Aaswad at Dadar and Kolhapuri Chivda at Girgaum boast of a special farali 'fast' menu

Karti hu tumhara vrat main, sweekar karo Maa, mazhdaar mein main atki, beda paar karo Maa. The Usha Mangeshkar number had a profound impact on my eight-year-old mind, when I watched Jai Santoshi Maa in the old-style Yadav Talkies in Gwalior in June 1975. The movie, deemed the right fit for the family's vacationing school-goers, introduced me to the world of ritual fasting in which the suffering heroine, Satyavati, successfully abstained from normal food pleasures for 16 consecutive Fridays. Her frail self is saved in that period by Goddess Santoshi from a series of obstacles - the most intriguing being her slave-driving cruel sisters-in-law. They squeeze lime juice on the prasad in an attempt to break Satyavati's vow, knowing that the Goddess disapproves of all things sour. The Devi's punishment to the mischievous citrus-conspirators and her blessings showered on Satyavati remain permanently etched in my memory; so, is the equation of ritual fasts with self-denying pious behaviour.