Summary:
VARANASI: Makar Sankranti is knocking at the doors and the atmosphere is filled with the refreshing fragrance of 'til' (sesame) preparations. "The price of sugar, jaggery and khoa variants of til sweets are almost the same so and we were expecting good sale this year. Many makeshift shops selling sesame laddoos and other sweets have cropped up. 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 shopkeepers said there was about 50% drop in sales this year..