Dombivli family faraal tickles NRIs' taste buds

Thanks to the Dombivli-based Kulkarni family, several non-resident Indians (NRIs) will not miss Diwali in India as much. Every year, the family prepares authentic Maharashtrian faraal (snacks) and send packages to countries across the globe.

“We get orders for snacks and sweets from various countries. We make the parcels as per the requirements of the customers. Last week, we sent our first batch to the UK, USA and Australia. We are now sending some packages to the Middle Eastern countries,” says Geeta Kulkarni.

She adds that they started off as a small faraal-making unit 50 years ago. “Initially, only people in the neighbourhood would place orders with us. Over time, a lot of these families settled abroad and started missing the flavour of our Diwali snacks. They then asked us if we could send it to them,” she says.

What was a small unit back then is now a huge factory which employs several cooks. “We still insist on making every snack by hand. Our cooks are trained to maintain consistency in all the products,” Geeta says.

Keeping up with the times, the Kulkarnis have created a website, through which people living in any country can place their orders. “It is difficult to find these snacks and sweets abroad. We believe everyone should be able to celebrate Indian festivals the traditional way,” she says as she stacks up packages of snacks to be couriered.

She adds that this year, they had to increase their rates due to the rise in price of commodities.

“The demand is less this year as compared to the last, but we still have many orders in the city to be completed,” she says.