Chennai: With Karthikai Deepam nearing, the vendors in Mylapore have already started selling earthen lamps as fresh arrivals have started flooding the marketplace. Many vendors have started stacking the earthen lamps ahead of the festival which will be celebrated 10 December.
Thiyagarajan, a vendor in Venkatesa Agraharam Street, says, “We have been selling items made of clay for nearly 15 years here and Karthikai Deepam is always a special occasion as that is when we get to sell the different types of earthern lamps to the people. Ahead of this year’s festival we got the new lamps last week and have started selling it.”
Asked about where they get the lamps from and the varieties of lamps that they sell, he says, “We get it from places like Puducherry, Tindivanam and Periyapalayam and sell it here. There are different varieties of lamps that are available and we buy nearly 40 models. However now, we have models like Simili Vilakku, Kuthu Vilakku, Paadha Vilakku, Uruli, Lakshmi Ganapathy, Panchamuga vilakku, Goondu Vilakku and Madakku Vilakku. Every year the demand for a certain variety of lamp will be high and based on it we give more orders.”
He adds that the price of the lamps will be from Rs 2 to Rs 200.
He however laments the fact that preserving the lamps is a big challenge that they face everyday. “Since all of them are made of mud, despite being careful while transporting the goods after buying, we are bound to get many broken pieces. If we take 10 lamps, in that atleast one will be broken and that is the ratio. Everyday we need to be careful with them and when it rains it gets very difficult as we have to pack and cover them.”
He says that he expect the sales to be much better compared to the previous years. “Last year and the year before the sales were down as we faced losses. This year though we will know how the sales are going to be only during the first week of December. We hope it to be better.”