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Halwai’s and Gyms tie the knot on Diwali

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Unlike most businesses that peak during Diwali, fitness centres patiently wait for the last diya to die out and the last cracker to fall silent for their clients to walk in. Weight watchers, who usually go off-guard for a few weeks, find themselves piling up two to six kilos around this time.

Diwali, and the weeks that lead to it, is a time when calorie intake shoots up dangerously. Dry fruits, sweets and barfis start coming home, and most of us are unable to keep our hands off the loaded trays. A ritual visit to a relative or friend’s home is customarily associated gorging of sweets or snacks that are dense in calories! And no matter how health conscious you may be, refusing to pick up a piece from the thali and depositing it into your mouth is fraught with the risk of being labelled stiff, snobbish, unsporting, or lacking in the “Diwali Spirit”, that you can’t afford at this time.

While talking of spirits, yes, spirit consumption also goes up significantly at these times. Alcohol is notoriously calorie-rich, providing 7 Kilocalories for every ml, compared to a humble 4 for each gram of carbs. And spirits go down the throats of spirited revelers in the company of fried snacks and nuts, which in turn are loaded with fats, that provide 9 Kilo cals for each gram that you consume!

Responding to the call of the times, several mithai-wallas have started selling “low cal” sweets for their health savvy customers. Lucknow’s prime sweet maker, Chhappan Bhog is offering three varieties of low cal (cane-sugar free) sweets this season, innovatively named Fig, Date and Nut Berries. Another one, patronized by a diabetic patient whose blood sugars remain at dizzy heights, makes ‘Son Papdis’ and Chamchams without using the regular sugar.

Funnily, the festive spirit of Diwali also absolves us from feelings of guilt or remorse in skipping our regular dose of exercise. It is parties in the evenings, card sessions late into the nights, the late rise in the mornings when it is well past tennis-time, and hot puris and kachoris greet us at breakfast.

 Post Diwali then becomes the festive season for fitness centers. Irresistible promises and lure of discounted packages lead us up the steps to gyms and saunas. And back then we return to the mocking treadmill to sweat and pant as penance for all our indiscretions and sins!

Gym owners are the last to get Laksmi’s blessings during Diwali, but they get it in abundance! And it is through the Halwai’s that she sends her blessings!
As published in HT City ( Hindustan Times) dated 11 November, 2012.
 
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