From electric water guns to 'gulal' dispensing cylinder, Ambala residents are spoilt for choices

Markets are decked up for Holi with vibrant colours, water guns, Holi special kurtas and colorful wigs, which are attracting a large number of customers.

Not just simple water guns in different shapes, including animals, pistol, cricket bat, penicil, axe and hammer, but electric water guns, colour dispensers in the shape of fire extinguishers and oxygen cylinders have been luring a lot of buyers.

A large number of customers can be spotted selecting pichkaris and colours, along with masks, caps and wigs for the festival in the busy market of Ambala Cantonment.

The traders and shopkeepers said the festival was getting bigger. A wide range of pichkaris from Rs 50 to Rs 5,500 are available in the market, and the same goes for gulal, as packets are available for Rs 20 while a gulal dispensing cylinder is available for Rs 7,200.

Deepak Gupta, a trader, said, “Holi is one of the major festivals and it offers a wide-range of products for every customer. From a simple water gun to an electric water gun, everything is available in the market. It all depends on the pocket of the buyer. The water guns are available from Rs 50 to Rs 5,500. The electric water guns are attracting a lot of customers. Every year, new designs are coming and it helps in attracting customers. If we keep bringing the old designs, the customers will get bored.”

“Nearly 90 per cent of the customers demand herbal gulal to avoid any skin-related issues and just like the water guns, the gulal also has a wide range. Youngsters are buying colour dispensers, colour smokes and electric pichkari for the festival. The metal cylinders spray gulal in the powder form and the cylinders contains colours up to 25 kg. People can get it refilled as well. A few years ago, a large number of Chinese products used to be sold on Holi, but now it is Indian products that have been ruling the market”, he added.

“The customers are demanding dry colours and the demand for water-based colours has dropped significantly. People want to enjoy the festival with dry and soft colours rather than using hard and water based colour, which they later find it difficult to remove. The masks, colourful caps, hats, wigs, and white kurtas with ‘Happy Holi’ and other slogans printed on these are also in great demand”, said Ashok Kumar, a shopkeeper.

Rajeev Sukhija, a parent, said, “There is a wide-range of water guns and colour dispensers in the market and some of these are very costly. There is a technological shift, we are amazed to see the chargeable electric pichkaris. It gets difficult to stop the children from buying gigantic and expensive item for the festival.”