Eid shopping has reached its peak here. The custom of buying everything new for the use on Eid-ul-Fitr day is restricted to South Asia. Crowd in the malls here particularly at shops in the South Asian concentrated areas in Queens is surging. The crowd of shoppers is bulging because the Eid will coincide with the Hindu celebration of Diwali, the festival of lights. The shopping will reach a frenzied height after the Thanks Giving Day in the end of November when Christmas shoppers will throng the malls. Jackson Height is an area in New York which is densely populated by the people from South Asia, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Anyone on a visit from South Asia would immediately be struck by similarity. People speaking Bangla, Hindi and Urdu going about their business, mingling with each other oblivious of the political tension and rift that exist among the three countries. Shutki, bhel-puri and passinda kabab are in great demands and there is hardly any tension. People from either side of the Punjab speak in their own language so do the Bangalees from West Bengal and Bangladesh. Bangladeshi Hindus have a mandir of their own. They just celebrated Durga puja with great pomp. But persons behind the mandir are staunchly communal and spit venom against Bangladesh thriving on imaginary tales of the persecution of the Hindus.. They lent support to the demand of a separate Hindu state within Bangladesh. There has so far been no effort by the government of Bangladesh or the ruling party to offset this venomous campaign. Groups opposed to government and supporting the opposition in Bangladesh do actively lend their weight behind the lobbies spreading lies. Most unfortunate of course is the allegation of corruption and obstacles created by various agencies in Dhaka in importing goods from Bangladesh. Bangladeshi shop owners here in New York who were keen on selling products from the country to meet the local demand complained in a chorus that their efforts to do so were foiled by various agencies like custom, Biman etc. The importers were asked to fill in tonnes of paper. Deeply frustrated Bangladeshi shop owners were forced to sell Indian products. They faced no problem in importing Indian goods, the Indians showing no reluctance to sell their goods without any hassles.
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