Residents pick soop and daura from GPO roundabout in Patna. Pictures by Jai Prakash

For 50 years, Sangeeta Devi’s family has been associated with selling ceremonial hardware. But despite poor sales and narrow profit margins, Sangeeta continues to sell soops and dauras — must-have items for performing Chhath rituals.

When devotees offer arghya to the Sun God, the prasad present on their soop (bamboo trays) convey their prayers to the supreme power. The soop is representative of many beliefs like generations of devotion and dedication, or an act of cleansing just as the soop is used to clean rice and wheat by women at home. Daura is used for carrying the soops containing items for the puja.

Sangeeta has been the flag-bearer of her family business for the past 30 years. But sales figures and narrow profit margins disappoint the 45-year-old.

“I have been selling soops and dauras at GPO roundabout for decades. My heart does not allow me to switch to any other business despite a very poor profit margin. My sons tell me to do something else because of the poor sales but I am firm that I would sell these till I die. My family has been associated with the business for 50 years,” she says.

Sangeeta added that a few years ago, the GPO roundabout was a happening place for Chhath devotees because essential things required in observing the festival were sold here.

“Chhath ke liye bahut bhir hoti thi yahan (The roundabout used to be crowded). People selling soops and dauras used to make good money during the festival. Now, the situation is such that these essential items are being made in the rural areas. We spend a lot in buying these products and bringing them to Patna. Thus, the profits have gone down. We just make Rs 2 on each product,” says the resident of Jakkanpur.

The kind of soop is indicative of one’s financial strength and the ingredients, too, vary according to the budget of the devotee. Not all soops carry the same prasad but a few ingredients form an essential part of every offering.

The minimum price of a soop is Rs 15 and a daura is Rs 30.

“During the festival, I sell around 100 dauras and 500 soops,” Sangeeta says.

According to her, the profit margin goes down because too many people in the villages are making the two products. These are bought by the wholesale marketers, who sell them to petty shopkeepers at a high margin.

“Because of their easy availability, we have to sell them to the devotees for a minimum price. Thus, the profit goes down,” she says. Sangeeta adds that she has a family of 15 and Chhath was once a good time to make money.

“One in my family is a driver. Others do odd jobs. It is me who is still continuing with the soop and daura business,” Sangeeta says.

Another family of six echoed Sangeeta. Headed by 60-year-old Sethi Sao Gupta, the family, too, is in the same trade.

“Unlike earlier years, this year was a damp squib. The graph of the business, started by my father, is heading south. I might have to think of something else next year,” says Gupta.