Diwali Faral and the Kitchen: Vastu for Festive Cooking

Diwali फराळ (faral, festive snacks) is the platter of home-made sweets and savouries that Maharashtrian families prepare in the days before Diwali and share through the festival. A classic platter holds chakli, karanji, ladoo, chivda and shankarpali, with anarse, kadboli or shev in many homes.

In many households the faral is first eaten on the opening morning of Diwali, after the early bath, and then offered to every visitor for the rest of the week. The making is as much a part of the festival as the eating: several generations at one platform, rolling, shaping and frying in batches.

Face East while cooking, which is the standard Vastu guidance for any kitchen work. पूर्व (Purva, the East) is the direction of the rising Sun, and facing it while you cook is treated as facing light and freshness. North is an acceptable alternative.

Faral involves more than the stove. Much of the work, such as rolling shankarpali dough, filling karanjis or shaping ladoos, can move to the dining table. If you set up a shaping station there, seat people facing East or North where the layout allows. In a compact Mumbai flat, comfort and good light matter more than a perfect angle.

The stove belongs in the South-East of the kitchen, with the North-West as the accepted alternative. आग्नेय (Agneya, the South-East) is the zone of Agni and the Fire element, which is why Vastu places cooking there.

If your stove is elsewhere on a fixed platform, there is no need to move gas lines for Diwali. Slide the stove towards the South-East end of the platform if you can; our guide to gas stove direction covers the details, and kitchen Vastu for open kitchens covers open-plan layouts.

One Vastu principle doubles as plain kitchen safety during faral week: keep fire and water apart. A sink right beside a kadhai of hot oil is a splash risk, so keep wet things, the water jug and washing-up at a distance from the frying.

Clear and clean the platform first, so the kitchen starts the week light and organised. If you have already done your Diwali cleaning, this is a short job.

Store finished faral in clean, dry, airtight steel or glass tins, kept in a cool cupboard in the South or West of the kitchen. Let fried items cool fully before closing the lid, so moisture does not soften them.

Keep sweets and savouries in separate tins, and label them if several people are serving guests. Avoid keeping the tins on the refrigerator or right beside the stove, where warmth spoils them faster.

Before the family eats, many homes set aside a small first plate as नैवेद्य (naivedya, an offering of food) at the mandir in the North-East. It is a simple way of saying thank you for the kitchen's work.

Send a plate of faral to neighbours, and when a plate comes to you, return it with something of your own on it. In many Maharashtrian societies, sending back an empty plate is simply not done; it is a small custom that keeps a building connected.

Include the people who keep the building running: the security staff, the housekeeping team and the household help. Neighbours from other communities usually enjoy being included too. For ideas on what else is traditionally given, see our guide to Diwali gifts.

Divide the work by task, keep children at the shaping stage, and leave the hot oil to one experienced adult. Younger children can press shankarpali dough with a cutter or roll small ladoos at the table, well away from the stove.

Keep pot handles turned inward, never leave a kadhai of oil on a lit flame unattended, and keep a lid nearby to cover a pan if the oil catches. A calm kitchen with a clear division of tasks is also, in Vastu terms, a kitchen where the fire element is in good order.

Buying faral is perfectly fine; the custom is about sharing, not about who fried the chakli. Many working households in Mumbai buy from a trusted home cook or mahila group, which also supports small local businesses.

Decant it into your own tins, offer the first plate at the mandir as you would with home-made faral, and share it the same way. If you can, make one item at home with the family, even something as simple as chivda. The festival continues through Padwa, when many homes prepare an annakut, a large offering of food.

If faral week shows you that your kitchen genuinely does not work, with the stove in an awkward zone, no ventilation or no room to move, it may be worth a closer look after Diwali.

Dr. Kimaya Parikh-Ambekar offers kitchen and whole-home Vastu consultations from the Andheri East office, on-site across Mumbai, or as a distant consultation from your floor plan. Remedies are non-structural, so nothing needs to be broken.