With the advent of latest means of communication, the tradition of sending Eid greeting cards started dying world over, as the trend replaced with handy and far cheaper SMS and internet based E-cards. In modern era one of the particular trend the practice of sending out Eid cards, has dwindled over the years.
It was once a routine for most families to spend time appropriately selecting, purchasing, writing and posting Eid greeting cards to friends and families. But now, it has become a rarity. Though the custom of Eid greetings has not entirely vanished, the mode has changed. People neither get the time to visit card stalls like before, nor line up for the postage. On the eve and day of Eid, mobile phones services, however, do experience a sudden onslaught of heavy traffic owing to a blitz of Eid wishes being SMS back and forth.
In this era of mobile and social media connectivity, where hand-written letters have lost their utility, it is be interesting to revisit the trend of Eid cards, particularly in its early days, when the practice was first introduced to our region. Local gift shops no longer stock Eid greeting cards and those which display a few in number mull to shun this business of selling Eid cards at the busiest bazaars in Peshawar as people nowadays prefer sending text messages and emails for the purpose.
Traditionally, people used to send Eid cards to relatives, friends and loved ones at the arrival of Eids whether Eidul-Fitr or Eidul Azha. This trend is almost no more because of too much use of advancement in technology that not only ensures timely delivery but a quickly reply also.
Thus, the beautiful tradition of sending Eid cards is now greatly replaced by sending emails, using social media or SMS packages offered by cellular companies at slashed rates, which has obviously affected this industry. In Peshawar, people used to come to Saddar, University Road, and main city bazaars to buy Eid cards and send those to their loved ones, but now customers do not buy Eid cards any more, shopkeepers said while talking to this scribe.
The shopkeepers, who used to display a variety of Eid cards to attract customers, complain about a fall in their business, saying that main reason of this dying culture is obviously the increasing reliance on electronic means, which offers faster and convenient mode of communication. Apart from that, people today find no time to go and buy a greeting card, and then make an effort to courier it to their nearest and dearest. Generally, a few years back, people used to purchase Eid cards so much that we had to hire extra staff to keep up, but now this business was also ending. In the past, Eid card business used to flourish after mid of Ramazan and continued until Chand Raat, said Jamal Khan, a shopkeeper who ever displayed hundreds of greeting cards on every Eid and other greeting occasions.
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