A tale of roadside entrepreneurs who add life to Melas

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 3

From its arrival to its end, one cannot think of a fair (Mela) without roadside entrepreneurs or street vendors/hawkers. They reach the fair site around seven to eight days in advance and start making arrangements to set up their makeshift kiosks. They provide all types of goods and services to the visitors at the fair.

Ahead of Sodal Mela to begin on September 5, these vendors have started arriving at the fair from different parts of the country to offer almost everything right from crockery, ornaments, shootings games, rides, dance shows to ‘maut ka kuan’ (well of death). They do their work in the area spread over around 2 km from Gajigula to Kali Mata Mandir on the one side and from Doaba College Chowk to Punjabi Dhaba of the industrial area on the other side.

They literally live their lives at the fair where they sleep, eat, and earn. Their main profession is to move from one fair to another to make ends meet. Facing all odds, these brave hearts do not leave their work mid way. Many times, they have to face many hardships due to rain, storm and other ailments.

A large number of people visit Sodal Mela and there is something for everyone as no one wants to return empty-handed from the Mela.

Dev Kumar (55), who was sitting with his family and making sure that his grandchildren eat a little available food, said he had been coming here for the past 25 years.

“Hum yaha paanch din pehele aa jaate hain, sabh barish ho, tez dhoop ho ya aandhi aae, hum yahi rehte hain (We arrive here around five days before the fair begins and in any situation, be it rain or scorching heat, we stay here,” he added.

One of the woman vendors — Radha Rani (32) — was selling jewellery by the roadside. On the one hand, she was handling the customers while on the other, she was preparing food for her children. She said now, they were used to of this life and had earned from such fairs and would die here.

Another elderly vendor, who was in his 70s and was making the children play games, said he, along with many others, was working as a laborer and contractor hired him and gave wages.

“None of my family members work. So I am left no other option but to come here for earning,” he added.

They are concerned about the decreasing popularity of the fair among the general public. They blame technology for it.

“It feels bad when we see that people are now losing interest in these fairs because of which we come here every year with some exciting items to catch their attentions. It is not the items, it is technology that has taken over everything,” said Raunak Lal (60), who said he had been coming here for the last 30 years.