spoke to said they sell goods worth around Rs 3,000 during the day, the turnover at this bazaar during the day would be between Rs 10-12 lakh. A fascinating number for a small village.
And that is not all; the economic activity stretches beyond the actual sale.
The sellers, who include farmers, have brought their goods from distances as far as 50-60 km. They do this by pooling resources and hiring vans, pick-up trucks and other vehicles, paying a rent of Rs 50-100 each for the service. This generates another kind of economic activity, providing business to the vehicle-owners, drivers and helpers.
Mouth-watering prices The predominant offering at the mart are vegetables, and the mouth-watering prices on offer, coupled with their freshness, seriously tempted one to carry some home all the back to Chennai! Potatoes, carrots and tomatoes were selling at Rs 6-8 a kg, fresh peas at Rs 20, beans at Rs 12, green chillies at less than Rs 20 and cabbage and cauliflower at less than Rs 10. Onion is the costliest commodity, at Rs 20. And every time one asked the price and moved on, the trader said: "Please buy, I will reduce the price." As one moved on, picking up odd bits of crockery along the way, one came across a flower-seller, selling vibrant-coloured giant dahlias. Even better, he was selling saplings too, and this mobile nursery offered them at throwaway prices - Rs 3 per sapling! Of course they came without soil or a polythene bag, but one decided to carry four saplings back home, hoping that at least one might survive and flower.
No tuar dal here The next stall is that of Rajesh Dhal, who has come from Mal, about 7 km away, and is selling pulses.
With tuar and moong dal prices having touched the triple-digit mark, this is a mandatory halt, but tuar dal is missing. "I used to sell tuar dal at Rs 80 but, as the price is so high, people have stopped buying that, as well as moong dhal. So now I have a lot of chana dal at Rs 40, which is selling very well." Well, rural consumers here are sending out a strong message to their urban counterparts - when something gets too costly, learn to live without it; boycott its use! With sugar prices having touched Rs 50, one looks around for it, but only finds mounds of jaggery instead. Perhaps the rural folk too had decided to give a go-by to the commodity referred to in health parlance as 'white poison'.
But this mart also spells out the tragedy of small and marginal farmers peddling perishable commodities. Haren Rai is one such farmer, from Mainagudi, about 40 km away, who grows vegetables on his one-acre plot. So, how much profit will he make today? "Well, it is a gamble and it is not always profits. By the end of the day, if I don't sell most of what I have brought, I'll make a loss; I have to either throw it away or sell it dirt cheap. But if I sell everything, then there will be a it is good profit. For farmers, profit and loss go hand in hand." Alam owns some land, on which he grows rice and vegetables, but only for the consumption of his family of six - mother, wife, two brothers and one daughter, whose education is important to him.
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