New Delhi, Oct. 15 --

The picturesque hill-station of Lonavala in Maharashtra and a sweet delicacy called chikki are like the Siamese twins, Chang and Eng of America who could not be separated during their lifetime.

No one for sure knows the origin of the word chikki. It was first used by one BhivrajAgarwal and his son Maganlal, the founders of well-known Maganlalchikki. Probably it came from chikat, a Marathi word meaning sticky. Over 35 small cottage-level industrialists manufacture chikki in all shapes and sizes at Lonavala about 110 km's from Mumbai and 50 km from Pune.

Lonavala lies on the Mumbai- Pune railway line of Central Railway (old Great Indian Peninsula Railway) and Mumbai-Pune expressway. The history of Lonavala City dat...