The Sweetness of Love and an Indian’s Love for Sweet

If you are walking through the streets of an Indian market, it’s difficult to miss a fancy-looking, mouth-watering sweet shop. Mostly located on the corner of the street, the name originates from either one of the Indian communities or an Indian deity. The community names can be like Agarwal Sweet Corner, Chawla Sweets, Gupta Mishtan Bhandar. On the other hand, we have names based on an Indian deity like Shyam Sweets, Om Sweets, Balaji Sweets, Krishna Sweets, etc. Every shop is a symbol of the sweetness of love.

 The look and feel of the sweet shops are more or less the same. They have huge pyramid-shaped glass enclosures displaying a wide variety of sweets in different colours and shapes.

One would never have realised, but all the sweets displayed in the glass enclosures represent different phases of a marriage life-cycle.

The first look is like Rasgulla dipped in the sweetness of love.

Whenever a marriage gets fixed, a family meeting takes place between the groom’s and the bride’s families. Both families are in a race to present their best version. The groom is well dressed and comes across as a polite and humble gentleman. The bride, on the other hand, resembles a rasgulla dipped in sugar syrup. She is the perfect example of sweetness and love on this ‘D’ day and comes across as a confident and intelligent girl. Despite being bombarded with some annoying questions, her replies are sweet, dipped in maple syrup.

The courtship period is like a Gulab Jamun.

This is the time when the sweetness of love gets triggered and sets in motion a period of discovery. Both the boy and the girl get to know each other. Just like a Gulab Jamun, there are two sides to both personalities. An outer dark black or brown layer behind which lies a soft white core. Both the layers are sweet,

What appears on the outside may not be the real personality. It’s the core inside that will determine the likeness for a person in a relationship. Ultimately, the relationship will flower only when both of them discover the inner core.

Honeymoon: A period when the sweetness of love peaks

The golden period of any marriage is the honeymoon. After a hectic wedding, both the boy and the girl are looking forward to the honeymoon. Away from the maddening crowd of friends and family, they set off for an exotic location. Each one gets to taste the companionship of the other as a Rasmalai dipped in Rabri. The sweetness of love is at its peak. The more you have it, the more you want. The Rasmalai melts in your mouth while the Rabri has to be licked.

Even after finishing the Rasmalai and the Rabri, your soul never gets satisfied, and there is an urge for more.

The Colourful Burfi

Both husband and wife get busy with their routine life. They report back to their offices. Every day is a colourful day, and life tastes like a burfi. The wife displays a new couture every day. Attending a family function in a pink salwar suit and an evening party on a weekend with friends in a chocolate-coloured cocktail dress reminds about a pink and chocolate burfi. The husband maintains his silver shine when invited for lunch at the in-laws’ place, like a silver-foil-layered burfi. Every occasion brings a smile to the burfi couple.

As things settle down, there are times when a little misunderstanding takes place, and one party becomes cold. And nobody likes a burfi that gets refrigerated. To enjoy the taste, you have to bring it back to room temperature by cajoling the other party.

The arguments that go in circles like a Jalebi

Once both partners start a harmonious relationship, the harsh realities of life set in. The husband and wife get busy with their office and home commitments. The daily stress often leads to heated arguments between them. The arguments are endless and go in circles just like a jalebi. Finally, one of them decides to end the stalemate by making up with the other party. The sweetness of love is back, as all the arguments that took the shape of jalebi were dipped in sugar syrup.

The arguments are triggered for a variety of reasons. The husband comes home late from the office on his 10^th wedding anniversary, and the wife gets upset. But before an argument starts that can take the shape of a jalebi, the husband presents a diamond ring to his partner. The sweetness of jalebi dipped in sugar syrup reignites the love between them.

The religious turn in the sweetness of the love journey

As life progresses, both the husband and wife become more religious. They start devoting a lot of time to worshipping. Tuesdays are for Hanuman ji with boondi ka Ladoo prasad. The wife organizes Sat Narayan ki katha at home and invites family and friends. Every attendee gets a prasad that has a boondi ka Ladoo.

The physical appearance of the couple also changes as they gradually move into their mid-fifties. This is also the stage when the couple starts attending a lot of weddings in the family. It can be their best friend’s son’s marriage or a close relative’s daughter’s wedding. The celebratory mood of the function is incomplete without a box of boondi ka Ladoo. With so much exposure to Ladoos, the physical appearance of the couple also starts resembling that of Ladoos.

When the sweetness of love becomes sugarless

The sixties are the period when the couple is free from most of their responsibilities. It’s time to focus on one’s health, and the blood test report is not a very healthy one. The HbA1c (Average blood sugar of the last three months) is on the boundary line, with the doctor advising them to cut sugar from their diet.

The couple who used to enjoy the Indian mithai on every occasion now restrict it to the sugarless version. Whether it’s a Rasgulla or a Gulab Jamun, they insist on having the sugar-free version. The Gajar ka halwa made at home now comes in two varieties – with sugar and sugar-free. The grandkids enjoy the sugar version while the grandparents restrict themselves to the sugar-free halwa.

Whether it’s sugary or sugarless, the sweetness of love will always taste good, especially in the companionship of a partner.