Festival of Lights: A row of diyas lit on Diwali in Tezpur. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, Oct. 23: The Modi bombs and sparklers might be doing the rounds in north India, but the “NaMo magic” here has been missing!

Enquire about the Modi bomb or chakkar at Lakhtokia here, all you get for an answer is a smile from Umashankar, a vendor, and some attention from his assistant.

“No, there is no Modi bomb and chakkar for sale here. In fact, you won’t find any in the other shops either,” he says. Asked about the sales this year, The man from Bihar says, “Yesterday was average. It’s 2.30pm now but not many customers have turned up. Sales are down by quite a margin.”

Perhaps the presence of Modi bombs would have portrayed a different story. But retail and wholesale prices of crackers have, according to traders here, increased by a good 10 to 15 per cent.

The Kamrup metro district administration has permitted temporary licence holders to sell crackers only for three days since yesterday.

“Last year, the sales were better as we got a day more to dispose of our staff. Then again, the administration has banned the sale of Chinese crackers, which has hit our business to an extent,” rues Mahesh Bhansali, a wholesaler in Fancy Bazar.

A “firecracker hub” during Diwali, SRCB Road, was more of a “mini Sivakasi” with yellow banners depicting the units that made the crackers such as Gurusamy Fireworks, Arasan Fireworks, Supreme Fireworks — all from the cracker town of Tamil Nadu. However, the chock-a-block ambience had more to do with people buying sweets and diyas for Diwali than any serious cracker shopping. A brief sojourn in a few of the makeshift stalls across Lakhtokia and Fancy Bazar revealed more of Bollywood, a few Hollywood and some big names in Indian cricket — no names as such but only faces to draw one’s attention.

“We have a Kaun Banega Crorepati bomb which showers notes (fake) and costs Rs 750 a pair. This is a new item and we have just sold one out of the five pieces on offer,” said Md Noor Khan, a vendor, as he anxiously waited for his next customer.

Doing the rounds were Mr Bean phuljaris, Ben Ten crackers and a premium lari (chilli bomb) called Kargil Attack and several others having Bollywood stars such as Deepika Padukone, Sonakshi Sinha and a packet of shots featuring Celina Jaitly in a bikini and cowboy hat on the cover.

There was another mega packet of shots featuring the Avatar stars, Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington, in a shop at Mohan Market on SRCB Road.

“The packaging from Sivakasi has been good. If only they were reasonably priced! I had to buy some for the kids at home, all for a whopping Rs 2,500,” says M. Debnath, a shopper.

The “Made in Assam” firecrackers are from Barpeta but were few and far between. “I am primarily selling firecrackers made in Barpeta. Sales have been average. But I am optimistic that most of my stock will be sold by late evening,” A. Hazarika, the lone retailer near the AGP headquarters in Ambari, says.