By Nihad Amani
Hyderabad: Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the new-year celebrations for Hyderabadi’s seem to be little thanda this time.
The year-end sales in various shopping centres appear to be a major attraction for people, even though the shop owners in malls say that the crowd is lesser this time than the previous year.
“People are attracted by the offers only,” one of the shop owners said.
Meghana, who teaches at Gitanjali Junior College, said, “Because of the pandemic, we have no plans of having a grand celebration as we used to do. That’s the reason why I am buying only a few casual dresses as everything is on sale.”
Right from the early hours of the day, this reporter saw a decent rush of people in front of shopping malls. At the Zooni shopping centre in Tolichowki, a large number of people were spotted outside on Thursday.
Many ended up buying simple clothes, scandals and bags, as against party wear—which is usually the attire of this festive season.
The pandemic scare and economic slowdown are probably two major reasons why people choose discounted sale and not expensive shopping.
Surprisingly, this year many plan to have low-key house parties with a simple cake and ordered food. A group of cousins, shopping at City Center, Banjara Hills said, “We have no plans of buying party wear or anything else, we are going to buy pyjamas and shirts as we plan to have a pyjama party on this New Year’s Eve and order good Hyderabadi biryani.”
On the other hand, Suresh and his girlfriend are happy that this will be the first time they would get to celebrate together in a cosy air with a candlelight dinner. “For the past three years, either one of us was preoccupied. This time, we are fortunate to make simple dinner work,” Suresh said.