More and more Patna residents, including the elderly, are buying Chhath Puja items online.

The prime reason for this change is people want to save themselves the hassle of scouting the local market for every thing that is part and parcel of Chhath.

Ramesh Prasad, 54, a government high school teacher who lives in Kankerbagh, is among those who bought Chhath Puja materials online. “My two sons live in metro cities because of their jobs,” Ramesh said. "My wife Manju and I had a tough time arranging Chhath Puja items on our own in the past few years. Our family members come down during Chhath, but the items have to be arranged beforehand and that required us having to visit many shops. That can be quite taxing. But then my son Akash, who lives in Delhi, told me about a Delhi-based portal that sells
Chhath Puja items and I was thrilled to learn that they would deliver the products at my doorstep. This year, we bought the Puja materials online for the first time.”

Puja Jha, who lives in Patliputra area, has also ordered Chhath Puja items online and is expecting delivery of the items in the next two days.

“My mother-in-law is observing Chhath for 22 years now. It was quite difficult for us to scout all over for the Puja items,” Puja said. “We would fine one thing in one corner of the city and have to rush to another corner for the other items. This is why this time we decided to buy the items online.”

Those managing online portals confirmed there was heavy demand for Chhath Puja items from not just Bihar and Uttar Pradesh residents, but also from people living in cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi. “We started our portal, Religiouskart, last year but we were selling only Diwali kits then,” said Pandit Gagan Gautam, co-founder of Religiouskart and a spiritual leader too. “We introduced Chhath puja kits this year because we were getting many requests from people around the country. So far we have sold around 200 Chhath Puja kits, priced at between Rs 3,100 and Rs 5,000. A good number of people from Bihar bought the Chhath Puja kits, apart from people in Maharashtra and Karnataka among other places.”

Gautam said his team, which comprises spiritual leaders as well as engineers, takes around 10 days to deliver the Puja items at people’s doorstep.

“We have taken care to ensure that even the smallest thing used in Chhath Puja is provided to the devotee. From earthen pot to mango wood, doob grass to bamboo basket, every essential puja item is provided in the kit. I and co-founders of the portal, Ajeevansh Gautam and Nikhil Bansal, monitor the works,” Gautam said.

From next year, the portal plans to launch personalised Chhath kits. “Everybody may not require all things. They can place order as per requirement. We can thus provide personalised kits based on requirement,” Gautam said.