JOIN USNot that one needs a reason for shopping, but Diwali gives an excellent pretext for stepping out of your house into the loud and festive shopping scene bursting out in the City.
Besides, being in the Capital gives you an edge over shoppers anywhere else in the country. While the festival of lights falls on 3 November this year, the shopping extravaganza has already kicked in with the herald of Diwali melas in hotels, haats and shopping centres in Delhi and its National Capital Region (NCR).To feel the pulse of the buzzing festive fervour, Metrolife attended these Diwali melas to find out what tops the charts for buyers this season.
Rushing inside Epicentre’s Diwali Mela scheduled during the weekend from 18 to 20 October, people went about shopping fervently for Diwali gifts. Spotting a horde around a stall, we went in its direction to find a man carving nameplates, “Our entire stall has things made from the bark of a tree- lights, coasters, visiting books et al.
We are engraving notes, nameplates and messages right here as per the demand of our customers,” said Uma Swarup, manning the stall at the festival. There seems to a genuine rage for things that can be customised on the spur of the moment.
While Diwali melas in shopping centres and haats throw open an array of options for all sort of buyers, hotels offer a luxury shopping affair such as the Luxury Diwali Bazaar at The Lalit where ”fashionistas and models walked in for shopping at the one stop shop for all their Diwali needs,” says the organiser Harsh Singh.
Right after the Karvachauth mela at Select Citywalk, a Diwali Bazaar set out yesterday at the first floor balcony, offering exclusive designer candles, diyas, personalised gift packaging and more. The zest for the fests doesn’t stop there as the cityscape erupts with Diwali melas all around. Chalk out your schedules to attend the famous and yearly melas that open this weekend; a week-long Blind school mela begins on 25th October and the two-day long Sunder Nagar Diwali mela on 26th.
With stalls from different states, the melas featured candles made out of rusted cast iron stands; taurans (door hangings) exquisitely made out of saree borders; clothes dotted with Masaba prints and loads of chocolates and sweets.
Waiting for the evening Ramlila performance at a Diwali mela, Vishal Sinha says, “ It’s like an extension of Dussehra to me. While we go around shopping and attending the food festival. There’s always this option of relaxing down in the evening with musical and theatrical performances like Ramlila as a part of Diwali melas.”
Keeping a demarcated art section for kids seems to be the new rage in these melas as children find company and get engrossed in painting while the family heads out on a shopping spree.