Reminiscing Diwali with Gajar-Ka-Halwa

Diwali brings in fond memories from childhood. Those days we would follow a set drill and must do activities for Diwali. Accompanying Baba (Dad) to purchase crackers was a special privilege given to Dada ( Bro)   as he was not allergic to dust. Sindri market used to be quite dusty with trucks ( with ‘Horn OK Please’ at the rear) unloading goods, gigantic Ox’s hunting for free food and an occasional mongrel sniffing at your ankle.

Paper Lanterns for this Diwali

Two days to Diwali we would have counted arms and ammo, arranged in chronological order. There were other things to take care of, Baba would take out the old set of Tuni bulb ( light bulbs)  they were little glass green cylinders with yellow lights in them. The whole light would be laid inside the house to test and repair each bulb, we had to skip and jump over rows of light. Sometimes Baba would jump up as he would have stepped on live wire, which I found funny and would laugh loud and end up in a whimper in a few seconds with Baba’s stare.

Traditionally, the day before Diwali we lit fourteen lights around the house to shoo away evil. Right at sunset Ma would step out of the house in the dark barefoot carrying fourteen candles, her sari trailing over the grass. She would  look like a Goddess, with that white saree with red border.   I would immediately follow her in the dark. Ma would hum to herself, usually a devotional song. Wide eyed I would watch Ma, her face lit up every time she would light a candle in a dark corner, I would imagine evil running away from the pure light and vanish in the darkness.  My awe would be interrupted as my palm would have touched the wet nose of our pet mongrel, Hero, wagging vigorously, hoping for some treat.  Later in the night Dada would scare me of ghost’s residing under my bed ready to drag my leg the moment I stepped out. Eventually I would end up hopping furniture’s, to be on the safer side.

Diwali morning would be cold I would wake up others by placing my cold palm against warm sleeping faces…. I know thats wicked. We would wait for the sun to come up and dry up the morning dew. My sister would be busy making paper lanterns all day, and the more she would concentrate, the further would her tongue stick out …concentrating!  I would do rounds helping every one.  By noon light bulbs would be up on the rosebush, twisting and turning around the windows. Dad would create a contraption for us to light sparklers away from our body. Basically it would be a metal clip tied at the end of a 3 feet long stick. Every time we had to burn sparklers we would clip it on the stick and light them. Our ignorance made is make faces at that contraption. Much later we understood its importance once we started hearing about cracker accidents. Story…………………..to be continued. 

Lets make some halwa now. Preparation time for Gajar-ka-halwa can range from 1 hour to 5 hours. This version is within 1 hour, lighter on calorie, something which I made this Diwali.

Gajar Ka Halwa

You will need the following:

5 medium Carrots peeled and grated

Milk 1 liter

Cardamom 2 nos

Sugar to taste 3/4^th  cup

Condensed milk  1tbsp

Cashew nut halved 2 tbsp

Clarified butter  1½ tbsp

How to cook

In a heavy bottomed pan, warm up 1tbsp of clarified butter. Add carrots and sauté in low heat for five minutes. Add milk & cardamom till it starts boiling and stir frequently, continue to boil the carrot till the milk dries up. Half way through add sugar, and cashew nuts.  In the end add condensed milk and mix well, transfer the entire content into a serving bowl and drizzle with ½ tbsp of clarified butter. It is up to you on how greasy you want it to be.

Quite simple eh? Kudos to my mother-in-law.

Bon appétit.

Tricks:

You can add nuts raisins to make this richer. To enhance the color add a few strands of saffron along with cardamom.