Bhai Phonta to start on a sweet note

Kolkata: City dwellers were seen making last-minute purchases ahead of Bhai Phonta and sweet shops had enough varieties to cater to their demands. Women were ready to spend extra bucks to purchase best sweets for their brothers.

"There was a huge rush of customers in our shop because of Bhai Phonta. We have more than 80 varieties of sweets. This year, 12 new varieties of sweets have been introduced for Diwali and Bhai Phonta," said Tapan Kumar Das, owner of Nalin Chandra Das and Sons.

He said this time Malai Roll Sandesh, Special Butter Sandesh, Kesar Chana Paish, Mango Doi, Choco Delight are hot favorites. In addition, traditional sweets such as Sandesh, Jol dhora and others are also in demand.

"We usually sell sweets worth Rs 8 to 10 lakh from Diwali to Bhai Phonta. This year, there is recession in the market and the weather was not favorable for business ahead of Diwali. Bhai Phonta is falling during the month-end. We expected a 10 to 15 percent profit growth this year," Das said.

Milk, one of the most important ingredients for making sweets, was out of supply on Monday.

"There was a scarcity of milk in the market during the past three days. Prices of one litre of unpacked milk shot up from Rs 60 to Rs 120. The hike in prices was due to Bhai Phonta," said Santosh Singh Chauhan of Express Dairy Company Limited.

While the festival of Bhai Phonta or Bhaiya Dooj, a festival celebrating the unconditional love bond between a brother and a sister, falls on October 29, the tika or tilak muhurat will start at 1:11 pm and end at 3:25 pm.

"For Bhai Phonta, we bought five different varieties of sweets. It includes rasogolla, sandesh, kaju barfi and many other sweetmeats. Bhai Phonta is incomplete without sweets," said Sweety Shome, resident of Ashok Nagar.

"We are not celebrating Bhai Phonta this year. However, Malai Roll Sandesh and special Gaja Sweet enhance the beauty of the platter put in front of our brothers," said Prantika Basu, who is a Bharatnatyam teacher at Indian Institute of Engineering Science And Technology, Shibpur (IIEST).