Pitha makers doing brisk trade in Chandpur town

CHANDPUR, Dec 06: With the onset of winter, full-swing sale of various scrumptious cakes (called pitha in Bengali) has started in different busy corners of Chandpur town, catering to the taste of the customers of all ages and classes.
The traditional winter cakes put on display at the roadside shops by their makers mostly include chitoi, vapa, sainna, dhuki and pua.
Talking to the FE, a struggling woman, Monwara Begum (56), said her handicapped husband cannot work at all. Rendered homeless by the Meghna River erosion, she left her homestead and started residing in a rented shanty in the town.
Finding no other way to make a living, she started making chitoi and vapa pitha and selling those setting up a makeshift shop on Shahid Muktijodhdha Road.
In winter season, she passes a busy time making and selling cakes at the shop until 9.30 pm.
The shops like her sell one piece of pitha for Tk10, which the customers often have to collect after waiting for a while.
She said due to high price of rice, wheat flour, fuel oil, coconut, molasses and salt and other ingredients, cake vendors are bound to sell their items at almost double prices this year.
Her 6-year-old grandson, Hasan, also assists her in the entire job. She can draw profit amounting to Tk450 to 500 or above at the end of sale at 9.30pm every day.
With the sale proceeds and profit, she runs her family somehow.
Monwara said from morning, she takes preparation for making pithas at home.
An old but active and energetic man, Mohammad Hazrat Ali (65), a resident of Ghoradhari village in Matlab Dakhshin Upazila, resides in a rented house in the town.
He makes and sells four types of cakes- vapa, sainna, chitoi and pua- at his roadside shop in Chandpur Bus Stand area.
Mr Hazrat Ali said he cannot pass time sitting idle at home although his sons are established and work far away. He loves to work and wishes to be self-reliant.
So, every day from 3pm to 9.30 pm, he makes cakes of four types and sell those at his shop at the gate of Bus Stand Jamey Masjid.
Customers gratify their taste by eating warm cakes sitting at the makeshift shop.
Two assistants help Mr Hazrat Ali in preparing and selling cakes. He earns around Tk400 or Tk450 after deducting all expenses each day. A mother, Salma Begum (30), said she cannot make time nor take the pains to prepare winter cakes for her children at home on Taltola Road in the town.
So, as a light snack, she was buying pitha for her children from a makeshift shop in the Bus Stand Jame Mosque area in the evening on Tuesday. A housewife, declining to tell her name, said, "I have no time to make cakes at home.''
On the other hand, a young man, Jewel Khan (25), also sells chitoi and vapa pitha at the same rates at Biponibag Bazar.
At the other end of the market, one Abul Hashem Khan (30) (who comes to Chandpur at the beginning of winter from bordering Raumari upazila of Kurigram) also makes and sells the same types of cake beside Chandpur Govt College Mosque.
They both said they get around Tk400 or Tk 500 as profit on an average daily.
A young man, Maulana Maksud Alam (26), also sells, for the first time, chitoi and vapa pitha beside Bus Stand Mosque.
He said he is basically a carpenter by profession. But from 4pm to 9.30 pm, he sells cakes to support his family with an additional income. He hails from Torpurchondi village- on the outskirts of the town.
A vendor named Mizanur Rahman (45) sells four types of winter cakes at the Stadium Road intersection in the town in the evening.
Two teenage boys named Shakil and Emdadul, both residents of Rangpur town, sell pitha in winter days in Chhyabani and Adalotpara areas of the town .
They said driven by acute poverty, they are now school dropouts.

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