Traditional items hold fort at Bali Jatra
Sunetra Nayak
CUTTACK, Nov. 20: In today’s times the Bali Jatra may be more about the glitz, the lights and the giant wheel, but even after so many years the popularity of traditional handicraft and items have not diminished.
The ‘grandma’s antique’ still hold sway at the fair despite the onslaught of multi-crore advertisement blitz backed electronic gadgets and home appliances. Modern housewives would shrug their shoulders and give dismissive looks at many of the time tested traditional appliances but the fact is that these items continue to sell like hot cakes at the famous Bali Jatra.
No authentic Oriya household is complete without the shila or the traditional stone grinder sitting quietly in a corner of the kitchen. Although whizzing electronic gadgets such as mixers, grinders and blenders now occupy pride of place on the kitchen counter, old timers still swear by the distinct taste of fish curry made with shila ground mustard paste.
That the demand for the shila has not reduced is proved by the diligence with which 40-year-old Jaleswar Behera of Thoriapatna has been coming to sell the stone grinder at the fair for the last 20 years. “Labourers make these stone grinders at different places in the state and they are accordingly categorised as Naraj shila, Lalitgiri shila, Nayagarh shila and so on. Each piece sells for Rs 100 to Rs 250 depending on the kind of stone used,” Behera said.
Although he has not sold many pieces this year yet, Behera is optimistic that business will pick up. “During the first few days people come to enjoy themselves. The real sale of these heavy stone grinders take place usually on the last day of the fair,” he said.
Forty four year old Prabhati Sahu sitting at her stall amidst iron implements including paniki, katuri, sickles and even rose cake frames is also hopeful of making a good profit this year. “People usually wait till the last day to buy these implements since they believe they will get a good bargain at the end of the fair. But business has not been bad so far,” she said. “I have made decent profit in the last eight years. We now sell a few wooden items such as pedhas and dali ghotani along with the iron implements,” she said.
However, for others like 30-year-old bamboo craftsman Bhagabata Jena, earning a profit is getting increasingly difficult.
“People are still eager to buy bamboo products such as kulla, tokei, pachia, jhudi, changudi and bainsiya. But the cost of production has risen while the profits have reduced. While a kulla sells for Rs 20, a bamboo piece costs Rs 30. Since I make the articles myself I do not mind it, plus my family has been in this business for the last 50 years. The demand has not decreased, in fact there are people who wait for the entire year to buy a kulla from the Bali Jatra,” he said.
Yet another item that is almost synonymous with the Bali Jatra is sukhua or dried fish.
Love it or hate it but the one thing that can not be ignored is the distinct smell of all kinds of sea and fresh water dried fish including chingudi sukhua, pita sukhua, bali kokali, kau kokali, marua and ilisi sukhua that strikes visitors even before they reach the fair.
“I come from my village in Sunakhala to sell sukhua here every year. The stock is bought from fishermen in Paradip and is sold here from Rs 100 to Rs 200 per kilogram. Profit is good since people from all walks of life and all sections of society buy these products even though children rush past the sukhua heaps with crinkled noses,” said a laughing Surama Behera.
Source: http://www.thestatesman.net/
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