How businessmen in Kashmir are battling odds to stay afloat

August-November is a busy wedding season in the Valley. The ongoing clampdown forced many to minimize their lavish wedding functions

Local businesses in Srinagar are keeping themselves commercially afloat by telling their customers, through handwritten notes or notices pasted on shuttered shopfronts, to contact them at home.

The ongoing clampdown forced many couples to downgrade their lavish wedding functions to simple Nikah ceremonies, which means they still need traditional dresses and jewellery. (HT FILE)

“Please contact on my residential address,” read a message by a prominent wedding shop owner at MA Road with complete address on the note.

The August-November period is a busy wedding season in the Valley. The ongoing clampdown forced many couples to downgrade their lavish wedding functions to simple Nikah ceremonies, which means they still need traditional dresses and jewellery.

“While the multi-course feast on the weddings have been cancelled, people have gone ahead with low key Nikah functions irrespective of the restrictions. We got messages that many customers are approaching our shop that is closed. That is why we have pasted our personal address on the shutter,” said a jewellery seller in the Srinagar city centre.

“We have suffered immense losses this wedding season but at least we don’t want to let our permanent customers down,’ he added.

A saloon owner asked prospective customers to slip messages inside his shop to contact him. “I visit the shop a couple of times during the day. The customers slip in messages providing the time when they will visit again ; this way I get in touch with them,” he said.

A hair and make-up artist published a message in a local newspaper asking his clients to visit his home in the evening and provided his address.

The methods are proving to be a real help for some people. “It is ironic that in this age of communication, we are using these old ways to get in touch with people. There is no other alternative for us,” said Rukhsana Nazir, a to-be bride of the Khanyar area of Srinagar. Her wedding is scheduled at the end of August .

“If my dress maker had not pasted his address, I would have been left high and dry,” she added.