Hyderabad: Sales of 'seviyan' zoom ahead of Eid

Hyderabad: Despite the traditional business slowly giving way to machine-made vermicelli, a family is busy making traditional hand-made seviyans. The six-decade-old makers are busy in preparing hand-made Seviyan, in the holy month Ramzan, which are used in making traditional age-old dessert, 'Sheerkhurma', on Eid-ul-Fitr.

As Ramzan comes to its end, Muslims across the State and city celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr on Tuesday, depending on sighting of the moon. 'Sheerkhurma' is the sweet dish preferred over all others prepared on the festival day. Eid-ul-Fitr is in fact described as the festival of sweets since a variety of sweets are made on the day. There are two kinds of Seviyan preparations on the Eid day, Sheerkhurma and khare (salted) Seviyan.

The Eid brings with it sublime food flavours. Sale of vermicelli, dry fruits, ghee and other ingredients goes up during the last week of Ramzan. Even though machine-made vermicelli flood the market, people still prefer handmade Seviyan , who are a few number in parts of Old City, particularly in Charminar, Yakutpura and Chaderghat.

A family has been running the business for more than 65 years near Chaderghat.T Twenty members, including women, work in preparing Seviyan during the season. Anwar Khan said the business was started by his grandfather some 60 years ago. "Now, we are competing against the onslaught of modernisation, where man is wrestling with machines to stay put in market.

"In the last two years during Covid restrictions we made less Seviyan. But now as there were no restrictions, we have made a huge quantity than the last two years. We start preparing Seviyan 3 months before Ramzan. More than 20 kg maida is prepared for Seviyan in each family every day, while three brothers of the family run the business. Seviyan is also transported to surrounding districts and neighbouring States," said Anwar. Even though machine-made vermicelli flood the market, people still prefer handmade Seviyan.

Yousuf Khan's family has been doing the business for the last 50 years near Charminar. It starts preparing Seviyan five months before Ramzan, making 20 quintals of hand-made Seviyan. His family members help him in his work.

"People from different places come to the Old City to purchase Seviyan. For them, we keep many varieties, like 'Hath Ka Seviyan', 'Namak Ka Seviyan', and 'Chakle Ka Seviyan. All these variants can be used in Sheerkhurma, which will be made on Eid and distributed among friends and relatives." Asra Imran, a housewife, said she prepares ingredients a day before Eid so that the sweet can be served early on the festival to family members and guests. She said "frying all ingredients and soaking Seviyan in ghee takes a lot of time and needs early preparation."