Okay, so one thing I absolutely love about village weddings is the way they handle THE SWEETS. The halwai (sweet maker) comes to the house and makes them right there. It feels like: Yes! Yaay! Something special is happening, festive vibes, celebration feels. The vibe kicks in the moment they arrive with their enormous vessels, long ladles and mountains of ingredients. They spend 2 to 3 days creating all the sweets from scratch, right there at the house of the celebration. It's truly a pretty sight.
Contrast to the city weddings, where the sweets and all the work are done by rushing to a sweet shop, buying kilos of pre-made sweets, getting them packed in those pretty boxes and then the packed items arrive at your home. That's it. Sure, there's a momentary thrill in seeing the beautifully decorated sweet boxes, but the thrill ends there. No thrill beyond it. In villages, there's a lot more—anticipation, aroma filling the air, kids (like me!) constantly running there to sneak tastes of warm, freshly made sweets! In the village, the sweet-making process is a celebration in itself. It's so much fun! I love that rustic, country vibe. It just feels so much more….celebratory.
These are KalaJamuns in the making. I know they look suspiciously like GulabJamuns. But they're not!
That's Kalakand. Village people love this one. There's literally a fight over them!
That's a village variation of Rajasthani Ladoos. They're made with bigger-sized boondis and are ghee-laden, a melt-in-your-mouth, yummy kind. One is enough to raise the insulin levels for a week.
Freshly cut Kaju Katlis are a different taste altogether. It's truly heaven for sweet lovers.
That's Khaja. A traditional Indian layered pastry!
Also, since I don't like sweet items much, I love how here they provide me with the flexibility of just licking and running away, unlike in the cities where I'm stuck with the entire big piece of sweet and I don't know what to even do about it!
Images Source: My gallery