10

XXCE

Bengali culture is basically food

T Eating Bengal
SUNDAY 1 OCTOBER 2017 VOL. XXXVI NO. 83E4

F MUKUL KESAVAN
or the non-Bengali like me, wedding guest in Bengal needed to be
WHAT CAN HAPPENAFTER Puja tourism is about food.
In the early Nineties, when
I first began visiting pan-
a long-distance runner. After that ini-
tial course, we ate two kinds of fish,
rui and ilish. This was followed by a

I
f theories of the wisest philoso- a few days they are real for the most dals in Chittaranjan Park, I mutton curry which I know now was
was baffled by the non-doing nature of kosha mangsho. All of this was ac-
phers were to be pulled down to be part. Wise philosophers have never
the main enclosure that hosted the companied by several servings of
tucked around everyday life only failed to emphasize the importance of pratima. We seemed always to get rice. After we had done with the meat,
for a moment, then it could be hoped carnivals in peoples lives, even festi- there before or after the aarti so to the we moved on to chatni, a tomato chut-
that attack and resistance, posed as op- vals in which hierarchies are over- uninitiated outsider, the setting felt ney mined with dates, raisins and
posites, would give birth to something turned and slaves become the masters like a prelude to something that never other sweetness that I wasnt sure I
new. People in West Bengal, whatever for a day. Although the Durga Puja happened. The first time the pandal liked till I combined it with rice and
and the pratima made sense to me as then it was magical.
part of the political spectrum they in- does not contain this particular inver- performance was years later while I was feeling faintly sick by then
habit or ignore, seemed to have felt sion, it does punch many myths to- watching the film, Parineeta, when I because I had never eaten so much be-
this year a keener awareness of what gether, while almost magically leaving saw a particularly energetic version fore and I hadnt paced myself. This
Durga Puja means to them. The rea- all the strands visible. Perhaps the of the dhunuchi dance. Except that was around the time that I began to at-
son for this lay in the rather grating at- only inversion that is at once obvious the principal dancer was Sanjay Dutt tend to the thin young man to my
and while Im used to suspending dis- right. He was extraordinarily thin, in
tention that the Bharatiya Janata is that of gender: Durga succeeds
belief at the pictures, it was hard to that hipless, hollow-cheeked way
Party, from its centre in Delhi, decided where all the male deities fail. What- take in Munna Bhai in this new thats special to India. He was virtual-
to draw towards this annual festival. ever way these Pujas are looked at, bhadralok avatar without giggling. ly two-dimensional. And yet, he made
This attention came as they touch many with I think one of the reasons people his way through the rui, ilish and
a specific move in what feelings of generosity, inspect the pratima so closely is that mangsho like a human tapeworm,
is already a troubled en- Even if peoples compassion, inclusive- for the most part, theres so little else helping himself more than once to
to do. I used to pay particular atten- each sort of fish and then the mutton
vironment, with divi- sense of what ness, worshipfulness, tion to the slain (or in the process of and now he was doing a steady free-
siveness and exclusion
being wielded as politi-
Durga Puja means wonder feelings ide-
alized, elusive, yet as-
being slain) Mahishasura for the
same reason that people watch action
style through the chatni, never paus-
ing to breathe or burp. We finished
cal weapons and vari- to them is idealized, pired to none of movies: for the gore. The first year with three kinds of mishti; I use we
ous kinds of freedom of it can still result in which need be specifi- that I toured the pandals, the Mahi-
shasuras were small, pitiable figures,
loosely, because I had fallen by the
wayside by then. My participation
particular groups or in- cally associated with re-
dividuals being cut off,
enduring gifts ligion, but with an ex-
notable mainly for the bloody wound was vicarious; I just watched my
that Durgas trident had made, but I neighbour do the treble with ease,
sometimes with death. pansion of the spirit. later encountered large, heavily mus- this Abebe Bikila of the six-course
The awareness in the air during the The growth of Durga Puja as the cled versions. What they had in com- meal.
few festive days just past was amor- main festival in West Bengal has its mon was a haplessness that was oddly

