THIRUVANATHAPURAM: ‘’If only the authorities held the swearing-in ceremony in more episodes,’’ exclaimed Ramnathan. He was visibly tired, sandwiched between the quickly depleting pile of khadi clothing materials and the increasing queue of khadar-clad customers in front of his shop. The small, old-fashioned shop, subdued by mighty buildings, including that of a leading jewellery showroom and a new generation bank, had witnessed a similar rush of customers exactly five days ago on Wednesday, when the first set of Ministers were sworn in. Then, the UDF supporters from other parts of the State, who had arrived in the capital city to witness their dear leaders taking the oath of office and secrecy, had flocked his shop, Trivandrum Khadi Bhandar, on the MG Road near Ayurveda College junction for buying khadar clothes. The situation on Monday, when the remaining Ministers took the oath, was also no different. White khadar-clad men were seen flocking in front of the shop. It was a day when the three salesmen inside the shop wished if only they had an additional pair of hands to attend to all the customers without delay. While some customers zeroed in on the shop after hours of search for a shop which had a good collection and offered low prices too, the others had directly come to the shop after they had shopped from there during their previous visit to the city. The trio of Rameshan, Jayan and Aneesh Kumar from Kottayam belonged to the second group. They were seen comfortably changing into the new clothes in a dark corridor adjacent to the shop. ‘’We came to the city in a crowded car. The clothes that we wore are all messed by our sweat,’’ said Aneesh Kumar. He also said that they had spotted the shop last time when they came here for the swearing-in of first set of Ministers. Though the shop did brisk business on Monday, the shopowner did not seem too happy. ‘’Besides politicians, no one goes for khadi nowadays. Once the day is over, the business would be going into a deep slumber,’’ Ramanathan said.
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