Ask anyone who grew up in a Maharashtrian home what Diwali smelled like, and the answer comes fast: faral. Besan roasting in ghee, karanji frying, the chakli press creaking, a big dabba of chivda that somehow got emptier every time you passed it.
Deepavali - aaplya lokan sobat. Deepavali, with our own people. That part has never changed, even if the faral tray has.
The faral tray we grew up with 🪔
The faral was not one sweet. It was a whole spread, made over a week or two by everyone in the house:
- Shankarpali, sweet and crunchy, cut into little diamonds
- Chakli, spicy and crisp, pressed in spirals
- Karanji, half-moon pastries stuffed with coconut and dry fruits
- Laddoo - besan, rava, and in some homes dink or dry fruit
- Chivda and other farsan to balance all that sweetness
- Anarse, kadboli, chirote, depending on whose aaji was in charge
Then the faral went around. A plate to the neighbours, a plate back from them. Relatives dropped in for Bhau Beej, and the dabbe were opened again. Half the fun was comparing everyone’s chakli.
What changed 🏙️
Many of us moved to cities. Joint families became nuclear families, both parents work, and the flats are smaller than the old wada kitchens. Very few homes today can spend two weeks making eight kinds of faral, and honestly, very few families can eat that much either.
So the tray got smaller. Maybe a chivda, maybe one sweet, maybe a box from someone you trust. And alongside that, many of us started paying more attention to how much sugar and fried food goes into a festival week.
What didn’t change ✨
The things that make it Deepavali are all still here:
- Meeting our loved ones - the gappa, the visits, the family lunch
- Diyas, painted and filled with oil, lit every evening along the door and the balcony
- The akashkandil going up outside the window, and a rangoli at the door
- Navin kapde (new clothes) for Laxmi Pujan and Padwa
- A few fatake for the children (and the adults who pretend it is for the children)
- Early-morning abhyanga snan with utane on Narak Chaturdashi, the way aaji insisted
Deepavali has always been about spreading joy, smiles and light. A smaller faral tray doesn’t change that.
Gifting: from mithai to dry fruits 🎁
Somewhere along the way, Diwali gifting moved from mithai boxes to badam, kaju, pista and other dry fruits. Families send them to the people they are close to, and many business owners send them to their clients and staff. It makes sense: dry fruits feel more wholesome, they keep well, and they look good.
There is a middle path, though. A laddoo can carry those same dry fruits, made the traditional way:
- Our Royal Dates laddoo is Ajwa and Medjool dates with seeds and a full mix of dry fruits - no jaggery, no sugar, only the sweetness of the dates.
- Dink + Methi and Wheat + Makhana laddoos are packed with kaju, badam and khariq, roasted in pure ghee and sweetened only with gul.
So it is still a dry fruit gift, just one the whole family can share at the table.
A lighter Diwali, the practical way 🌿
You don’t need to give up sweets to have a lighter Diwali. A few simple swaps help:
- Fewer items, better ones. Two or three sweets you love beat eight you eat out of habit.
- Jaggery or dates instead of refined sugar. All our laddoos use one or the other. It is still a sweet, so the portion still matters, but it is a cleaner one.
- One laddoo, not a handful. A good laddoo is rich enough that one feels like enough.
- Balance the plate with something savoury and homemade, the way the faral tray always did.
Our Diwali box 📦
If you want a few good sweets on the table without two weeks in the kitchen, build your own box: pick 2 or 3 laddoo varieties and we pack them together in one 500 g box. Every variety is sweetened only with jaggery or dates. It works as a gift for family and neighbours, or as your own Diwali plate.
If you are sending sweets to someone, our Diwali hampers come ready to gift with your own message on the card: Pangat, a 28-laddoo mithai box for the whole household; Jodi, two tins in a gift basket; and Rajwada, four tins in a keepsake box. Not sure which suits whom, or what to write? We put a few ideas together in A Diwali Hamper Says What a Text Can’t.
For office and client gifting in larger quantities, reach out to us early, since bulk orders need 5 to 7 days. Laxmi Pujan is on 8 November this year, so please order by 5 November for delivery before it. Hampers can be ordered until 8 November, in time for Bhaubeej.
Shubh Deepavali from our kitchen to yours. May your home be full of light, and your plate full of a few good sweets, aaplya lokan sobat. 🪔