TURA, Dec 22 � A last minute rush shopping for the festive season of Christmas has gripped Tura and several other towns in Garo Hills with unprecedented flooding of shoppers to the Tura super market and other shops.
Traffic has been chaotic since Monday with several hundred vehicles parked alongside both sides of the road leading to the main market area.
�People are withdrawing cash from banks and ATM machines like never before,� pointed out a bank official from the State Bank of India. Such has been the flow of money from banks that most ATMs had to be shutdown on Tuesday because entire stock of money had been exhausted.
�I had to rush to ATMs of Axis Bank and HDFC because I was unable to withdraw money from the SBI ATM. Even there I had to wait in a long queue�, said a government employee.
Business houses have been doing brisk business since the past few days and the main attractions have been the departmental stores selling clothes and shoes. Electrical shops are also doing well with the demand for coloured rice bulbs shooting over the top.
Unlike in previous years, this time Christmas decorations at public places have been slow to pick up. This has in a way been attributed to the recent order by the MECL to regularise the public lighting.
Previously, drawing power from the main lines was a free for all during the festive season, but this year the Power department has decided to charge for the lighting, it is said.
The demand for meat products particularly chicken and pork has been so high that people have been braving the winter chill and queuing up at the butchers shop as early as 3 am in the hope of taking home the prime cut.
Away from the hustle and bustle of the shopping scenario, the beating of the traditional Christmas drums can be heard echoing from the localities of the town during the evening hours.
Groups of young boys and girls singing Christmas carols pay a visit to homes to usher in the spirit of Christmas. As a token of appreciation for the young group which dances to the melody of the Christmas carols the house owners contribute a token sum of money and provide them with a warm cup of tea.
For the impatient Christmas revelers who are unable to wait for December 25, there is the locality dancing which one can visit during the evening hours as groups of men and women sing and dance their time away leaving their troubles behind.
