BHARATI PAWASKAR
The favourite festival of Goans, Ganesh Chaturthi is at the doorstep and people in festive mood are all geared up to welcome the Lord of Wisdom into their homes. The markets that are loaded with decorations of makhars and mandaps, artificial flowers, rangolis. Now it will be flooded with sweets and matoli ingredients (of fruits and vegetables) as the day of the festival approaches. The prime sweet of Chaturthi is Modak which is offered as prasad to Lord Ganesh and most families in Goa prefer to make at least 21 at home while the rest could be ordered from the market.
Today’s nuclear families struggle to maintain the traditions in celebrating the festivals and with shortage of time most working women cannot prepare sweets and snacks at home. “Yes, the trends of celebrations are changing across India and Goa is no more an exception,” says Manisha Khatavkar, who conducts Tempty Cooking Classes in Ponda.
“Tradition is not compulsion but it’s in fashion now. Many a times, it’s the younger generation that takes keen interest in the celebrative part of the festivals, be it Diwali or Ganesh Chaturthi and hence apart from fleeting ethnic traditional wear, they enjoy the traditional delicacies that mark these festivals. Many of them take interest in learning to make these sweets. In fact, those who enroll with me for learning the recipes of traditional sweets like Karanji (Nevri), Laddoos and Modaks are young enthusiastic girls than middle aged women,” shares Manisha.
So, there is no dearth for traditional sweets and sweet lovers in Goa, in spite of the health consciousness or the prevailing health issues like diabetes and bad cholesterol, have not stopped enjoying sweets like Modaks, as this favourite sweet of Ganapati Bappa, is now available in sugar-free type too.
“The traditional types are of rice and wheat covering with stuffing of two types - coconut and puran (chana daal and jaggery mixture). While the rice ones are boiled, the wheat ones can be both, boiled as well as fried, depending upon the taste,” explains Manisha who trains her students to make all types of Modaks.
Manisha conducts two courses in authentic traditional Modaks (which she calls sweet dumplings) and offers classes in traditional ‘ukadiche modak’ apart from multicolour, fried, Ragi (for diabetics), cheese mava (for kids), chatpat (savoury for youth) and multigrain atta (for health conscious ones) and also chocolate, keshar, paan, shahi, gulkand, chocolava and sugarfree Modaks.
The class also offers printed notes on five different types of stuffing, training in handmade or using mould and traditional as well as modern techniques. There are many takers for it. There is also an attractive discount for a group of five people if they enroll together and the workshop can be arranged at their venue and date of choice.
Apurva Naik Chafadkar of ‘Delicious Delights’ takes orders for homemade and handcrafted Modaks exclusively for Ganesh Chaturthi. She offers a wide variety such as dry fruit, cashew khoya, kesar Khoya, mango khoya, paan gulkand, ragi and melting Modaks.
She also offers boxes of 21 assorted Modaks for Rs 600 and 11 for Rs 300. “We use homemade khoya, Mankurad mango puree, organic cane sugar and non-chemical jaggery. Since no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives are used, devotees are assured that they can present them as prasad to Bappa,” claims Apurva.
Shivani Namshikar who has been making and selling Modaks since 2016 with deliveries in Panaji, Margao and Ponda. She reasons that it’s not that people shifted their taste from traditional to fancy sweets. “The new generation loves traditional Modaks, but it’s just that everyday people want something unique and new. I have clients who offer both type of Modaks to Bappa, traditional ones and flavoured. For gifting, chocolate ones are preferred. Some eat them as sweets,” claims Shivani, whose Rs 1000 per kilo in which small sized 160 pieces fit, in medium size 80 pieces and in large size 50 pieces fit.
Her milk/dark chocolate Modak box is available for Rs 220, white chocolate is Rs 200, filled chocolate (butterscotch, coconut, roasted almond, paan, crunchy crackle) for Rs 300 and assorted ones are available at Rs 350.
An ex-IT professional Arti Nagvekar from Margao has been making centre filled Modaks with typical Indian flavours like coconut/almond/kaju barfi, gajar halva, paan etc for the past two years along with exotic flavours like fruit, caramel, dulce de leche in bite size. Nagvekar has also tried her hand at making savoury Modaks with spicy flavour. The mixture of hot and sweet taste is preferred by some of her customers. Maintaining versatility in the ingredients of Modaks, she enjoys experimenting in different tastes.
“My products can be ordered in kilos or assorted flavoured gift boxes and also as a single piece big Modak to keep before Shree Ganesh during the pooja. My prices range from Rs 1300-1600 per kilo with home delivery in Panaji and Margao,” quips Arti who is happy that her customers welcome her experiments and recommend her product to others.
