Kathmandu:

Tihar is about lights, about garlands and garlands of flowers, about celebrating that special bond between brothers and sisters, about wishing each other prosperity. It is a celebration of life and all the wonderful things that add to making life beautiful. Apart from your near and dear ones, there are hundreds of others who help to make your Tihar colourful and bright. They are the ones who make sure that you get everything that is necessary to make your Tihar complete. Though we do agree that they make a tidy profit during this festive season.

Nutty story

A resident of Pharping, Gopal Balami along with his brother Ramesh, brings walnut all the way from Makwanpur to the Valley. Walnuts are essential during Bhai tika.

“This has been our family business since my grandparents’ time. We sell walnuts in wholesale, but during Tihar we always come to Kalimati and sell on our own,” he said.

He has been coming to Kalimati in the wee hours of the morning for the last one week, and stays here till dusk.

“We make a profit up to Rs 15,000 but this year the sale has been less due to high supply,” he complained.

A father of two sons and a daughter he said, “Tihar is more important to the kids and I buy them whatever they ask for during this festival. I never discriminate among my children.”

He has five brothers and one sister. “We usually either gift her gold or clothes on Bhai tika,” he said adding that he likes going for deusi.

“At our place we play deusi continuously for 48 hours,” he said with a huge grin.

Garlands of love

Raj Kumar Lama is from Makwanpur and he has bought around 7,000 garlands from a farmer and brought it here to sell.

“My elder brother started the business seven years ago. Last year I made profit of around Rs 25,000,” beamed Lama.

He has two daughters and two sons, and Lama shared that last Tihar was more fun due to high sale.

“Tihar in villages is more fun. I also like it more than Dashain because of Bhai tika and deusi,” he said.

He has two elder and one younger sisters, and Lama will giving them a saree each and cash.

Lotus blooms

Lotus flower is essential for Laxmi puja, but it is difficult to find this bloom in Kathmandu. So when a friend of Bijay Sahani told him about this scarcity, he brought it all the way from Rautahat.

“In Karthik, there are lots of lotus in our ponds. So I decided to start a business out of these this Tihar,” said Sahani.

Amused by the rarely seen lotus, many customers had gathered to buy flower, which Sahani was selling for Rs 5 each.

A father of four Sahani said, “I have three daughters and a son, and if I am able to sell all the flowers, I will buy them clothes and other stuff from the city.”

Though he celebrates Tihar, Chhath is more important to him and is eagerly waiting to celebrate it with his whole family.

Fruit seller’s glee

Originally from Hetauda, Shradha Timilsina, a teenager, stays at Bafal with her family of five. Her mother, elder sister and brother sell fruits at the Kalimati market.

“We come early in the morning and buy these fruits from villagers and sell them throughout the day,” she said adding that she had already made around Rs 10,000 in profit in just the last couple of days. She is planning to spend the money in education.

“Though we are not allowed to go and play bhailo, I like Tihar for all the lights,” said Timilsina. She hopes her brother will give her good gifts this Bhai tika.