Saturday 05 / July / 2025
Muscat: Although Diwali is normally a time for celebration, expats in Oman say their festivities this year was a low-key affair because of the pandemic.
Traditionally a time for members of the Sultanate’s expat community to visit each other and celebrate in their homes, Suresh Mathur, an Indian living in the country, said he did not feel the festive spirit this year.
“I wished all my family members in India over a WhatsApp video call, but that was the extent of our celebrations here,” he said.
“Normally, my wife and I organise a big Diwali party and call all of our friends and relatives in the country home, but this time, the regulations prohibit large gatherings so it obviously makes no sense to have one.”
Sweet makers in the country, who often do roaring business during this time of the year, have seen a major decline in customers this year, because of the economic impact COVID-19 has had on people’s spending capabilities.
While individual customers do buy a significant amount of sweets, Ali Wajihi, the owner of Bombay Sweets, one of the country’s oldest sweet sellers, said corporate orders by companies, which make up the bulk of his sales during Diwali, had fallen sharply.
“There has been a reduced budget for companies this year, naturally because of the pandemic,” he said.
“Some companies that used to previously place orders for OMR1,000 for example, now just spend about OMR400 or 500 with us, while some have decided to buy cheaper alternatives, such as dry fruits, or have stopped buying sweets for their clients altogether. We have kept people on standby to make more sweets if needed, but that depends on whether we do good sales over the weekend”.
“We had a good take on Friday, and are hoping for better sales in the coming days, but even then, we only expect to move 60 to 75 per cent of the volume we did last year, when we sold about 10 tonnes of sweets,” he added.
“A lot of the smaller sweet vendors have unfortunately been forced to close their operations because of the pandemic, but because we are such an old name in the country, people still come to us, and the customers that used to go to them now come here.”
Adding to this, Ashwin Sapnani, a co-owner of Kesar Restaurant, said he expected to do only 40 per cent of the business seen last year, owing to the effects of the pandemic.
“The corporate orders we have seen this year are not even 10 per cent of what we’d seen last year,” he admitted.
“We have had good sales in terms of walk-in customers and retail, but orders from companies represent 60 per cent of our business. If a family comes in, they’ll maybe buy four or five boxes, but when a company places orders, they request for 300 or 400 boxes of sweets, which they then distribute to everyone else.
“The willingness for people to spend has really fallen this year,” said Sapnani. “We have had a lot of people order their sweets online, and that has been a new experience for us, but the spirit of Diwali, which is seen in a husband, wife and children all go out and enjoy the festive season, seems to be lacking this year.”
Romesh Senanayake, a Sri Lankan expat, said, “Diwali is a time my children really look forward to, because they get to see their friends, eat lots of tasty food, and really enjoy themselves, but the mood to celebrate is just not there, so all we have done is buy some sweets for the family. We hope we are able to celebrate this festival in a big way next year. Hopefully, it will make up for this one.”
