Photo courtesy of Lushika Preethrajh
This is the second holiday recipe in our series from the Tumbleweird Narrators, who wanted to share some of their favorite dessert recipes and the stories behind them. Each story has an accompanying audio file, similar to some of the stories you’ll find each month in Tumbleweird. You can read the recipes and listen to each narrator tell the story behind the food they make, and why it’s meaningful to them.
This recipe is from Lushika Preethrajh, who reminds us that "Diwali is not only the celebration of light but also community."
Nankhatai
Lushika Preethrajh
Sharing a story about a recipe or dish is very difficult and personal for me as I haven't had the best relationship with food. Somehow, I have successfully avoided cooking for much of my adult years. This could be considered as quite a feat in my culture!
However, there is one recipe in my repertoire. I make it every year to celebrate Diwali which fell on the 20th of October this year. The festival is one of light and is celebrated by millions of Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists all around the world.
I live a continent away from my family in a country that speaks a language that isn't my own. I grew up in a country where I learned to speak a language not of my ancestors but their colonisers. Distance has a way of giving us perspective, but we try to hold on to heritage on one hand and do our best to forge new traditions on the other.
Whenever Diwali comes around, I remember the many Diwalis of my youth spent with my cousins: lighting fireworks, comforting scared dogs and munching on Nankhatai and Jalebi until our stomachs ached. I look back on memories of laughing as we played with sparklers and running to keep the oil lamps lit even when it drizzled. My heart pounding as a badly aimed Indian King was thrown far too close to me and the shock wave of its explosion rippling through my body and the rogue pin-wheel firework that spiraled on the ground shooting sparks at the hem of my new punjabi. The ladies in their bright outfits and the smell of incense and prayers in the house. Most of all, I remember my grandmother's joy at seeing her children and their respective families together.
It is important to remember that Diwali is not only the celebration of light but also community — epitomised by the endless stream of neighbours and visitors popping in and out throughout the day, bearing carefully prepared food parcels and in turn leaving with different ones.
I see Diwali as an heirloom, inherited and held on to, even as my ancestors were placed in boats and shipped half a world away from their family in India; only to arrive and live in indentured servitude on the shores of a foreign country over 160 years ago. Between 1860 and 1911 they lost their freedom, their family names, and their language. The flame of Diwali has been passed from my reluctant and involuntary immigrant forefathers and mothers to their descendants who navigated their way through the dark years of Apartheid and now with me, a voluntary immigrant in this turbulent time peppered by anti-immigrant sentiment.
When I make Nankhatai, I knead hope, bake joy, and taste tradition. It helps me remember that in our darkest moments there is light.
NANKHATAI
Ingredients:
- 100g flour
- 100g butter
- 100g sugar
- 60g almond flour
- 60g semolina
- 45g Greek yoghurt
- 12g cardamom powder
- 5g baking powder
- 1.5g salt
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- Nuts and raisins for embellishment
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 175°C (347°F)
- Mix (cream) the softened butter and sugar in a mixer
- Add the Greek yoghurt
- Add all the other ingredients to the mixer and mix well
- Roll the dough into little balls and place them on a baking tray
- Add raisins or nuts on top (see photo)
- Bake for 20 – 22 minutes, until golden brown
- Let them cool and enjoy
Lushika Preethrajh is a bilingual voice actor and narrator known for her characters in audio fiction serials. Originally from South Africa, she currently lives in France with her cats Thaira and Mana. Lushika has been narrating for Tumbleweird since March 2025. You can learn more about her work at lushika.carrd.co.
About The Tumbleweird Narration Project
Tumbleweird Narrators provide real human voice narration to articles and stories at tumbleweird.org. We are committed to bringing current events and community information to everyone who needs and enjoys the narration experience, with a human touch. Tumbleweird has a mission to “serve the truly powerful: the underdogs, the misfits, the outsiders, the newcomers, those on the margins, and the ones who defy the status quo.” We narrate their stories.
