Holiges made in shops taste as sweet

It’s New Year’s time as per the Hindu lunar calendar, and preparations for Ugadi celebrations are on in full swing in the city.
Obbattu, or holige, is one of the most important ingredients for a complete Ugadi celebration, but Bangalore’s modern homemakers seem to be too embroiled in their work to dish out the sweet for the festival. And, sweet stalls are making the most of it.

“There is a huge demand for coconut holige compared to that made of dal. There has been a nearly 25% increase in demand this year. People have been buying holiges even three days before the festival. We are selling about 2,000 holiges of each variety every day,” Narendra Kumar, owner of Asha Sweets House, said.
Some sweet stalls have been receiving bulk orders over the last one week. Karanth R, an officer with MTR sweets, said that he has been witnessing a rising demand for holiges every year, over the last 30 years. “This year, there has been a greater demand for coconut holiges than for bele holiges,” Karanth said.

Coconut holiges are usually sold at Rs12 apiece, while the ones made of dals, the bele holiges, are sold at Rs15 each. However, the rise in demand for the coconut variety has found some sweet stalls reversing prices and selling coconut holiges for Rs15 apiece and the bele ones for Rs12 each.

Manjunath N, who works at Sri Krishna Sweets, said that the demand for the sweet during the festival had been increasing over the last 10 years. “Due to the rising demand for coconut holiges this year, we are selling them at Rs15 per piece, and the dal ones at Rs12. But, we sell them only as per weight and not per piece. In the last three days, we have sold nothing less than 20 kgs of holiges each day,” Manjunath said.

Ankitha Kumar, a beautician, said preparing holiges was a time consuming process. “Either my mother makes them for me or I purchase them from the sweet stall,” she said. Neetu Chandrashekhar, a techie, said she never risked preparing the sweet at home as it was a lengthy process. “Working women hardly get time. I either purchase holiges from sweet stalls or borrow them from my mother-in-law,” she said.