The days leading up to Deepavali are usually engulfed in a frenzy, with clothes to be bought, crowds to brave, and frantic plans to visit friends and family. Despite everything that’s going on, it’s hard to miss how the air all around just smells of ghee and sugar, laden with the promise of all that is to come as far as sweets and savouries go.
Gearing up for their busiest time of the year, sweet stalls across the city have a lot up their sleeve — ranging from traditional sweets to newer varieties, offering online catalogues, and even selling ready-to-make mixes for bakshanams.
At 4.30pm, the Sri Karpagambal Kapali Sweets Stall in Mylapore has a large group of people outside, awaiting their turn to buy hot cauliflower pakodas, and small samosas by the dozen. The owner, S Munsamy, is reassuring a customer who wants to place an order for 200 samosas.
With Deepavali less than two weeks away, Munsamy says that while they don’t take orders specially for the festival, they are gearing up to meet the rush. “Since ours is a small sweet shop, people come here directly and buy from us,” he says. Home to the most iconic pakodas and small samosas in the area, Munsamy says that a Deepavali favorite however is their milk-based Ajmeer Cake. “Small badushas and jangris too are favourites among our regular customers,” he adds. Since the shop will be shut for three days during the festival, Munsamy says he is expecting a bulk of his customers to come and shop early next week.
A loyal customer base is what drives many of these smaller sweet shops. Not too far away, R Muthukumar, who owns Sri Annapoorani Sweets says the shop which has been around for over 55 years has seen customers from four generations come and buy sweets for Deepavali. “While our jangiris are very good, we have a butterscotch and blackcurrant delite, which only our regular customers know about and is made in fresh batches for the festival,” he says.
From a khoa-laden Mysore pak, to a signature wheat halwa made with pure ghee, there’s a mix of traditional sweets as well as newer innovations at Sharadha Stores in West Mambalam and Alwarthirunagar. “It isn’t just our sweets which are a draw among our regular customers, but good quality ingredients such as Uthukuli butter, ghee, and processed rice flour to make murukku,” says RT Balaji. Early next week, they plan to start making and selling their special Madras Mixture — the ‘special’ here is owing to its shelf life which Balaji says, is nearly 25 days. “Jangris however, which are the most popular around Deepavali, will be made two days before the festival and sold fresh,” he adds.
To help with the rush, many sweet stalls have circulated their festival special brochures and a price list to their regular customers via Whatsapp, marked a small section of the store to cater to Deepavali orders alone, and have employed additional staff members to help with packing bulk orders if any. Ganapathy’s Butter and Ghee, which has outlets in Mylapore and West Mambalam is also ready to handle online orders coming in through their website for the festive season, and has tied up with a pan-India delivery partner for the same.
“Traditional sweets have always been our speciality, and ladoos, badusha, jangri, badam and wheat halwas are sweets customers come back to year after year,” says S Saravanan, who runs the sweet shops with his brother S Balaji. “While we have a limited yet regular set of customers who come back to us year after year, our focus is on making sweets closer to the date of the festival, and ensuring that it is delivered fresh to everyone,” he adds.
