Delhiwale: Only from Diwali to Holi

Delhi's winter brings seasonal treats like carrot halwa, jaggery, and gajak, with local vendors in Gurugram offering unique flavors and traditions.

Intro: On the season’s three street specialities

Gajak makers at work was snapped in another season at Sadar Bazar’s Shri Balaji Namkeen, Mathhi, avam Gajak Bhandar. (HT)

Let’s not waste time, and cut straight to the point, because life is short, and Delhi’s winter months are shorter. Here are three seasonal sweeteners that take over the city streets during the cold months—lasting from Diwali to Holi. You may spot these three across the megapolis. We start by focusing exclusively on a small portion of the so-called Millennium City of Gurugram.

A UP native, farmer Randip is Gurugram’s fair-weather friend. He arrives in the Millennium City every year at the beginning of the cold season. Here, the young man spends his day cycling through the pre-millennium parts of the city (meaning old Gurugram), hawking carrot halwa, which he makes everyday in the morning at his rented residence. The red dessert is contained within a metal platter, topped with the white of khoya gratings. The whole heap lies covered under a red cloth as protection from smog and dust (plus, the red easily catches the attention of passers-by). A tiny red burner placed under the platter keeps the halwa warm. Randip tends to whistle out tunes of film songs as he pedals through the lanes.

Gurugram is no longer a gram, or village, but some tasty things are still sold on village-style bullock carts. As soon as the cold season starts, citizen Amjad piles up his cart with home-made gur, or jaggery, and all day long, he steers the buffalo through old Gurugram, stopping briefly at intersections (where he frees the animal so that it could graze on the roadside grass, or simply plop down on the ground and relax). Amjad makes the jaggery in bulk at his home in a UP village, assisted by his family. He sells two kinds of jaggery. It must be said that the one that is “more expensive” tastes the same as the one that is cheaper. Those wishing for a wider band of jaggery options might like to embark on a tour of the town’s Sadar Bazar. A handful of groceries there sell very many varieties of village-made jaggery. Each variety has apparently its unique flavour, and each has a name: chaku, batasha, moongphali, dahiya, paneer, papri, and pedi.

Located near Apna Bazar complex, Sonu Gajak & Namkeen store is legendary for its gajaks. Made out of jaggery and sesame seeds, the heat-inducing gajaks are prepared within the store by skilled “karigars” hired from Morena town in MP. (In winter, this market gets filled up with gajak makers from Morena—the photo above of gajak makers at work was snapped in another season at Sadar Bazar’s Shri Balaji Namkeen, Mathhi, avam Gajak Bhandar). Once upon a time, the shop owner at Sonu’s had arranged a “gajak thali” for this reporter. The platter showcased all the types available: kaju gajak, khoya samosa, meetha hugga, cheeni khasta, til patti, gur bagga, gond dry fruit laddu, soan gajak, choora wale laddu, mungphali patti, gulab gajak, roll gajak, til burfi, pheni gajak, kadaka, gur khasta. The tastiest among these is…. discover yourself!