A plethora of gifts to choose from

Season's offering

Most sweet and gift shops in the City are packed with customers splurging to get the best gifts for their relatives and friends this Deepavali. With a wide variety of options available, they are spoilt for choice. Bangaloreans are also shopping for gifts online, which include home-decor items, chocolates as well as hampers.

There are different varieties of sweets with innovative ingredients, packed in attractive gift boxes, ready for customers in shops across the City. Ramesh Raja, spokesperson of  Anand Sweets, informs that the sale of hampers and baskets has been great this year. “We have different varieties of hampers as well as baskets. Like every year, they are very much in demand this year as well. While some hampers have been made with different kinds of dry fruits like cashew nuts, raisins, almonds, figs, walnuts etc, other baskets have assorted sweets, nuts and  savouries,” he says.

“We also have a wide variety of sweets such as badam pista jalebi, badam navaratan and classic pista rolls, badam pista burfi, kaju tacos, kaju buritos, baked badam sweets along with different kinds of savouries. Assorted biscuit and chocolate hampers are also quite popular and many of our regular customers have ordered these in bulk. This year, our speciality is the cradle hamper. It is designed in the shape of a cradle with sweets and biscuits boxes in them. We also have the assorted gift hamper,” he informs.
Manisha, a professional, says that most malls and shops are lined with different kinds of diyas and lamps for the festival.

   “Gifting hampers has become very common. Though the sweet shops are filled with some amazing hampers, I prefer gifting something different to my relatives and friends. This year, I plan to gift a hand-painted lampshade along with sweets and savouries. It is always good to add a bit of colour to the festival. Gift coupons from different retail stores are also a very convenient option, ” she says.

Youngsters feel that gifting sweets is passé and giving chocolates to friends and family is the flavour of the season.

   “I have been gifting chocolates to my friends for Deepavali for the last few years. There is a lot to choose from and the wide variety of home- made and customised chocolates have made gifting easier. I can choose the flavour, shape and the way I want to package it and send it to my friends. It is a very convenient option and chocolates never fail to please anyone. I try and assort different flavours of chocolates every year so that it does not become monotonous. This year, I will probably mix chocolates from different vendors and shops to make the gift interesting,” says Swati, a student.