Dashain gifts, delivered in Nepal

Dashain runs for fifteen days, and the day everything turns on is Vijaya Dashami — tika day. Elders press a paste of rice, yoghurt and vermilion onto the foreheads of everyone younger, tuck jamara behind their ear, and press dakshina into their hand. It is the one day of the year when the whole family is expected in one room.

For anyone living abroad, that is precisely the day you cannot be in. A gift arriving that morning is not a substitute for being there, and nobody pretends otherwise. It is a way of being counted among the people who turned up.

Mithai and dry fruit are the safe, traditional answer, and the one older relatives are most pleased by — a good box of sweets is read as respect. Fruit baskets carry the same meaning and travel better in the heat.

For parents, a hamper that arrives as one substantial box tends to land better than several small parcels. For siblings and cousins, cake, chocolate and flowers are read as warmth rather than formality.

Kathmandu slows down for Dashain. Shops close, staff travel to their home villages, and the roads out of the Valley fill for days. That is why the order-by date above sits several days before tika itself rather than the day before — it is a capacity decision about the festival week, not a transit estimate.

If you are reading this after the cut-off, order anyway and choose a date after the festival. Sweets arriving late with a note that says you were thinking of them still land; sweets that never arrive do not.

We hand-deliver across Kathmandu Valley — Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur — and to Pokhara, Chitwan and Biratnagar. You choose the date and a morning, afternoon or evening slot, and we photograph the handover and email you the picture.

If the address you need is outside those areas, message us before you order. We can often arrange it, but we would rather answer the question than take an order we cannot keep.