The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : For a healthy Deepavali

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 20, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

For a healthy Deepavali

Afshan Yasmeen

Gifts come in baskets of dry fruits, nuts and diet chocolates

LIGHT GIFTS: `Deepavali baskets' on display at a sweet stall on Commercial Street in Bangalore. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: With Bangaloreans preferring to celebrate a "healthy" Deepavali this year, there has been a major shift from the calorie-loaded traditional sweets to nuts and dry fruits and diet chocolates.

Although kaju katli, kaju barfi, kaju badamika, rasagolla, rasmalai and assorted sweets are still the favourite delicacies of most people, nuts and dry fruits are sought after. "Fitness is not a fashion, it is a necessity," is the slogan now.

To retain the traditional customer base and cater for the health-conscious, sweet stalls in the city have come out with innovative concepts like "Deepavali basket". This basket, which comes in various sizes and attractive designs, is a blend of assorted sweets, dry fruits, chocolates and `diyas' or candles of different shapes and a few firecrackers. The customers can order specific additions (gifts) to the basket. However, the baskets cost between Rs. 880 and Rs. 1,100.

Considerable attention is paid to packaging and designing these baskets. Major chains of sweet stalls have invested substantially in this by setting up in-house design concept teams.

"Although we have stopped taking orders, we are still receiving last minute bulk orders. Our in-house design concept team has put in a seven-month effort to evolve 25 designs by using `bandhini' fabric, fancy laces and artificial flowers," Rahul Dadu, proprietor of Anand Sweets, said. "We have created a regular customer base over the years. But with most of our customers preferring other kinds of gifts to sweets, we are doing our best to provide them all that they need in one package," B. Shankar Singh of Kanti Sweets said. While business is on the upswing for many sweet stalls, some have not been so fortunate. "We hope to cash in on last-minute buyers," said owner of a neighbourhood sweet stall.

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