Deepavali, or Diwali as it is more commonly known is the one Indian festival I enjoy the most. Normally, I don't make a fuss over whatever festival that happens to be around the corner, being that I enjoy them only for the sake of the Sweets and other mouth-watering dishes that are prepared in HUGE quantities. Man, I'll do just about anything for those festival dishes. Now, Deepavali (name for Diwali in southern parts of India, where I live) is to Indians, especially Hindus just as Christmas is to Christians all over the world. This is one of the very rare times you'll find me softening my regards about religion. I believe the only useful things to come out of all the religions, whatever it may be, are their respective festival food and dishes.
Anyway, the 8th of October, last week was the festival of lights, Deepavali. I had grown out of the 'i-just-have-to-burst-a-truckload-of-crackers-and-fireworks-otherwise-i'll-die' phase a long time ago. So, in recent occasions I wind up, most of the day with a rather disturbing amount of Deepavali Sweets and Snacks that is made in the family kitchen as well as those brought by friends and relatives (God bless those kind souls!), watching all the Special Programmes on the regional language channels on TV. But this year, I did something else. Yes, I still wound up with the load of food and TV, but not before.... huh? Hold up, will ya?
I came across a very good website called DiwaliFestival.org, and found it to be very very useful. The site contains all the information you would ever need about Deepavali/Diwali, and is very well maintained. There is a lot of information about the Festival, its history, traditions and customs, significance, celebrations and most importantly the FOOD. That is the only thing that matters to me, oh well.
The site features a rather good amount of extremely delectable Deepavali recipes for Sweets, Desserts and Snacks. The collection of recipes include popular dishes like Wheat Laddu | Soan Papdi | Mushrooms in Onion Gravy | Besan ki Barfi | Karanji | Chick Peas and Potatoes Curry | Sitaphal Rabdi | Almond Seera | Badam (Almond) Katli | Khoya Laddu | Gujia | Malpua and much much more. 
My Sis and big ol' Me printed out those recipes and prepared just about every one of them. It was our little project, and we felt extremely generous and satisfaction while giving away a tiny portion of all the food we made to the others in the house. Yeah, i know what you are thinking, but both my Sister and I are extremely miserly when it comes to sharing food.
But its not such a bad thing, right?
This post is also featured on Deliciously D.
