This Diwali Let the Reason be a Sweet One

As diverse as our country is, our celebrations are also just as varied. One of the biggest festivals in India, Diwali has different versions of pooja rituals, stories and delicacies with it as we travel from one part of the country to another. For a traveller and a foodie, Diwali is also the time to sample the variety of lip-smacking sweets being prepared across the country. Because nothing brings together a nation of a billion like delicious food during festivals does!

One thing is sure even as you travel from North to South or West to East; each region of the country dips in to an instant sugar rush with the onset of Diwali. Many still make each item on the menu painstakingly at home and many rely on the halwai shops from where they pick up their favourite sweets.

Loaded with ghee, sugar, dry fruits, milk, mawa and lots of love, Diwali sweets will make anyone give up their diet and give in to temptation. From the by lanes of Varanasi to the kitchens in Punjab, North India doles out syrupy and slurpy Jalebis, melt-in-the-mouth gulab jamuns, pista-loaded kheer and suji halwa, full of dollops of ghee.

Moving west, jaggery and ghee laden Puran Poli in Maharashtra, warm and dry-fruity Moong dal halwa from Rajasthan and sweet chilled Basundi in colourful Gujarat make the festivities extra sweet.

Southwards, the houses are abuzz with the roasty aroma of Rawa Kesari, Mysore Pak and Rawa laddoo on the occasion of Deepawali or Naraka Chaturdashi, celebrated a day before Diwali.

Extensively using milk and milk products, Chennar Payesh, varieties of Sandesh and Lapsi are the some of the sweets prepared across East India where Diwali is celebrated as Kali Puja.

Whichever part of the country you may be in during Diwali, you are not too far from a gulab jamun, a plate of halwa or a sandesh. You have our word on that!