Combo sale of besan (chickpea flour) with oil — the TV commercial caught my attention. What a clever bit of cross-selling for the season! Come monsoon, Indian platters get filled with besan pakoras (fritters). But what is this season when everyday grocery ads may get more eyeballs than luxury goods or high-value purchases?
It is Chaturmas (a period of four months). Chatur in Hindi also means “clever” so I take it as a clever way for nature to balance and recharge the ecosystem. This is well imbibed in ancient Vedic wisdom, which slows down all sorts of excessive consumption by putting brakes on any auspicious celebrations.
But really, in a country bustling and booming with 1.3 billion people — could anything ever stop? Traffic jams, waterlogging, flight delays — all that happens, but festivals and celebrations remain unstoppable. And they simply can’t happen without shopping. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), durables, or semi-durables are regular sales. But the real deal is the tyohars (festivities), and the Indian calendar is full of them.
The big ones of colours (Holi) and lights (Diwali) are the most widely known around the globe. But in reality, there is some festival or another almost every month in India, with roughly 100 days of celebrations in a year.
There are special days dedicated to deities; then there are fasts and festivals for the bonds of siblings, husbands and wives, mothers and children, gurus and disciples. There are also fairs and festivals for nature — rivers, trees, forests, mountains, animals, to honour them as “givers” or “nature’s boons.” These have been celebrated from times when there was no materialism attached. The expressions were more about emotion, devotion and conservation.
Eventually, however, modernity and materialism touched many of these festivals. Blessings and best wishes, love and affections, respect and devotion started getting boxed. What’s more, the calendars were further smitten by Western influences with added ideas to spur purchases: New Year, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. All these may be more visible in urban areas. But with digital outreach, even rural regions feel the trickle-down — especially now with the new bullion of the thriving digital economy.
Post-pandemic, India’s digital economy grew phenomenally. Driven by the rapid adoption of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and a permanent post-pandemic shift in consumer behavior, India’s digital payments industry did not just meet its projected 300% growth target by 2025 — it completely shattered it, recording a staggering 1,000%+ (11-fold) increase in transaction volumes to handle over 228 billion digital transactions annually.
But does this all lead to over-consumption? What about pollution, depleting resources, and piling landfills? Are the conservative green consumers with their “recycle–reuse–repair” culture being influenced by the Western culture of capitalism (the very model that fuelled excess long before the sustainability wave)? A question — “Aping West, East may go South?” — which I raised at the SB Forum in Istanbul (2018), held at the inspiringly strategic Bosphorus (where East meets West), still echoes.
And now, there is even more… Whether it’s the Hindu, regional, or Western calendar, reminders of celebrations and shopping come from what I call the “ghost economy.” Every click, swipe, or search on any digital device is tracked — likes, dislikes, moods, habits — to map a shopper’s behavioural DNA. These “ghost bots” then keep nudging, poking to keep buying.
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The big question is: how sustainable is this for India’s ecological assets? Consumers grow more and more disconnected from nature — sitting in air conditioners, trusting labels and global supply chains. The true impact can’t really be measured. Conscious consumers can only hope that the brands they buy are not merely greenwashed. Yet, thanks to the speed breakers in India’s traditional calendars (the Saka), mega consumption and huge spending sprees — like weddings — still slow down.
Yes, in this country of grand celebrations, the biggest of all are the big fat weddings. Indian weddings were a US$50 billion industry in 2022. With destination weddings on the rise, this figure can just be for a season. Post pandemic, the budgets go even up to USD 130 billion in a year.
These really do amplify consumption many times over. Weddings are seen as once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. The smallest Indian wedding is still an extravaganza. An invitee list of a thousand people is just average. There are theme-based events spanning anywhere from three to five days. Décor, dresses, invites, gifts are just the starters. Buying gold, property, automobiles, and high-end electronics is a tradition. Hotels, resorts, travel, catering, and event management are the real big spends. Economically lucrative, yet ecologically, it can be a burden if they happen year-round. And that’s where the buck stops — with the meditative sleep of the Lord of blessings and boons, Bhagwan Vishnu.
Mostly, weddings and other special occasions, such as buying big-ticket items like houses or cars, are timed according to muhurats (auspicious days). This aligns with the sleep cycle of Lord Vishnu — symbolic of nature’s cleansing, recharging of water bodies, and removal of waste. It also reduces human activities by pausing farming, travel, pilgrimages, gatherings and celebrations.
With seasonal changes, when microbial activity increases the risk of infections, gatherings are best avoided too. There are other similar pauses just before major festivals, giving people time to plan and prepare better. Other faiths in India also observe similar cycles — all echoing the same idea: pause, reflect, reset. The time is meant to turn inward, stay put, and observe self and nature.
The modern or younger generation living away from their native places may not be fully aware of these old traditions. But when it comes to life’s big decisions, they still follow priests’ and elders’ advice. The real question now is whether marketers will push minds the other way — selling through lean months and disregarding age-old traditions by offering discounts, or embrace the “pause” and help people continue sustainably. What if, instead of pushing more, brands declared a ‘Sustainable Only Sale” through these months — an invitation to buy only what you truly need: repairable, fair trade, recycled, durable, local? Why not think it over pakoras with some masala chai?
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Cover Photo: Barsana Holi Festival, March 22, 2013. Cover Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
