RANGPUR, Nov 16: The weeklong Rash Mela, one of the biggest festivals of the Hindu community concluded on Saturday night at Mahiganj Pareshnath temple premises in Rangpur city. On the occasion of the closing ceremony a large number of visitors thronged the temple premises and enjoyed the programmes.
The festival is usually held every year during Purnima (full moon) between the Bengali months of Kartik and Agrahayan. Like the previous years thousands of people from different areas of the district gathered at the Pareshnath temple premises and enjoyed various cultural programmes like Kirton,Rakhal, Radha dance etc throughout the fair.
Besides enjoying cultural programmes the visitors also visited different stalls set up in the fair and bought various products from there during the fair. A total of 30 stalls were set up in the fair. Different kinds of handicrafts and cottage industry items, handloom products, showpieces, imitation jewellery products, kids toys, brass and bell metal products, pottery items, cosmetics, food items, crockery items etc were displayed and sold in the fair.
Expressing satisfaction over the sales a number of sellers told The Financial Express that they sold different products in the fair but the sales of imitation jewellery items, kids toys and handicrafts products were higher as the customers showed much interest in those items, they further said.
"Our stall remained overcrowded everyday during the fair as we had varieties of collection of quality products which attracted the customers, Hashem Ali a seller of an imitation jewellery items told FE on Saturday. Everyday their sale was around Tk 15, 000 to Tk 18,000 that can be said satisfactory, he added.
Abul Hasan, a stall owner of handicrafts items said that they took part in the fair with a view to popularising the traditional handicrafts products. "Our target customers were people from the middle and lower middle classes", he further said.
Monsur Ali, a stall owner of a kids toys told FE that he has been taking part in fair for last few years. His stall witnessed a huge crowd especially rush of kids along with their parents was awesome. He also expressed his satisfaction over the sale which was around Tk 10,000 to Tk 12,000 per day.
Animesh Chandra, a visitor told FE that he came to the fair along with his family members to enjoy the programmes and to buy some products. "I come every year to the fair to buy some items. I think fair is the best place for me to buy desired products as many items from different companies are available in the fair, he added.
Talking to FE a number of visitors lauded the neat and clean atmosphere, strict security in the fair and also ostentatious illumination of the stalls which created fascination among the visitors. Some of them however expressed dissatisfaction over the exorbitant prices of some products.
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