As Ganesh Chaturthi is approaching food entrepreneurs have already started delivering festive snacks like nevryo, chivda, laddoos, chakli etc, peculiar to this most favourite and mega family festival of Goa. Though few men are also in the festive food business and accept orders for ‘Chavathicho faral’ or ‘Shivrak jevan’, it is mostly a women’s bastion to cater to cooking vegetarian meals for families who outsource them, especially during the first three days.
As people living outside Goa for work reasons come down to their hometowns to celebrate the festival, the number of persons who attend the festival swells making it difficult for the host lady to cook food, all by herself. Most families now rely on pure vegetarian catering, a trend picking up of late.
“We not only long for ‘Chavath’ but look forward eagerly to join our families back home, and spend these three days with them joyfully,” says Bhaskar Assoldekar, a businessman residing in Mumbai. “This year we have five days Chavath and it’s our turn to be the hosts. We get our turn once in eight years,” says Assoldekar adding, “Everything is outsourced now including the food and ‘faral’. We normally have 28 joint family members visiting and staying together at our ancestral home in Assolda, South Goa.
It is such orders that most women food entrepreneurs look out for. “I have been taking orders for visiting homes and cooking vegetarian food for the entire family during the three days of Chaturthi,” says Sonia Ramesh Parsekar. It’s for the consecutive fourth year now that she will be cooking during the Chaturthi for Dr Anjali Sukhatankar’s family which consists of 50 members. "I start at 6 am and by 12.30 pm complete the entire cooking with 12 items,” says Parsekar who is into catering for four years. “I used to make only snacks earlier, like laddoo, chivda, shankarpali, poha, chakli etc. Now I do both, snacks, and cooking with the support of Shital Bandekar and Seema Shirodkar. Our business grew sizably during the pandemic,” she adds.
Revati Sanzgiri, a tax practitioner by profession, also accepts catering orders, but she cooks at her own home and delivers the food across Goa. “My speciality is ‘modak’, the favourite prasad of Shri Ganesh. Now, people order for designer modaks, for example, they ask for besan laddoo or kaju katli in the shape of modak. We also add mango pulp, milk mava, gulkand to modaks to give them different flavours,” adds Sanzgiri, who has a passion for trying new delicacies. She makes designer pickles too.
“I started taking orders in Mumbai seven years ago, then continued doing so after shifting to Goa four years ago. Now I get orders from Pune, Mumbai and Goa. My Goan traditional pickles of bimla, karmala, lime and mango are popular, along with the special fruit pickles of guava, grapes and pomegranate, offered to Shri Ganesh on the first two days of the festival in metro cities, especially Pune. The fruit pickle is popular but perishable,” she states.
Mayura Abhisheki of Chitramay Products just finished making 150 kilos of laddoos in 13 varieties. This Chaturthi her hands are all full with orders from Mapusa to Margao. She will be making home deliveries till August 25 or 26. “I have been in the Chaturthi and other festival snacks business for the last two years, beginning during the covid lockdown. The response was too good, and now I have no breathing time. I started with only two products and now make 200 kilos,” said Abhisheki who made 60-70 kgs each of 11 ‘faral’ items including corn chivda, poha chivda, chakli, kadboli, fenori, shankarpali etc. Along with her business partner Chitra Kelkar, she makes sweet as well as spicy ‘nevryos’ pricing Rs 22 each. “I also take ‘naivaidyam’ food orders for minimum 50 people and maximum 100 for pujas, but not during Chaturthi as we have our own celebration at home,” she added.
Apurva Naik Chafadkar from Dhavali Ponda, an MBA who left her job in a five-star hotel as admin, founded her own food business ‘Delicious Delights’ four years ago and is doing great not only during the festivals but the entire year-round. Making authentic Indian mithai, Chafadkar experiments with ‘modaks’ and this year her varieties are biscoff-filled modak, Mathura special and shahi maha modak (a single piece sweet of homemade khoya (mava), dry fruits and edible gold as prasad for the Ganesh, weighing 1.2 kg) and yes there are clients who order chocolate modaks too. “I source pure ingredients, eco-friendly packing material and services from women entrepreneurs and offer festive hampers too,” informed Chafadkar whose price range varies from Rs 200-1500.
