VARANASI: Makar Sankranti is knocking at the doors and the atmosphere is filled with the refreshing fragrance of 'til' (sesame) preparations. Many makeshift shops selling sesame laddoos and other sweets have cropped up. But shopkeepers lament that business is dull and blamed demonetisation for it.Makar Sankranti, that is observed differently in various regions, marks the start of the harvest season as well as the beginning of the movement of the Sun into the northern hemisphere. The day is considered as the beginning of an auspicious phase in Indian culture, known as the holy phase of transition.On the eve of the festival on Friday, the shops witnessed buyers a few buyers, mostly women, purchasing traditional delicacies including dhoonda (puffed rice mixed in jaggery), tilkut (sesame seeds), dahi chuda, til patti, gur-badam patti and others for the festival.The necessities of the festival are kaala (black) til laddoo, til ki patti and gatta, a woman shopper said. She purchased different varieties of patti from a shop in Chetganj. "We only get it during this season and it also helps to keep us warm. The children love sugary and khoa-badam patti so I have also purchased these sweets," she added.A student, Nisha, was busy purchasing raw material for making sweets at homes. "Preparing a variety of sweets is like a custom at our home. I have got raw material like til, gur (jaggery), chuda and other items and will prepare sweets in large quantities for family and relatives," she said.But thin footfall at shops and markets emerged as spoilers for the shopkeepers, who said that it was due to demonetization. The shopkeepers said there was about 50% drop in sales this year. The sellers at Chetganj lamented that although the price of sesame specialties have not increased as compared to last year yet the number of buyers is less."The price of sugar, jaggery and khoa variants of til sweets are almost the same so and we were expecting good sale this year. But demonetization has badly hit our business as sales dipped by 50%," shopkeeper Rahul Gupta said, adding that against average of thousands customers, less than a hundred were thronging the shops to make purchases.Another shopkeeper Santosh said that they were expecting sales to pick up but the market remains dull.

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