Halkhata losing appeal amid digital record keeping.
The appeal of Halkhata, opening new financial record books on the first day of Bangla new year Pahela Baishakh, to the business houses has decreased with the advancement of technology but the traditional businessmen across the country still maintain the centuries-old culture, traders said. A section of businessmen in semi-urban, urban and especially Old Dhaka areas celebrate Pahela Baishakh with opening Halkhata with the hope of getting increased economic returns but the tradition has almost disappeared from a good number of business houses and big companies, they said. Traders, especially in the Old Dhaka area, clean and decorate their shops on the last day of Chaitra, called Chaitra Shangkranti, to celebrate the first day of the Bangla new year with closing old accounts and opening new ones.
On the occasion they invite their clients and give them sweets. Their clients are supposed to clear all old debts. ‘Halkhata has lost its appeal to some extent with the advancement of technology but the jewellery shop owners celebrate the day on a large scale as we consider Pahela Baishakh as new beginning,’ Kanulal Gosh, owner of Prothoma Jewellers at Patuatuly in Old Dhaka told New Age. On the day traders invite their regular customers and give jewellery boxes, mugs and sweets as gifts with the aim of strengthening business relations with customers, he said. Kanulal said once upon a time Halkhata was opened by businessmen to collect debts from customers but now it became difficult to accept year-long credit business for traders as the price of gold skyrocketed. He said, ‘Many traders will celebrate Pahela Baishakh on April 14 and open Halkhata on the day but we will celebrate it in the next day according to our tradition.’ All of the traders at Shyambazar do not celebrate the occasion on the same day, he said. ‘They start opening Halkhata from the first day of the Bangla new year and continue till last day of the month of Baishakh.’ Md Alauddin Malik, a readymade garment trader at Islampur, said that though the cycle of clearing debts had changed,
Halkhata was till now very much important for the businesses to maintain relationship with customers and other stake holders. ‘I have already invited all of my customers and well wishers through cards and a get-together would take place on Tuesday in my shop. Snacks will be distributed among the guests,’ he said. Former Bangladesh Jewellers’ Samity general secretary Dewan Aminul Islam said, ‘The spirit of Halkhata is renewing contacts with customers and encouraging new business relationship by serving special gifts and sweets.’ Getting pending payments from and settling accounts with creditors are other aims of Halkhata but now the business transaction and account maintenance have become more faster and most of the people are following banking channel and government-set fiscal calendar, he said.
Lokenath Book Agency, a business house at Bangla Bazar in Old Dhaka, supplies traditional red-colour ledger books (Halkhata) to the traders for long on the eve of Pahela Baishakh but this year the business of Halkhata-related products is slow. Md Shahiduzzaman, owner of the business house, said that the order for Halkhata almost halved in last couple of years as technology grabbed the use of hard documents. ‘On the occasion of Halkhata, a business house buys one or two ledger books as token to maintain the tradition but the accounts of the business are maintained with computer,’ he said. Md Manjur, owner of Fahad Enterprise which supplies invitation cards for Halkhata, said that this year he received very few orders for cards. ‘The volume of order for Hallkhata cards has decreased by one third this year compared with that of the last year as the appeal of the culture has decreased,’ he said.
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