"There are two festivals that I love passionately and celebrate because of my parent’s influence! One of them is Navratri - which means 9 nights. It’s 9 nights of celebration of honoring Durga Ma - feminine form of divinity. Garba and Dandiya are the folk dances that people dance to - for nine nights in my culture! I have beautiful memories of endless nights with my friends in Mumbai, wearing pretty outfits and dancing to the tunes of this folk dance. The outfits are absolutely beautiful and the festival is worth going for - just to look at the colorful outfits 😁 We got into trouble once( in the no cell phone age!) when we stayed way past our time and didn’t show up at the doors until 2am😆. I am certainly sad that I cannot celebrate it this year and go dancing with my friends. . . My mom would fast every year with milk, fruits and nuts for 9 days and little girls or Kanyas(unmarried girls) came to our home from the slums and mom would make a delicious meal as pictured. The girls would be giggling and smiling and thrilled to get a good meal to eat and it was so lovely to see the tummy-full looks on their face😌. . This meal celebrates these memories, with kala channa daal (Black chickpeas) made the Gujarati way , a sweet dish called Sheero, made with semolina, sugar, milk, raisins, almonds, pistachios, saffron, cardamom and nutmeg and pipping hot Puris! The memories are fresh in my mind and the thought of my mom’s food always brings a smile on my face 😌💕✨ . . . #onthetable #thehappynow #f52grams #feedfeed #getinmybelly #indianfood #thatsdarling #bareaders #flatlaytoday #tastingtable #mywilliamssonoma #lifeandthyme @thefeedfeed #navratri #yummyinmytummy #foodblogger #gastronomia #cuisinesworld #foodforfoodies #mycommontable #storyofmytable #eattheworld #pursuepretty #gujaratifood #navratri"