In the narrow shopping street in the old town melancholy hangs heavy amongst Christmas decorations, small shops selling blouses, shirts, lingerie, suits and shoes are mostly empty and dying, the relentless stride of Chinese shops selling stuff at a price they cannot match, is strangling them, and the public will not come to their rescue. They used to be a dignified lot, men and women of commerce, selling good quality cloths, a church going bourgeoisie with a healthy contempt for the crass working class, those they made their money off, now left in a backwater, missed only by the nostalgic, who remember them wrongly.
