Kumartuli or Kumortuli is located in the northern part of the city of Kolkata . The locality is a traditional habitat of the potters for nearly three hundred years. The potters or the artisans or the artists settled here during the restructuring of the Kolkata colonial region by the British East India Company . Earning a livelihood by making earthen pots and utensils first they gradually shifted to the making of the idols of Gods and Goddesses for various festivals round the year. With increasing demand and quality of their creations over time the artisans became famous and Kumartuli came to be known as the hub of idol makers supplying thousands of idols, particularly of Goddess Durga , to whole of the state of West Bengal and to NRIs of around 90 countries across the globe. At least three months before Durga Puja , the biggest festival of West Bengal and one of the biggest across Eastern India, more than five hundred workshops come alive with hyper activity day and night. Fir...
It is said in almost every part of this world that too much greed is not good. An Assamese proverb says that when the lazy tiger kills its 100th cow, its end is near. The nationwide greed of politicians and middlemen or rather dalalsfor the windfall out of the artificially-made-scarce onions has just become unprecedented, brazen and extremely unscrupulous. For nearly two months they have been making tonnes of bucks by selling a mass cooking item at a price more than 400 percent higher than normal. Same scenario prevails with only onion prices varying from 60 to 110 rupees per kg all over India. Few days back in Mumbai prices started to fall to 60-50 rupees per kg, but now rising again without any rhyme or reason to 70-90 rupees. With food inflation raging Diwali this time is going to be a dampened affair indeed.
This is what should ideally happen to the enemies of the masses. Common people including high middle classes have already drastically cut down their onion consumption. They are now used to having onions in small quantities like heavenly blessings and even while eating out in the restaurants they are used to the absence of the inevitable onion in the salad or going completely without special onion dishes. Like the distressed hoteliers who have no option but to cut out onion from the menu as they must provide food at affordable prices to their loyal customers the onion retailers all over the country are complaining of significantly reduced daily sales. Now as we have seen, consumers are getting used to very less onions daily or monthly and they are likely to stick to their habits to avoid similar scenario in future.
Therefore, when finally the greedy devils decide to lift the artificial scarcity and when onions are in full seasonal bloom even the back-to-normal prices will fail to entice the disillusioned consumers. The onion prices would keep crashing consequent upon reducing demands and abundant supply; daily sales would remain abysmally low; tonnes of onions would rot in the warehouses thanks to lack of buyers; and the losses suffered by the greedy devils would be limitless and permanently disabling. We the Consumers can really give it back to them! Enough of onion tears!
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