Come Diwali, traders throng this Bengaluru stationery shop
BENGALURU: Come Deepavali, this tiny stationery shop on Avenue Road is thronged by customers. Sha Jasraj Jain store saw long queues on Sunday, the Dhanteras day, that continued on Monday. The store’s customers, especially traders, believe that account books, Bahi Khatta (ledgers) and pens purchased here will bring them good luck and shower them with prosperity. As it is mired in belief, they don’t buy items during the inauspicious rahu kala, and wait patiently in the queue till their turn comes.
J Uttam Chand, owner of the 47-year-old shop, told The New Indian Express, “This is a tradition which started during my father Jasraj Jain’s time and continues till today. Though most businesses use computers to keep their accounts, they still throng my shop to buy these paper notebooks. From Dasara to Diwali, footfalls to my small shop spirals and this time, at least 6,000 traders came over. Yesterday (Sunday) alone, we had 650 customers and had to open our shop at 6 am and shut at 10 pm. Some of them just buy a pen or a Jain calendar,” he said. The shop has become popular mostly through word-of-mouth publicity and traders from all over the country who are settled in Bengaluru come here to make the purchase.
Dharminder Gadiya, a jewellery businessman, has been buying the ledger, calendar and Day Book from here for the last 15 years.”I need to keep them in front of Goddess Lakshmi and Saraswati during pujas. I believe that buying them from here boosts my business. My father too used to do it.” Pankaj M Jain, who runs a gift shop -- Silver Magic Products on Magadi Road, says, “I buy the account books from the shop and place them in front of God. It is an annual tradition.”