The sweet festival of India

When Diwali comes, with it arrives an unbeatable hunger for sweets. How can one imagine Diwali without getting offered for those delicious sweets when meeting relatives. Sweets which had not been heard or thought of for the entire year comes into a picture on this very night. The festival seems to be incomplete without the sweetness of sweets in it.

 

Every state of India has its own speciality in terms of sweets. And all speciality comes out when it is the festive time.

 

To start with, Andhra Pradesh has its Qubani ka meetha made of apricots, Tirupati laddoo, Ariselu and Karijalu. The Tirupati laddoo is unique in its own way. It is prepared only in the Tirumala Venkateshwara temple and nowhere in the world. The practice of distributing this laddoo to the pilgrims is being carried on since 1715. Made of gram flour, cashew nuts, cardamom, ghee, sugar, sugar candy and raisins, it tastes heavenly delicious. 

Tirupati laddoo

Assam has the famous Narikol's laddoo which are balls made of coconut powder and soaked in sweet sugar syrup.

Narikol's laddoo

There's a speciality of our border areas with Pakistan too. On the day of Diwali, the Indian army offers sweets to its Pakistani counterpart, thus symbolizing peace through this festival.

 

Khaja, made of layered dough fried and soaked in sugar syrup is found in Bihar. Other favourite sweets of biharis are Balushahi laktho and laai. The taste of laai is such that one should try it atleast once in life. Prepared from ram dana mixed in jaggery syrup and transformed in ball shapes, it melts in mouth within moments, leaving you wanting more of it each time.

 

The Diwali of Gujratis can't be complete without sweets like Basundi, Aam rus, Shrikhand and Gud Paani, to name a few. Basundi is a dense milk flavoured with cashew, pista and other dry fruits. The Jains of Gujarat, or in fact of the whole world, make a special nirvaan laddoo in the morning of diwali to celebrate the nirvaan (salvation) of their last Tirthankar, Lord Mahavira.

 

It is perhaps because of the innumerable sweets that it offers that the West Bengalis talk so sweet. It is truly the land of sweets. The qualities and tastes of here's sweets are such that they are exported to different corners of the world. Sita bhog, mihidana, Narkel Naru are some of the famous sweets of the place which are made during Diwali. Other sweets which can be found in every sweet shop are Rasgulla, Sandesh, Aam doi and many more. The list can never end.

Sita bhog

 

Coming to Tamil Nadu, 

Pongal is a special type of kheer made here. It is sweetened using jaggery instead of sugar unlike other parts of India. Besides. There are other sweets too like coconut barfi, Tirunelveli halwa and Payasum. Payasum is a rice pudding with flavourings of dry fruits. 

 

Tirunelveli halwa

While Uttar Pradesh keeps Gulab Jamun, Jalebi and Peda on its list, Jharkhand offers Dudhauri and Anarsa made with powered rice, jaggery and sesame seeds.

 

The list of the sweets goes on and on. The varieties are unlimited. Even in a single line of sweet, say laddoo, one can find dozens of variants, like Rava laddoo, Besan ke laddoo, til ke laddoo, gond ke laddoo, bundi ke laddoo and many more. Famous sweets like Gulab Jamun, Kala Jamun, barfi and rasgullas are loved equally throughout the country. Be it Kashmiri Shufta or rajasthani ghevar, the taste of these is such that one cannot control his urge to grab them once seen.

Ghevar