Shadow of protests, curfew fails to dampen Xmas spirit

The recent untoward incidents in Mangaluru have left a negative impact on Christmas celebrations. However, the people are of the opinion that the spirit of the festivity will prevail.

The protest over Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the imposition of curfew left little time for Christmas preparations.

Traditional goodies Kuswar, fruits, dolls and decorative items are sold like hot cakes during the Christmas period. But this year, shops and bakeries remained closed on Friday and Saturday while Sunday was a holiday.

As a result, there was a rush at some of the popular bakeries in the city on Monday and Tuesday.

With very little time left for preparations, people were in a hurry to buy necessary items whose prices have skyrocketed due to high demand. Some bakeries also put up stalls at different places in the city, to avoid rush.

Cristabel D’Souza from Mallikatta told DH that Christmas cakes, Kuswar and other special items, including ‘Guliyo’, Kidiyo’, ‘Nevryo’, ‘Kokis’, rice laddoo and ‘Tukudi’ are prepared at homes during Christmas.

“The ready-made Kuswars are also available at bakeries for those who do not have much time for preparing these items at home in bulk quantities,” she said. However, this year, due to curfew, Cristabel could not purchase fresh ingredients. Thus, she decided to purchase ready-made Kuswars.

Cristabel said, “To my dismay, the prices were quite high compared to prices in recent times. The raw materials also cost dearer and there was too less time for a plenty of purchases.”

Reena Maria Colaco, who works at a bakery in Bejai, said many orders were placed for customised pastries and cakes at her bakery. Due to curfew, she could not turn up for work and now she was trying to clear the orders with whatever time was left.

“We purchase eggs, maida, fresh cream, chocolate, plums and cherries for Christmas cakes. Kuswars also need to be prepared with fresh ingredients,” Reena pointed out.

But, due to the curfew the materials arrived later than expected.

She said, “Adding to the problem, we ran short of hands when a variety of cakes were to be baked. Among a vast variety of cakes that we received order was for the plum cakes, castle shaped cakes, chocolate cakes and Santa Claus cakes.”