Diwali, the festival of lights, is around the corner but the darkness that ‘dieting’ casts is still upon us. Instead of celebrating age-old, heritage recipes of laddoos, chaklis, mithai, we stress over magazines who carry the same old ‘Diwali detox’ articles by the same ‘experts’ year after year.
This year, let us resolve to light the lamp of Diwali in its full glory. Let us involve our children in celebrating the bonding of families over cooking and eating delicacies. Let it truly be a green, organic Diwali where our future generation gets a first-hand experience of ‘the making of a laddoo’. Allow them the chance to learn the science behind the blend of rava, coconut or besan and fenugreek with sugar. Let them view first hand how appetite and ability to digest, absorb and assimilate nutrients magically increases in the presence of loved ones. Allow the grandparents to fuss over them with an extra piece of home-made chakli, karanji, laddoo and barfi.
Celebrating Diwali delicacies is under threat. Our children will be cool if they know how to roll a laddoo, not if they know the meaning of ‘trick or treat’. Heritage recipes need your support so that participation of all genders in cooking is retained and passed on. It allows for a society to thrive in harmony, across boundaries of genders and religion. There really is more to food beyond the limited labels of dieting, calories and fattening. Diwali affords a great chance to see it.
