Last week India celebrated one of its major festivals. Markets were flooded with mindblowing giftpacks. Right from chocolates, sweets, flowers, decorated diyas to studded statues of deities, bakery items, dry fruit baskets…..list is endless. You name it, was there packed artistically to lure customers. All of a sudden I started missing my childhood days when ladies used to prepare home made ladoos/modaks ( sweet balls made of dairy products like ghee, khoya and coconut powder etc. loaded with dry fruits) as festival gifts.
Unfortunately in today’s fast pace life people have no time to prepare savories prior to festivals. They believe in ready to eat stuff available in departmental stores. Festivals have lost their significance and become more of commerce. It is all about marketing and money. Emotions are commercialized and packed into products. Bigger the brand, better it is.
I felt sad and wondered,” Is that the end of old traditions which were so good? Will the present generation won’t take pride in learning traditional recipes? Would they really celebrate an occasion with “Cadbury” whereas their mothers cooked deserts and sweets for special days.” I mean ‘new’ is not hopeless but ‘old’ was established and tested after all.Â
Contemplating the future image, I reached home and got engaged in my preparations. Hardly I knew that I was about to get some special gifts in the evening. Few of my friends bought gifts which touched my heart. They were not only homemade but also wrapped with love and personal touch. Coconut and milkmaid ladoos looked so fresh and tempting in a glass container. There were baskets decorated by my students especially for Diwali filled with nick nack. Have a look of these gifts, my frinds have taken pain to show thier feelings towards me.
This is a victory of traditions for me. I am so happy that there are few who keep these traditions alive rather than but expensive gifts from market to pass it on !!!
10 Responses
I am glad to were able to hang on in the face of commercialization. It’s hard when the entire society in which you live is geared to merchants making money from the season. It takes time and caring to maintain your own traditions when everyone is just urging you to buy, buy, buy 🙂 Congratulations!
Thank you. Probably I prefer doing it that way and they reciprocated in a similar way. I mean no intentions of taking credit but I have always tried to paint or draw a card on birthdays instead of Archies or e-cards. I cook for my friends rather than order food for parties until there is a resource crunch.
I feel this is where many of our holidays are going. Nothing can compare to a hand made gift, that a person put their heart and soul into. (I’m always thinking of my grandma.)
Great post!
I am glad to know that it made you feel emotional about your grandma. A gift becomes more special when a person wraps it with love & affection. It touches you deep inside.
I agree, so much of tradition has been lost, the art of coming together and creating something versus already packaged goods and instant, I miss the times before pre-packaging 🙁
My mom and aunts used to start making savories, sweets & namkeen mixtures well in advance for festive time. There were not many options available then. Times have changed. Ladies go out for work & hardly have time to plan these things.
Looks like a sweet victory, like literally 🙂
I think the personal touch is what makes tradition like this one so special, more meaningful.
It shows how much a person cares for you. Ladoos were yummm ! Thank you for the visit.
Self made is always better. I did not realise that tje ready made gimmicks had also hit Indian food. We now have the Christmas season where it is custome to bake small spicy biscuits in various sizes. For years I would bake many different sorts and would take tray into the office. I no longer do it, it takes a lot of time and patience, but I receive home made from family and friends as a gift. I could buy ready made in the supermarket, but it is not the same. I think becoming a golden oldie is a little to do with the process.
I love home made Christmas cakes. One of my collage friends taught me how to make one. She used to soak assorted dry fruits, rasins in rum atleast three days before to mix it in cake batter to bake. It tasted so good !
I wrote another post after this one. Hope we find each othrr in reader.