post news network, Bhubaneswar, June 7: Swings are very special during the Raja festival as are the pithas. For young Oriya girls the festival means unadulterated holiday – spending the three days enjoying the swing, playing with friends, singing and feasting on homemade delicious pithas.
With only seven days remaining for the festival to begin, one can spot swing vendors in the city with their goods on their back. Around 200 swing vendors from Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh, have descended on the state; around 15 of them are scattered in the city and have set up their camps in prominent places since the beginning of this month.
“Every year we come during the Raja festival,” said Kariyapa, a vendor who is selling swings near Acharya Vihar Square. For the past five years he has been coming to the state to sell his products. “Raja is the festival during which young girls and ladies play on the swings. We know about the festival, that is why since 2010 we have been coming in groups to sell our products,” he said.
“Many people living in the villages of Srikakulam are swing vendors and they go from place to place, all over the country. Though the business is not doing that well as we had expected, yet we hope that after June 10 it would pick up,” he added.
Another vendor near the Exhibition Ground also had a similar story to tell. “We roam from one place to another all over the country. Out of the 12 months in a year, we stay away from home for three to four months. I have been coming to Orissa during Raja festival for the past three years, with other group members, to sell these plastic swings. It’s been eight days now and I am yet to get a good business. Every morning I arrive at the spot at 6 am with a hope to sell some of my products. We make these swings ourselves,” said Ballu, a 21 year old swing vendor.
Rajiv Sahoo, a teacher who was trying to select a swing for his eight-year-old daughter, said, “The real spirit of the Raja festival can be felt in villages only, where girls make swings on the branches of big trees and have lots of fun. But in the cities that is hardly possible. These beautiful swings, however, are easy to hang and take less space”.
When the swing vendors are waiting patiently for their sale to pick up, the pitha vendors are apparently doing a roaring business in the city.
Traditionally, a wide variety of pithas used to be made during the festival to satisfy the taste buds of the family members, especially those of the young girls. But the age-old tradition of making pithas at home has taken a backseat in the city, courtesy its fast-paced life.
Some malls in the city, however, have stepped in to fill in the blanks. They are encashing on the idea of offering the traditional pithas to the city dwellers without their taking any trouble at home to make those.
Vikram Chhatoi, has opened a pitha counter in the Forum mart and is selling different varieties of pithas that is witnessing reasonably good footfall.
All the prominent pithas like manda pitha, kakara, arisa, sarapuli, karanji pitha, chhenapoda, podapitha etc. are being sold in his stall.
“For the past seven years, I have been opening a stall in the Forum mart during the Raja festival. It is an initiative of the mall. I sell all the traditional pithas made during the festival. Podapitha and sarapuli are some of the hit products. Podapitha is specially made with rice powder in which coconut, raisin, cashew, cardamom powder and other nuts are added and then baked in banana leaves. People in cities are very busy, so they hardly have enough time to prepare these dishes, which take lots of time from grinding to baking,” he said.
A piece of kakara, arisa, maida pitha, manda pitha costs only `10 a piece, while podapitha costs `260 per kg, where as sarapuli costs Rs25 a piece.
Vikram is doing a brisk business since the opening of the stall on June 1. His stall will be there till June 16. “Every day I earn around Rs10000 to Rs15000 from the sale of pithas. Most of the pithas are brought from different villages of Puri and nearby areas around Bhubaneswar. The sarapuli from Nimapada is a big hit. In the coming days some other pithas such as, enduli, haldi patra pitha, dhala manda will be available,” he said.
“All the pithas are so delicious. They give the taste of homemade pithas, which we used to have during our childhood. Now-a-days we hardly get enough time to prepare these pithas. Every year during the Raja festival Vikram opens his stall in the mall, and we purchase these ready-made pithas, which save lots of our time. I mostly love the podapitha, sarpuli, and manda. It is good that these traditional pithas are being sold in big malls,” said Sanjita Panigrahi, who works as a sales executive of a bank.
