Sweet times turn sour as products vanish

The ongoing International Sweet festival witnesses huge rush; stall owners fail to supply sufficient to the unexpected crowd

Hyderabad: The response to the ongoing International Sweet festival has been above expectations as people thronged the Parade Grounds on Sunday but the sweet rush turned ‘sour’ for many as the stalls exhausted their stock within an hour. The Telangana government paid the bill for ingredients for five kg quantity for each participant. Majority of the participants being housewives, they did not expect such a huge response and brought just a few kilograms of sweet.

Shilpa Ramesh Lal, who prepared a Sindhi delicacy phirni said, “Yesterday I brought four litres of phirni which was exhausted within an hour, today I increased the quantity to 10 litres but even today within 90 minutes we were able to sell the whole quantity.” Likewise, Nainjeet Kaur, who specialises in Punjabi sweets said, “By 4 pm, we were able to sell seerni, a Punjabi sweet. We are able to just give a few pieces to taste. Many have taken our contact details and placed orders.”

In all, 25 Indian States and 15 international cities are showcasing sweets. Among the foreign sweets and juices, the Korean juice ‘Sujeonggwa’ caught the fancy of visitors, a delicate juice made of cinnamon, ginger and water. However, there was hardly any space for people to stand at the stall. David, a representative of the Korean stall, said, “The response is overwhelming but there is hardly any space and we have less stock.”

Abhinay, a resident of Tarnaka was seen pleading with a Marathi stall owner for Gul Papdivadi, a sweet made of wheat flour, ghee, jaggery, groundnut powder, dry coconut, nutmeg and cardamom powder. Arati Patwardhan, the owner of the stall said, “We are housewives and cannot make large quantities. Also, we do not have large utensils to make huge quantities.” The Tourism and Culture Department officials say that the event is intended to bring a sense of oneness and showcase the variety. “We have requested the stall owners to bring more quantity of sweets so that all visitors can get a bite.”

Among hundreds of stalls was a lone stall selling pickles. When quizzed how pickles were sold at the sweet festival, the woman at the stall refused to comment. Department officials too feigned ignorance and said that it was an aberration and the stall would be removed.