kanpur the last minute shopping and frenzied exchange of greetings via smses marked diwali celebrations from friday onwards while the markets were seen buzzing with huge crowds from candles to designer diyas from electronic items to new clothes shoppers seemed to be going on a binge and there was no stopping on the exchange of diwali greetings for nishtha seth 24 her cellphone kept beeping to tell her there was a new greeting in every ten minutes my inbox has been flooded with text messages i have got at least 20 text messages since morning while the list of scraps and mails on my orkut and gmail account has no end so its more of an ediwali for me she said but the celebrations have really changed with time according to 38yearold surendra mehta he added earlier we used to send cards or may call up friends and family members the celebrations meant a grand family gettogether but now diwali celebrations have been confined to egreetings shoppers are trying to lure the buyers with their fancied offers various stores and showrooms of electrical appliances are offering free laptops mobiles ipods to those who are doing the bulk purchases but it didnt seem a noisy diwali for the crackers sellers and buyers alike cracker sales have been reportedly down because of the rising costs of the sparklers rockets charkhas and anars according to a cracker seller sales have fallen by almost 40 percent but a few were happy for the dip in the sales of the crackers ritika gupta an it professional saidi am so glad there will be less noise and air pollution this year every year postdiwali my brother gets an asthma attack i just hope people burst fewer crackers this year as the much awaited and the years biggest extravaganza diwali is no less than a carnival for kanpurites people were seen shopping even late at night as the day progressed the city witnessed more jams on the road it was difficult to get parking space in many market places electricians were in great demand with everyone wanting to light up their houses the halwais too did brisk business on diwali day in their extended shops it was not just sweets that were being sold attractively packaged dry fruit boxes seemed more in demand