Home-made sweets and combination of handicraft can give the occasion of Raksha bandhan, ‘Rakhi’, a personal touch. A combination of bal mithai from Uttarakhand and a handcrafted pair of leather juttis with tilla embroidery can make your gifts more unique. Experts at SaleBhai.com and Jaypore.com have listed out few sweets and handicrafts for that extra touch:
* Bal mithai from Mussoorie, Uttarakhand: Also called choclate mithai, one of the most popular sweet in Uttarakhand, available in Almora and Mussoorie. Bal mithai is a brown chocolate-like fudge, made with roasted khoya, desi ghee, poppy seeds, and sugar. It goes back to the 7th century AD when it first came from Nepal into Kumaon in Central Himalaya. The unique factor of this sweet is that it is cooked for so long that the khoya achieves the chocolate-like colour and fudge-like consistency, and then coated with poppy seeds to give a one-of-a-kind look.
* Handmade brass cuff consisting of natural stones: A blue chalcedony gold-plated brass cuff would be a unique piece of jewellery to gift.
* Tirunelveli halwa from Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu: This South Indian halwa is a speciality of Tirunelveli. The sweet was first made in the mid-1800s, and has now spread to the rest of the state and well beyond. Besides the regular wheat, cashew nuts and sugar, it also uses pure cow ghee and water from Thamirabharani river – which originates from the famous Agastyarkoodam peak.
* Handcrafted leather juttis with tilla embroidery would be a gift teamed with comfort and style.
* Halwasan from Khambat, Gujarat: Another West Indian delicacy, halwasan or halvasan is a speciality from the town of Khambat in Gujarat. The origin of this sweet goes back more than 100 years and was known as the king of sweets in Cambay, as the town was known back then. Made from wheat, milk, sugar, and dry fruits, it has a chewy, granular texture and has a pretty golden-brown hue.
* Khari printed kalidar cotton kurta for comfort dressing is a must have. The block prints give an ethnic touch for the festivities.
* Karapak mango jalbhara sandesh from Kolkata, West Bengal: It is a modern variation of the age-old sandesh sweet. This unique three-ingredient treat combines the sweetness of sandesh and freshness of mango. Made with cottage cheese and sugar, with mango jam for a filling, it is shaped just like the king of fruits with a luscious yellow hue.
* Brass jhumkis: The gold tone jhumkis complete the look when paired along with a beautiful kurta and pretty juttis. A pink gold tone jhumkis made of brass can be a colour combination worth buying.
