Tale of the cracker

At one of the counters, a very happy Vinod is busy sorting out coins. There’s, however, a frown hidden beneath. “We used to be open for two weeks earlier. That came down to a week, then five days and now it has come down to three. Permissions have become a problem. And there are several other factors,” he says with a sigh.

Maybe gadgets are one? Shoppers are spending money on mobile phones instead, claims one of the attendants. “Haan, woh Apple aur Samsung har saal naya phones leke aate hain. At least Rs 5,000 ka budget hota tha abhi woh phone aur tablet pe chala jaata hai.”

There are no real figures though to prove if Tim Cook is really putting a dent on General Bazaar’s cracker sales but as of Tuesday night, Apple has registered sales of 39.3 million iPhones and Vinod, well, has made an “okay number”. “Each year, the sales continue to decline,” he says.

To get a broader perspective on how the business has evolved, you might have to travel to Indira Park, to a host of stands put up by Sivakasi’s Standard Fireworks and the Hyderabad Agricultural Co-operative Association. At least a dozen stalls have been serving thousands of customers over the past four days, with sellers clocking over 20 hours to keep up with the demand.

The counters are busy and Ramasubramaniam (name changed on request) has just finished a “very busy day”. “The business has this kick. And this festival brings people from so many states and cultures together at our counters. Crackers are for everybody,” he says.

Ramasubramaniam has been in the business of crackers for two decades and is familiar with its “inner workings”. “We need to go back to 1993. You see, just 10 families had the firecracker business in a stranglehold. They would spread rumours about how difficult the trip to Sivakasi was and how tough it was to get the license. That meant, most of Secunderabad’s retailers relied on the 10 for products.”

But all that changed when a few businessmen, including Ramasubramaniam decided to make that trip to Sivakasi. “I wanted to know what the mystery was. It was as if there was a tiger waiting for us over there and I hated the fact that so much was unknown to us.” And the Sivakasi trip turned out to be almost a pilgrimage for the city businessmen.

“They welcomed us and said as long as our documents were fine, they had no problems selling directly to us. We then ended up with the first ever, independent explosives license in over 40 years, a win! That helped bring down costs, reduced the number of middlemen and finally made the business more linear."

“You have to understand that a lack of literacy is still prevalent in this industry, bringing with it several shortcomings. Documents are important, they build trust,” says Ramasubramaniam, while keeping a wary eye on his counter. “Excuse the habit. Usually, it’s my wife who handles the cash,” he adds.

A Festival of trends

Three days into the week, the several stalls set up by the farmers’ association seem to be running fine. “This was started to increase the income for farmers and the organisation is the result of us dealing with Sivakasi directly,” adds another distributor.

“In time, we’ll make it bigger.” That’s perhaps what every firecracker trader is thinking, bigger, next season (there are no years, only seasons).

“Diwali remains the best way to judge India. Trending stars and personalities make it to the covers. We have, over the years, done away with ‘sexy’ models on boxes and the first few days always give us a glimpse of spending trends. For example, the Diwalis of 2006-’07 recession years were the darkest and spending power had definitely dropped. “But it remains the festival of light and cheer. And one of the first rules of selling crackers is to have a smile... nobody wants to buy from a grump,” adds Ramasubramaniam.