By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 14 :Subham Yadav was selling colours for the festival of Tihar by displaying colour on the footpath in New Road, Kathmandu on Friday afternoon when Kathmandu Municipal Police personnel approached him and asked him to remove his shop.
Yadav had no choice but to leave. "I knew they would come, but it was the only way I know to earn some money and celebrate Tihar with my small family. I now have to go somewhere else and start selling colours again. I hope the police won’t take away my investment."
Yadav, a manual labour, had been jobless for some months due to the lockdown induced by COVID-19 pandemic. However, he wanted to celebrate Tihar with his wife and a daughter in a memorable way, which made him chose that business.
"Last several months had been particularly hard for us due to the lockdown. As the festival of Tihar is around the corner, me and my family want to celebrate it happily. But I have no regular job to earn money, so I opted selling colours," said Yadav, before moving towards Ratnapark carrying the packed colour items.
On Friady, New Road´s footpath was filled with street vendors like Yadav selling garlands of Marigold Flower and colours, one of the essential items throughout Tihar, causing traffic jams and crowds amidst the fear of COVID-19.
Since most people of Kathmandu Valley lack sufficient space to grow flowers in their houses, they have been buying flowers from street vendors to meet their demand.
Setting up shops along the footpaths in the New Road is banned since long. And Municipal officials have been taking stern action against the street vendors in order to prevent overcrowding in an effort to bring COVID-19 under control.
Nevertheless, the street vendors argued that they knew all the risks involved in their businesses but they had no other option but to continue with them to earn some money for festive celebration.
"Wearing masks is mandatory, and we have abided by it. We even have sanitizer to sanitize our hands before and after meeting customers," said Manoj Adhikari, a 38-year-old mason who was selling Marigold Flowers in the footpath of New Road, showing a bottle of sanitizer kept in his pocket.
"We have kept ourselves safe and tried to maintain social-distancing as well. I am here because I have nowhere else to go. I don’t want to disappoint my family during the time of festival," added Adhikari.
Like Adhikari and Yadav, there were many others selling garlands and colours in the streets amidst risk of COVID-19 pandemic just to earn some money for Tihar and forget the problems they have been facing for the past several months, even if that is temporary.
"I doubt that my life after Tihar will be easy. All I want today is to be able to sell these flowers," said Adhikari.