Festive greetings to all my dear readers. The past week has gone by in a blur of religious festivities, which were in full flow this year with pronounced fervour, with everyone (well, almost everyone) having got over the Covid-19 pandemic and its hangover.
In Hyderabad, just like other metros, Durga Puja pandals were back in all their former glory and the bhog counters were choc a bloc with families. So were the food stalls, if not exactly brimming over with customers as it happened in the pre-Covid years, doing pretty good business.
In short, the singaras, the veg/fish/mutton/chicken chops/cutlets fried crisp and hot, the greasy cholesterol-inducing Mughlai parathas, the chicken tikka egg rolls, the bhetki fish fry, the clanging woks of Chindian (Chinese-Indian) noodles, fried rice and chicken, shawarma, ice creams, golas, tandoor/Irani/Darjeeling chai had their own bands of loyal patrons, and all was good with the culinary world, going by the world of puja pandals.
And how could I forget my favourite, the ‘mishti’ stalls? Personally speaking, it is always stocking up time for me on all rare (and not so rare) Bong sweetmeats like Sitabhog, Mihidaana, Chenna Jilapi, Narkel Naru, Kamala Bhog and Mishti Doi, with Nolen Gur Sondesh and Kaancha Gola thrown in. More than the larger sweet shop brands, I heartily appreciate the efforts made by home chefs and small food startups to showcase their creations, made in an absolute organic and home-made way. For me, it comes closest to what my grandmother and mother made during festivals, the paayesh, the Narkel Naru, the atta laddoos, the pithas, like the Kakara Pitha (shaped like puris, these pithas are made of rice flour and jaggery) which was being fried at my maternal home. I could visualise the kitchen, when our help described the evening menu of puri, halwa and the sweets and pithas.
As is commonly seen in our country, almost every religious festival is celebrated in multi-faceted ways by different communities and so is Navratri, culminating with Dussehra, as is known in the north and west, Dasara in the south and Bijoya Dashami in the east. So, this year in Hyderabad while Bengali puja pandals ruled, with their scale and magnificence, the dhaak beats and dhanuchi dances with thronging crowds, there was also the garba and dandiya nights where fafda, jalebi, pav bhaji and dhokla, chaat stalls regaled participants of the dandiya and garba contests organised by Gujarati/Sindhi communities.
Locally, one also got to bask in the delightful Bathukamma celebrations typical of the new state of Telangana. Bathukamma, or literally ‘mother goddess comes alive’, is represented by a conical stack of flowers arranged in concentric circles. The flowers, like marigold, chrysanthemum and hibiscus have medicinal qualities. Bathukamma commences on the day of Mahalaya Amavasya and concludes on Dussehra.
Since it is a celebration of the bounty of nature, the foods offered to Bathukamma goddess include plenty of plant-based and power foods like sesame seeds, jaggery, millets etc.
On Navami, the Naivedyam offered by Bathukamma devotees include five kinds of rice like curd rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice, sesame rice and jaggery rice. And guess what, I got lucky as my Telugu neighbour came over with a plate full of festive goodies, which also included Gaarelu (crisp vada) and Bobbatlu or Puran Poli. Love festive times, I tell you.
Also, worth recalling from last week’s food experiences was this culinary challenge contest organised by the Bangiya Sanskritik Sangha (BSS) which has been organising Durga Puja since almost six decades now, most of which have been celebrated at the Keyes High School (dating from British times) in Secunderabad, which is to Hyderabad residents the equivalent of CR Park pujo in New Delhi.
The contest, thrown open to men and women, above the age of 18, threw up interesting entries like the famed Kolkata’s Chelo Kebabs, Champaran Mutton, vegan paayesh etc but what caught everyone’s attention was an entry titled Pumpkin Pot Mutton Pulav, which was innovatively presented in a whole pumpkin, much like a Halloween one, yellow and with green stripes, and the pulao within was super delicious to boot made by a young homemaker Jhinuk.
What appealed to me more was the very aesthetically presented dessert, called Jugal Bandi, by an elderly gentleman, a central government employee for whom cooking is a hobby. Jugal bandi consisted of Chhena Poda (nowhere an easy sweet to make) and Rasmalai and it was every bit delicious! Though Jugalbandi was not a prize-winning entry, the gent and his wife who had come to cheer him on only, reiterating that the entire creation, including the cooking and styling was his handiwork alone, earned brownie points with everyone for their sheer optimism and positivity.
In the end, community feasting and fasting stay in one’s eternal, evergreen albums of the mind, for the sheer joy they bring to us. I remember the Onam Sadya feast we used to look forward to at the director of National Institute of Design (NID) Darlie O Koshy in Ahmedabad at his bungalow, which would be decked up with flowers and leaves with the help of the design institute students. Cooks from Kerala would be specially brought in, and the feast would be laid out on banana leaves in traditional fashion.
The inji puli, the Avial, Erissery and Puliserry would be lip-smackingly good concluding with my absolute favourite, the Ada Pradhaman, a kheer made of rice flour batter, coconut milk and jaggery with a generous dose of cardamom powder and raisins.
The other community feast which we would look forward to, every year, also coincidentally in Ahmedabad was the Saraswati Puja Bhog which would be hosted by the IIM director Prof Jahar Saha at his ground floor apartment on the IIM campus. Begunis being fried in hot oil in kadhais, tomato chutney, laabra and khichuri on handis and paayesh on a huge degchi in their cosy and not-so-well-tended garden was a sight which will always remain as a treasured memory.
Diwali is around the corner, and soon posts around Diwali mithai and table décor and plating will flood our social media feeds. Star hotels and standalone restaurants have started rolling out their food promotions, with initial trepidation and with reasonably good response, have gained in confidence. One’s social calendar is now choc a bloc with invites to launches, re-launches and God knows what more. In short, the wheels of the food industry have started moving with speed gaining around every curve and after that it will be time for Christmas cake mixing and more merriment, especially the pum cakes baked by my baker friends.
I don’t think any country ever comes close to India in celebrating every festival, irrespective of faith. Amen to that.