The same two mandaps, but the work fell from 60,000 taka to 20,000

This decorator in Pirojpur booked two puja mandaps this year — the same number as the year before. But with the puja so pared back in the pandemic, no chairs, tables or fans were needed at all, and the gateways, illuminations and cultural programmes that decorators actually live on largely disappeared. Where each mandap had meant about 60,000 taka of work last year, this time it came to about 20,000. Traders told the paper that some 150 firms in the trade had already closed at a loss since weddings and social functions stopped in March. Nationally there were 30,225 mandaps against 31,398 the year before, and spending at a large mandap had fallen from 60-70 lakh taka to 10-15 lakh. Another decorator in Tejgaon, Dhaka, got no booking at all.