Fish, meat prices slump during Navratri Friday, October 26, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD/VADODARA: Suresh Raghavan couldn't just believe when the fisherwoman at Teen Darwaza in Ahmedabad was willing to sell promphets for Rs 100. Last week, he had bought the same for Rs 160 a kg. Raghavan normally buys one kg but has now stocked his fridge with sea-food which could last him a fortnight.
This was of course Raghavan's first Navratri in Gujarat, the most vegetarian of all states, which has just turned more leafy during the ongoing Navratri. Animal-loving organisations like SPCA and PETA may be wishing it remains like this all through the year. "Over 50 per cent of Hindus fast during Navratri, and even those who do not fast, abstain from non-vegetarian food. So our earning drops by 15 to 20 per cent during these days," says Ramvinay Misra, an employee of Lutf Neelam restaurant.
To cater to the Gujarati palate, Holiday Inn restaurant _ Waterfall _ offers a Navratri-special vegetarian fare from 12 m to 4 a.m. where it serves burgers, sandwich and other snacks.
Colours of Spice has been undeterred by religious compulsions of Navratri. It has gone ahead with its Chinese festival, where it was serving veg and non-veg in equal proportion, but the proprietor Srinivas T owns up to the fact that the earnings from vegetarian food did shoot up.
In Surat, the municipal corporation's slaughter houses at Rander Road and Salabatpura have registered a downslide in the number of animals killed. According to deputy commissioner (health) I C Patel, from an average of 500 goats, around 200 were being slaughtered as there was demand from the locals or the migrants.
Promoter Jameer of Hotel Salute near Surat railway station, which has a wide clientele for its non-vegetarian dishes, says demand was down by three-quarters during Navratri.
Vadodara, the most cosmopolitan of Gujarat's towns, perhaps bucked the trend. "We had organised Hyderabadi food festival before Navratri. It became so popular that we decided to extend it. Even now it is drawing a crowd", says Sayaji Hotel general manager Munawar Garbadawala. Despite hosting a non vegetarian festival the hotel still gets its vegetarian customers, he adds.
In Rajkot, there has been a drop in fish and meat prices by 20 per cent. Said a citizen, "Navratri is festival of Goddess Amba and during these nine days I do not eat anything and observe nine days of fast. I just take water and juice. There is no question of eating even egg during these days".
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
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