Ring-up the Natraj man,” calls out the salesman at the department store in my neighbourhood. He looks at me apologetically and says, “We’ll stock them by tomorrow for sure.” They’ve run out of the dry-fruit ladoos that are a sell-out. As an addict of the chocolate-brown ladoos made of chewy, sweet dates with chunks of cashews and almonds inside, I head to Puducherry instead — the laddo’s homeland — to meet the couple that runs Natraj Homemade Sweets.
A Gujarati with a love for all things sweet, Nilesh Nisar was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago. “The doctor ruled out sugar from my diet,” he says. But he had to have his dose of sweets every day. Thus began Nilesh and his wife Geetha’s experiments with sweets. “We wanted a healthy alternative,” he adds. The couple tried out various recipes till one day, they arrived at a ladoo that had no sugar, jaggery, honey, ghee or milk.
“We offered it to friends and relatives and they loved it,” says Geetha. It was vegan, with a four-month shelf-life. Soon, Geetha was making ladoos to be sold at shops in Auroville where they lived. News of it gradually spread in Puducherry. “Customers started calling us to tell us they liked them” says Nilesh. They set up a small unit at home and hired around 15 women from villages such as Kuyila Palayam and Idiyanchavadi near Auroville and plunged into a homemade snacks business. A textile businessman in Mumbai before he arrived at Auroville, Nilesh helps at marketing their products.
Today, Nilesh and Geetha supply their ladoos to 50 shops each in Chennai and Bangalore. They make over 2,000 a day at their unit. The ladoo’s success lies in its simple, earthy flavour.
“It’s filling; the dates are a powerhouse of energy,” he adds. “Mash two ladoos into a bowl of warm milk to turn it into porridge for breakfast,” he suggests. Break a ladoo and all the ingredients are laid bare — the box lists what goes into one. Perhaps we can make our own at home? “A lot of people tried,” smiles Geetha. “But they couldn’t get the right consistency.” Nilesh adds that this is because they follow a “secret recipe” they cannot divulge.
Geetha also makes cashew toffees — another Natraj product that are as popular as the ladoos. The toffees, however, are not available in Chennai at present. The success of the ladoo has encouraged Geetha and Nilesh to expand into other health foods which include Almorosho (a sweet concoction of rose petals, honey, and almonds) and 12 Elements that has 12 ingredients including water melon seeds, almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, and honey and more. Most of their products come bottled in keeping with Ayurvedic principles, Nilesh adds.
The couple says that all their products are tested for at least three months before hitting the market. “Before introducing the ladoos, we tried them out and offered them to friends too. Only when we were completely convinced about its benefits, did we start selling them,” Geetha explains.
Though the demand for the ladoos is increasing Nilesh says that as of now they have no plans to expand the business. “We enjoy our work and are happy with the way things are,” says Geetha. “This will do. I don’t want to work after 5 p.m. when my son comes home from school.”
