Dhaka: Despite iftar shops flourishing and proliferating all over the capital, residents of Dhaka on Sunday still marked the onset of Ramadan by flocking to the Chawkbazar iftar market in Old Town to welcome the holy month with their favourite iftar items.

Iftar-buyers started rushing to the traditional iftar market just after Zohr prayers (at about 1:00pm) to buy a range of items unique in both taste and look.

Visiting the market in the afternoon, this correspondent found the innumerable makeshift shops around Chawkbazar Shahi Mosque teeming with the faithful. They were not there for lunch however, or anything other than iftar - the breaking of the daylong fast.

The strictly seasonal market's makeshift stalls had already occupied almost the entire road in front of the Shahi Mosque, a scene that can be expected to persist over the next month.

With virtually no branding to differentiate themselves, sellers engage in all sorts of oral antics to entice you into their stall instead of the next. Visual stimuli in the form of elaborate dressing for some food items and appeals to the olfactory sense were also not uncommon.

Some of the most popular items in the market were the Boro Baper Polay Khay (a platter with assorted items), chola, piaju, beguni, egg chop, and haleem, Shahi Ruti (special bread), biryani, khichhuri, tehari, chicken roast, fried chicken, grilled chicken and fried quail birds.

A resident of old Dhaka, Chand Miah, said in every Ramadan, people crowd at the over a century-old iftar market at Chawkbazar to buy the items of their choice.

Like the previous years, this year the iftar market has got a festive look with the crowd of huge buyers.

Sayedur Rahman, a busy seller, said he has been selling iftar items through his makeshift shop for the last 20 years. He inherited the iftar business from his father and grandfather, he added.

Nazmul Islam, a buyer who came from Malibagh, said he came to Chawkbazar to purchase some delicious iftar items on the first day of Ramadan.

The sheer enthusiasm on their faces let on why even after Dhaka's expansion in all directions, the wisdom of crowds still points them to Chawkbazar.