phous, there and not there, fleetingly own complicated history, but as it moving. Durga herself seemed oblivi-
ous to the asura she had killed, as she
felt, for example, in the effort per- stands now, it can be seen, symbolical- looked into the middle distance, re-
haps to use loudspeakers mostly ly, as an expression of the regions cul- motely smiling. It was her lion that
within the legitimate times, as though ture of shared worship, art and social seemed properly involved in the slau-
no one should have an excuse to shut participation. Defending it against ghter, his bloodied teeth and claws
the Pujas down. Something seemed to certain political, cultural and moral dug into Mahishasuras body which
was often a bilious green and who can
be under attack, something close to a incursions may bring about not just a
blame him? The saddest figure in the
regions heart, and to the economy of keener awareness but also a greater composition was the discarded buffa-
large groups of craftsmen, folk artists nurturing of local cultures, languages lo, supine and hollowed out at the
and traditional musicians, and there and myths, a heightened civic sense base of the tableau, like a filmi extra.
seemed to be an invisible, involuntary that is inclusive enough to ensure My disenchantment with the
closing of impalpable ranks. shelter, drinking water and sanitation tableaux had something to do with
the fact that the first one I saw had
It is perfectly plausible that the for everybody not just in festive times Durga as a dead ringer for Hema Ma-
awareness of what the Pujas mean is but always, and an unshakeable resist- lini. The prig in me was offended: I
based on idealism. The joy and inclu- ance to hate. That would be an endur- had come looking for Bengali iconog-
siveness may be contrived, but for just ing Puja gift. raphy and had found a still from a
Bombay mythological instead. Look-
ing back, though, I can see the point of
the likeness: if the artist had been
SCRIPSI looking to model beatific blandness,
he couldnt have done better.
I do not particularly like the word work. Human beings are the only animals
chewiness was self-evidently better.
The same principle holds for pooris;
why not, in a frank, manly way ac-
knowledge superiority and eat luchis
instead?
The first time I encountered fes-
tive Bengali food was in 1983 when I
travelled up to Calcutta for a friends
wedding. We stayed with the groom in
his parents house for several days
and on the first day we settled down to
eat lunch at a very long table flanked
by benches. It was a catered meal and
I still remember the name of the
caterer: Bijoli Grill.
We were served rice and dal and
noon so I decided it was meant to be a
kind of brunch and there were after
all, dozens of people to be fed.
After stuffing myself, I made to get
up and leave. This was awkward beca-
use I was sitting on a running bench
so the thin young man to my right had
to get up as well to make space for me
to lever my legs out from under the
table. I was midway through this ma-
noeuvre when Mrs Sarkar, Abhijits
mother, materialized in front of me
looking concerned. Where are you
going? she asked. Is there some-
thing wrong with the food? I said it
was wonderful but I had eaten
W
e ate like this every day,
twice a day, for three days.
But this, I was assured, was
nothing; the pice de rsistance ac-
cording to the gourmands who sur-
rounded me, was yet to come. These
were the king prawns that would be
served at the bou bhaat, the reception
dinner the day after the wedding. I
never got that far; I only ever heard
Abhijits king prawns described be-
cause by the evening of the wedding
reception, I was a broken man, run-
ning a shuttle service to the nearest
loo, my digestion destroyed by a regi-
men of gluttony that asked for more
endurance than my north Indian con-
stitution could supply.
There is a reason why Abhijit, like
many Bengali men, always carries a
little pink bottle of Gelusil or its alter-
native, the orange Aqua Ptychotis. No
culture can eat like this without
chronic heartburn. But eating was
never the same again after that 1983

I
who have to work, and I think that is the most ridiculous thing in the world. t was in the food stalls that I found
Other animals make their livings by living, but people work like crazy, think- consolation, in the deep fried,
ing that they have to in order to stay alive. The bigger the job, the greater the challenge, keema-stuffed porotas made out of
the more wonderful they think it is. It would be good to give up that way of thinking and maida. As someone born and raised
live an easy, comfortable life with plenty of free time. I think that the way animals live in in Delhi on first-rate Punjabi
the tropics, stepping outside in the morning and evening to see if there is something to parathas, after that first taste of the
eat, and taking a long nap in the afternoon, must be a wonderful life. For human be- Bengali version, I couldnt under-
ings, a life of such simplicity would be possible if one worked to produce directly his stand why north Indians bothered
daily necessities. In such a life, work is not work as people generally think of it, but sim- with aata when maidas elastic
ply doing what needs to be done. MASANOBU FUKUOKA
mukulkesavan@hotmail.com
mashed potatoes which, in retrospect,
I recognize as alu makha but at the
time I thought was a kind of alu bhar-
ta. The dal was excellent and the
sharpness of the mustard oil mixed
into the potatoes was a new and ad-
venturous taste. As someone who had
been raised a vegetarian before going
over to the dark side, I understood dal,
chawal and alu and I made a meal of
it. I was a little surprised at the plain-
ness of the food, but it was barely
enough. Enough? she repeated, baf-
fled. But we have just begun!
I had never eaten a desi meal in
courses before. Where I came from
you ate your staple dal, roti,
paratha surrounded by the sabzis
and chutneys and raitas and pickles
that constituted the meal. An amused
Hyderabadi friend once described
this to me as your katori culture. So
when I was nudged back into my
place on the bench, I realized that the
wedding. I learnt to eat my way thro-
ugh fish heads as they squinted at me,
to tease hair-thin bones out of ilish, to
lay by enough room for the sweet at
the end. When my niece declared the
other day that she was going pandal-
hopping with friends, I told her to
skip the pratimas and home in on the
porotas. She was kind enough to rep-
ort that I was right. Its a simple truth
that I learnt three-and-a-half decades
ago: Bengali culture is basically food.

