Eid beckons at Indore’s Bazaars!

The bustling bazaars, with makeshift stalls selling ittar and soorma at every corner, the aroma of freshly baked bread and cookies in the air, and the visuals of colourful sewaiyan, can only mean one thing – Eid is almost here! After a holy month of fasting and feasting with loved ones, Indore is gearing up in full swing to celebrate Mithi Eid next week.This is also the time when people are indulging in all their last-minute shopping - right from fetching the loveliest Eid ka joda to stocking up on the roasted and ready-to-eat sewaiyan. We walked the bazaars along with the happy shoppers to soak in the festival fervour, and to see how Indore is preparing to see the beautiful chand

As per tradition, Eid celebrations calls for a completely new set of festive wear - from skull caps to chappals for men and new dresses, soorma and footwear for women. Scores of revellers could be seen thronging to not just the local Bombay Baazar and cloth market, where you get the best of Eid fashion, but also at various exhibitions held for festival shopping.
Nasreena Sheikh, a college student who is gearing up top speed for the celebration, says, “Just like Diwali, we start shopping for dresses days prior to Eid. The last few days of Ramzan are meant for buying new clothes, new decor items for our home and the ingredients for dishes to be prepared for the daawat, like sheerkhurma and sewaiyan. That is why the markets too tone down on iftari specials and start selling more of Eid buys.”
Markets are teeming with a variety of ornamented skull caps, glittering and stylised bottles of perfumes and soorma, and blingy jooties, besides the latest designs of clothes.
Javed Bhai, a show owner at Bombay Bazaar, shares, “The skull caps that will be worn by men for namaaz have gone all out in terms of embroidered and bead work. People want to bring out the best of celebrations, on this day so they go for the most ornamented ones.”
It is not just dresses people were seen shopping for, but they were also browsing through new sets of curtains, bedsheets, and sofa covers among other furnishings to deck up the house.


Ittar i.e. organic perfumes which are nothing but essential oils extracted from fragrant flowers and plant products are on special demand.
Mukhtiar Khatib, owner of one such shop selling these organic perfumes, explains, “These are preferred over the branded ones available in the market, as they have some percentage of alcohol or spirits in it, which is not allowed during ibadat. These are purely organic. As we believe in getting everything new for the occasion, people buy these bottles every year. In fact, it is sought after for gifting purposes.”
Even the humble soorma has a fancy packing for buying and gifting purposes.
Shireen Hussain, a German language tutor, shares, “My non-muslim friends enjoy the ittar and soorma as much as I do. For my Eid ki daawat, I have packed tiny bottles of these as Eidi for them. Though Bhopali soorma is considered the best, our Indori ones have a better packing!”

Food forms an essential part of any celebration in India, and Eid is no different. Bombay Bazaar, the quintessential market for Eid food shopping, which also kept the Ramzan period vibrant with its iftar delicacies, is now filled with all things sweet and savoury.
Saiqua Syyed, owner of the 74 year old Old Mohammadi bakery, shares how Eid food is still at its traditional best, “It may seem like all other festivals, even Eid would be undergoing culinary changes. But looking at the crowd in the bazaar and their demands, I can say everyone still prefers the traditional food items. Many families still throng to our place for bhatti ke pav, sheermal, bakharwani, tos and root cookies. Since 1945, we haven’t changed our conventional technique of making it and the customers haven’t changed their taste.”

While Saiqua baked goodies sell like hot cakes, Arif Mansuri’s roasted and flavoured sewaiyan are the next favourite item on the shopping list. “As sewaiyan is the quintessential dish of Mithi Eid, people are already stocking up for next week. The roasted sewaiyan, which is priced at Rs 160 per kg, is a smashing hit among many. Isko sirf dhoodh mein daal ke bhi kha lein toh maza hai. It doesn’t require too much work. Similarly, flavoured sewaiyan is another thing for which people come to our shop. We have chocolate, strawberry, mango and elaichi flavours,” shares the owner of the 64-year-old owner of Arif Bakery.
Ready-made sheerkhurma mix has been the highlight of this year. “It saves everyone’s time that goes into chopping and dicing the dry fruits and other mewa. We also add elaichi flavour and cut up cherries so that all the customers have to do is put it together and serve the dish to guests in minutes!” says Mohd Imran, of the 40-year-old Gulshan Hotel.


There was a mutual bittersweet feeling among the sellers and the visitors of Bombay Bazaar - happiness that Eid was approaching mixed with the sadness of ending the routine of iftar nights and sehri mornings. Which is why the shoppers are also savouring that last bowl of mursheedi khichda, keema samosa or gulab ke masala wala jaleba. “Since we shop primarily in the evenings around iftari, we open our fast at the bazaar itself. Carrying dates and water has become a habit, so after consuming that we head over to Naeemuddin’s shop for a hearty bowl of mursheedi khichda, which is quite filling after a full day of fasting. We top it off with some sitaphal rabdi at Gulshan hotel. And all this for just Rs 40!” says Aftab Khan, an entrepreneur.
Besides people from the community, others are also making it a point to savour the iftar favourites like keema samosa, gulab masala jaleba,and aam paak before they go out of stock.

Mohit Anand, an engineering student and foodie says, “I hail from Rajgarh and I had been told that iftar at Bombay bazaar is the best. They made me jot down all the items I must have before Ramzan gets over. I’m here to have the last bite of keema samosa and the famous jaleba with gulab masala”.
Some of the iftari items have also found a place in the Eid daawats that the chefs will be catering to. Mohd Raees is known for his achar gosht, shahi bafla and nalli nahari. His family is catering at three Eid dawats that weekend. “Shahi bafla and achar gosht are our signature dishes. After tasting it during iftar, three families have asked us to cater for their Eid dawat on the weekend following eid. And we don’t mind the working weekend,” he says, signing off.