The various flavours of delicious sewai

As devout Muslims break their fast every evening during the holy month of Ramadan, two of the most preferred items on their menu are sewai and dates.
Markets are filled with a whole host of the sewai, or vermicelli traditionally used to make the sweet dish on Eid and as the wait for 'chand ki raat' is about to get over, rozedaars flock to the bazaars to prepare for the Sweet Feast.
In Delhi, vendors say the preference is for the Benarsi sewai while in neighboring Gurgoan the favoured sewai is that from Patna.
Navigating the bylanes of Old Delhi, women clad in burqa and salwar-kameez crowd the busy lanes in front of Jama Masjid, the over 300 year old mosque, which is said to be one of the biggest mosques in India, to select their type of sewai.

"People who are originally from Uttar Pradesh prefer Benarasi Kiwami Sewai more. It is even thinner than hair and that is why it is made using machines. In local language it is called Benarasi chhatta because a bundle of it looks like a bee-hive," says Umez Javed Khan of Al-Karam Bakers.
Khan, whose shop is located in the lane opposite one of the mosque's gate says that in Benaras the prices are lower but when it arrives in Delhi it costs Rs 150to Rs 200 per kg.

Preparing Benarasi Kiwami sewai takes more time than the usual sewai because of its texture. It has to be cooked on low flame as cooking on high flame can spoil its essence and look.

In addition to this, a kilo of this sewai is cooked with a kilo of khoya, which makes this dish a little heavier on pocket than the usual ones.
However, the makeshift stalls near Jama Masjid in Gurgaon's Sadar Bazar do not have many customers for Benarasi sewai.
"Here people prefer Patna's lachche, rumaali sewai, pheni and the normal sewai. Demand for Benarasi sewai is less. We are only able to sell ten or twelve packs at maximum. That is why we get it from Delhi only on special orders and this leads to its high price. One kg costs Rs 400," says Zaid Hussian, a makeshift stall owner.

Lachche are rolls of sewai, available in brown, white and orange colours.