Billing for your beauty parlour and cosmetics counter in West Bengal
Alta and sindoor for Dashami, the gaye holud tray and a conch bangle pair, all counted on your phone.
Alta on Dashami, the gaye holud tray and the three wedding seasons of a Bengal beauty counter
Dashami, when alta, sindoor and kajal leave together
Alta, sindoor, bindi cards and kajal are bought from the wholesaler by the dozen, and the last days of Pujo empty every box by the afternoon. The women of the para come in for them on those days, and a box empty at noon cannot be filled by evening. The wholesaler takes days to send more, and Dashami does not wait. The order has to be placed before the days begin, and the only guide is what you remember of last year's dozens.
The gaye holud tray put together by hand
A family comes for the turmeric ceremony of a wedding and wants a tray: turmeric paste, mehendi cones, a flower band and a small mirror. You pick each from a different shelf, wrap it, and give a price from memory that is a little different every time. When the tray is collected by the groom's sister, nobody can say what was in it, and if one thing is missing on the day of the ceremony, it is your shop that hears about it.
Three wedding seasons and a counter that stocks for one
In Bengal weddings come in the cold months, in the weeks before Pujo and again around Boishakh, and each season needs different things. In winter it is moisturiser and lip balm and in summer it is cooling packs, with alta and sindoor in between. The shelf is stocked for the last season, and what the bride's party asks for is somewhere else. The helper goes to the godown for a jar of cream and comes back with the wrong one, and the bride waits in the chair with her mother watching.
From the gaye holud tray built to order to the oil poured into a small bottle
A gaye holud tray built from six items and billed as one list
Make each part of the tray its own item with its own rate, the turmeric paste, the mehendi cone, the flower band and the mirror. A tray is then one bill with six lines, in the order the family would list them. The family reads it on WhatsApp before the ceremony, and the groom's sister collects exactly what the bill says.
Which of alta, sindoor, bindi cards and kajal went first, day by day to Dashami
The daily report keeps every Pujo day on its own line. Open Saptami, Ashtami, Navami and Dashami one by one and read which of alta, sindoor, bindi cards and kajal went first on each day, and how many. Dashami afternoon is the line to read first, because that is when the four leave together.
Shankha by the pair, pola by the piece, counted by size
A shankha is a white conch-shell bangle and a pola a red coral one, and a Bengal bride wears the two together at her wedding. A shankha is sold by the pair and a pola by the piece, and each comes in several sizes. Give each size its own item with its rate, and the count tells you how many of each size are left in the box before the next wedding.
What a Bengal counter of alta, sindoor and bangles asks of a phone
Low stock warnings
The alta, the sindoor and the bindi cards that will not last Dashami, seen on the phone in the week before and not on the afternoon itself.
Offers for regular customers
A lower rate for the aunt who has brought her niece to the parlour for every wedding in the family, written on her bill and not promised at the door.
Bills on your phone
A gaye holud tray billed as one list of six things and sent to the family on WhatsApp, so the one who collects it has the list in hand.
Questions a Bengal beauty parlour asks
The family says one thing was missing from the tray on the ceremony day. How do I check?
Open the family's page and the bill by its day. It lists the things of the tray. You read them with the family, and the one that is not on the bill is the one that was not packed.
Alta comes from one wholesaler and sindoor from another. After Dashami, how do I know whom to ask for more?
Give each wholesaler a supplier page and each product its own item. The count after Dashami shows which one ran out, and the supplier page shows whom to order it from.
Weddings come in three seasons and each needs different goods. Can I see which goods I ran short of in each?
Open the days of each wedding season in last year's sales and read the goods whose count reached nothing. Those are the goods the shelf lacked in that season. Write them against the season, and bring them in before it starts.
Alta and sindoor go by the dozen on the Pujo days. Can I see the dozens apart from the parlour's work?
Yes. Alta and sindoor are items sold by the dozen, so the report lists their dozens on one line each, apart from the threading and the facials.
Mahalaya crowds and a district that feeds Kolkata
Over the Mahalaya weekend in October 2026, crowds thronged Kolkata's Hatibagan, Gariahat and New Market as shoppers made last-minute buys ahead of Durga Puja.
Purba Medinipur is mainly farming land growing paddy, potato, vegetables and betelvine; produce is marketed mainly in local markets and nearby Kolkata.