Rongali Bihu melas: Buyer's bazaar in city

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, April 10: Bihu melas in Guwahati do offer a buyer’s market – glutting the bazaar with commodities that are too important to be without for the Bohag Bihu. 

Commodities up for sale at such melas range from orchid (kopou phul) to bugle (pepa). One such mela currently underway at Lakhidhar Bora Khetra in the city has gamosa, mekhela chadar, pat, muga, endi, tosh and other indigenously-woven clothes up for sale. Dhol, pepa, gogo, hutuli, taal, and all other materials that are too important to be without for Bihu music have also been on display for sale. The melas are also doing a brisk business with Bihu delicacies like til pitha, rikol pitha, hutuli pitha, rikol ladu, tilor ladu, bora chawl, bora chawl pitha, gila pitha, curd, beaten rice (chira) and whatnot.

Such melas are seen to have been thronged by buyers from the city and its outskirts. The sellers in such melas are a motley group of people from almost all over the State – upper Assam, lower Assam and central Assam.

An elderly Jibon Gogoi, who is in the mela at Lakhidhar Bora Khetra in the city taking his son along with him, welcomes everybody to the mela with his melodious songs played with his pepa at the staccato of dhol. With such music he has been able to give the mela its very essence— a Rongali Bihu ambience.

Selling and buying are not the only activities that have made the mela what it looks like. There are singers and dancers as well who have been doing their best to play the tune of the season. Some of the faces at the mela are seen almost every year in such melas in Bihu. This essentially gives one an impression that most of the people doing business with Bihu delicacies or other materials are traditiolly and professiolly attached to their trades.

Kopou phul (orchid) is one that allures everybody at the mela. A woman from Tinsukia has been doing a brisk business with kopou. She is selling orchid at prices ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 apiece.  

The prices of pepa range from Rs 200 to Rs 12,000 apiece. While each piece of hutuli is sold at Rs 100-500, a piece of gogo is sold from Rs 100-500.