When Narendra Varma, the executive director of Our Table Cooperative, was growing up in Northern India, Diwali — also known as the festival of lights, celebrated throughout India and among the Indian diaspora in other parts of the world — was easily the year’s biggest celebration. Houses and buildings were lit with oil lamps and candles, shining off the white plaster walls newly washed and patched for the holiday. Friends and family would send boxes of nuts, dried fruit, and candies throughout the five-day period, including sweets made with khoya, evaporated milk solids Varma compares to a nutty ricotta. The family would feast, fireworks would crackle, and the adults
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