The name's Papdi, Soan Papdi
Ain't no sweet as badass as this one!
We Indians celebrated Deepawali two days back and it was lit! (No kidding)
Deepawali, or Diwali as it’s often called, is all about celebrating good over evil, light over darkness, and filling the air with an unmistakable mix of fireworks and sugar highs.
Head to Google, and you’ll find pictures of colorful sweets and dazzling fireworks that sum up the vibe. Dive deep enough into the internet, and you’ll also see some wild stories claiming that aliens from light-years away could spot our festival lights.
But let’s keep it real—I’m here to discuss the darker side of Deepawali.
In Hinduism, time’s seen as running in cycles, kind of like life’s own cosmic rollercoaster. Good times bring in the bad, and the bad makes way for the good.
While that cycle might take millions of years, I swear I’ve watched it play out in the last 20 Deepawalis. The holiday brings families together over piles of sweets, and let me tell you, the sweets used to be epic.
As a kid, I faced the ‘Paradox of Choice’ way before Netflix. Gulab Jamun, Besan ke Laddoo, Barfi (chocolate, mawa, coconut, and a few I can’t remember)—the options were endless. My biggest problem was deciding which one to eat first.
But then, capitalism barged in with its fancy gift boxes. Slowly, those traditional mithais started getting replaced with chocolates and sugary drinks. At first, no one complained. Then, in the midst of rising sugar levels and health consciousness, someone thought it’d be a great idea to gift Soan Papdi, a sweet that was supposedly untouched by the dreaded “adulteration.”
Imagine Soan Papdi as the ‘pest-resistant’ seed of Indian sweets—it promised purity and tradition, a revolution in gifting! But soon, every household had the same brilliant idea.
Soan Papdi started showing up everywhere, and suddenly, no one could escape it. It became the official, unwillingly accepted, endlessly re-gifted sweet that is now practically a mascot for Diwali. The golden, flaky cubes became a non-negotiable, unspoken rule of Diwali.
Got no idea what to gift? Hand over a box of Soan Papdi. Chances are, it’ll make its way right back to you in a day or two.
Remember Harvey Dent’s famous line from The Dark Knight? “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Well, legend has it that Soan Papdi inspired this.
Opening a box of Soan Papdi is like a Halloween scare—unwrap the gift, and boom! There it is, the sweet that haunts every Diwali gathering.
In the great circle of Indian life, Soan Papdi is like that one guest who never leaves and somehow always gets invited to every house in the colony. The moment you open a box, you can almost hear it whisper, “Good luck eating me before I get passed on!” Because nobody actually eats Soan Papdi. It just drifts from one household to the next, a golden, flaky ghost haunting every family’s Diwali stash.
Every year, kids across neighborhoods are tasked with delivering these mysterious yellow boxes to neighbors, only to find that their buddy Ramesh next door is carrying a box back to their own house. It’s a sugar-coated relay race, with Soan Papdi as the forever player.
Remember when we thought plastic bags were a good thing because they saved trees? Fast-forward a few decades, and we’re buried in plastic waste. Sadly, Soan Papdi met the same fate.
I’m pretty sure, if it continues to be this way, people will start doing this to their homes. Reference for the quote in Hindi: Stree Movie and Hindustan Times article
Once beloved, now mostly tolerated and endlessly recycled, it’s the sweet equivalent of plastic—indestructible and eternal. Even apocalypse-ready. While Kaju Katli and Gulab Jamun have an expiration date, Soan Papdi will probably survive a nuclear winter, still in that shiny yellow box, untouched.
When the aliens finally come to check out post-apocalyptic Earth, they’ll find cockroaches throwing rave parties around stacks of Soan Papdi.
So this Diwali, if you’re re-gifting Soan Papdi, just make sure you remove the old tape and wrap it up nice. Trust me, no one wants a used box of eternal sweet mystery.
And hey, if you’re reading this, let me know—have you ever actually eaten a piece of Soan Papdi, or are we all in on this passing-it-forward tradition?
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And now that you’re contemplating the whether Soan Papdi is good or not, I would highly recommend you to read The Bachelor Life by where a married man is analyzing whether Bachelorhood was better or not. Not a clickbait, but you’ll be surprised at the final outcome!
This is so relatable. Got so many soan papdi gift boxes over the years!
Love this! You are now the official spokesperson of the Soan Papdi Community. 😇