There’s a phrase in North India that denotes good news or festive cheer. ‘Muh meetha karna’, or to taste something sweet, is an idiom that particularly marks the Diwali season. But as I see boxes and boxes of sweets, all gaily wrapped with translucent paper, I feel that before we gorge on laddoos and barfis, we need to pay homage to the one ingredient that is at the heart of all these sweets — sugar.

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