Mithai shops offer a colourful combination of mouth-watering Diwali delicacies

An age old trademark of celebration and cheer, lip smacking variety of sweets have flooded the market this Diwali to pamper the taste buds clamouring for their festive special. And there is something for all, even the calorie conscious.

Besides traditional offerings like motichur laddoos, karanjis, shankar palis and anarsas priced between Rs 160 and Rs 240 per kg, a varied range of typically nomenclatured ones have also found a good number of takers. "American butter rolls made of milkmaid and butter with lots of cashews, pistas and almonds, dry fruit kalakand, Gulkand sandwiches, Rajasthani dry fruit rolls and our badam katlis are some of the new arrivals that are high on demand," informs Shreyans Parekh of Bhavnagari sweets, Rasta Peth. While a kg of badam katli and dry fruit kalakand will cost Rs 500 and Rs 240 respectively, the butter rolls, dry fruit rolls and gulkand sandwiches range between Rs 360 and Rs 400. The sweet shops in the city are witnessing a heavy rush of customers. "Sale of sweets is very good. Specially there is a heavy rush for laddoos and pedhas" says Yuvraj Gadve of Kaka Halwai.

This year the sweet shops have also guaranteed a smile on the faces of diet freaks and diabetic patients who are forced to ignore their yearning for mouthwatering sweets. Sugar free sweets made in anjeer and khajur (dates) or with artificial sweeteners have created a special place for themselves in the sweet trays. Apart from selling its exclusive Cranberry sweets priced at 560 per kg and the regular kaju katlis and kaju rolls among others, Karachi sweet mart, one of the prominent sweet shops in the city, is also offering sugar free kaaju pista barfi at Rs 600 a kg and sugar free milkcake at Rs 360 a kg. Similarly Bhavnagari sweets is also offering malai barfis at 300 a kg which can be even stored for a month. " As usual the pure ghee motichur laddoos are selling like hot cakes, but at the same time there is also a good demand for sugar free sweets priced at Rs 500 a kg and khajur masti, with less sugar content , commanding a price of 420 a kg," says Virendre Singh of Purohit sweets.

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