Mumbai, July 16: While Mumbai still reels from the assaults made upon its soil on Wednesday, it is already time for the city, which is always on the move, to pick up the pieces and take stock of the situation.
Besides the incalculable loss of life and loved ones, the Mumbai serial blasts have dealt a heavy blow to the ongoing preparations for Ramzan, which starts next month.
The city traders, who rake in profits to the tune of a whopping Rs 100 crore during the festive season every year, have incurred the most severe losses.
In the month of July every year, scores of traders from states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka wind their way to the city in the run up to Ramzan, in order to purchase wares from the business hubs, which they sell at inflated rates back in their native states.
In great demand are readymade garments, footwear, imititation jewellery and greeting cards, which are bought from the business hubs such as Dadar, Malad, Chakla (Masjid), Wadala, Khar and Ulhasnagar.
Dadar, which suffered a low-intensity blast yesterday, happens to be one of the most profit-making business hubs among all these, with Manish market, Janata Market, Jai Gopal Market, Jogani-Modhani Market, Bal Gopal Market and Ram Gopal Market within its precincts, all of which do brisk business selling garments to these outstation traders in the month of July every year.
As soon as news of the blast started spreading like wildfire, these traders went into panic mode. Most of them appear to have made a wild dash back to their native states.
Their sense of alarm and dread may be gauged by the fact that some of them didn’t wait long enough to pack the wares they had purchased they left behind bagfuls of purses, bags, and suitcases that they had bought here.
Some, who had given their business cards to city traders with whom they were eager to make transactions, did a sudden volte-face, refusing to take calls, or canceling their deals.
Most of these traders had put up in lodges at Nakhuda Mohalla, Dongri and Masjid- Bunder areas, all of which wore a deserted look yesterday.
Rajan Gupta, owner of Rajan Wear, a garment store in Dadar, said “The sales that we make from outstation traders before Ramzan is enough to sustain us for a whole year. But they have all fled after the blasts.”
One of the possible reasons for their flight could be that a majority of these traders are Muslims, who feared a backlash from the police.
Given their outsider status, and their inability to speak the local language, they feared that if caught with large sums of money, they could have raised the suspicion of cops.
“Many of these traders have NRI funding. We earn great profit margins from them, but these blasts really gave us a set back this year,” said Jeetu Patel, a Wadala businessman.
-Agencies