Diary LETTERS
Public duel Maybe, that is the reason why he has
sought six months leave to under-
Serious affliction
take a padyatra around the Narma- Sir The drug menace in Goa is a mat- ment should ensure that
Recently, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies found themselves under da river. The timing of the pro- ter of grave concern. The problem has there is sufficient policing
attack from an unexpected quarter. A veteran BJP leader, Yashwant Sinha, gramme has been such that even his not received adequate attention from the at night. Also, providing
castigated the Centre for its mishandling of the economy. Since then, party son and brother are unable to partic- authorities. Drugs are openly being sold jobs to wayward youth
functionaries and senior ministers have not lost an opportunity to counter ipate. Or they may have better things throughout the state. No action has been could be a possible solution
Sinha. Incidentally, Sinha was the finance minister in the National Democra- to do: the duo have decided to cele- taken over the years. The current bunch to the menace.
tic Alliance government during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee years. One of the brate Dussehra in Raghogarh. of law enforcers are inept. Instead of
theories doing the rounds of the grapevine is that the former minister was combating the sources of addiction, all one hears is Yours faithfully,
keen to head the BRICS bank in Shanghai, but the Narendra Modi regime de- empty rhetoric. Politicians allegedly patronize the drug A.S. Mehta, Calcutta
nied him the job. Another BJP leader, Subramanian Swamy, who is never far trade. Goa has thus been reduced to a drug and crime
from controversy, may have felt a little uneasy with all the attention being
showered on Sinha. Swamy, all of a sudden, claimed that he was offered the
Role haven.
role to head the BRICS bank, but he turned down the proposal. model Yours faithfully, Clean hearts
Aires Rodrigues,
But what has seemed to rile Sinha is the strong defence of governmental Ribandar, Goa Sir The governor of
policy by his son, Jayant. If sources are to be believed, Sinha Junior was ex- The prime minister, Narendra
Kerala, P. Sathasivam, has
pressly asked by the powers that be to put forth the administrations view- Modi, has long done away with the
point. The prompt rebuttal by the son in a newspaper article has also sur- practice of taking reporters from pri- Use the sun been ignored in this project asked the vice-chancellors
of rewriting history. of state universities to en-
prised the Opposition. Senior Congress leaders refused to believe that Jayant vate media houses on his plane dur-
Sir The launching of sure active participation of
came out on his own to publicly rebuff his father. Although no leader was ing foreign visits. He did this in the
the Saubhagya scheme by Yours faithfully, all academic institutions in
willing to talk about it on record, the former external affairs minister, very first year of his prime minister-
Narendra Modi is nothing H.N. Ramakrishna, the fortnight-long Swachh-
Salman Khurshid, provided a glimpse of his view when he tweeted: What to ship. However, the recent retirees, the
but a populist move (PM Bangalore ta Hi Seva campaign. This
say about a government that makes son speak against father? Next brother ex-president, Pranab Mukherjee, and
pledges power for all, Sept will create awareness
against brother, class against class, human against nature, teacher against former vice-president, Hamid An-
26). But the prime minis- about cleanliness among
taught. sari, held on to the tradition, enab-
ling journalists to travel with them.
ters intention must be Unsafe roads teachers and students. A
lauded. The scheme offers clean environment is the
But the newly-elected president and
Making noise solar power packs in re- Sir Molestation and right of every citizen.
Secret spoken, strategic analyst and regu-
larly writes columns in international
vice-president have signalled a desire
to break with their predecessors. It is
mote areas that are yet to other forms of sexual as- Mechanisms should be put
formula publications. However, in spite of his in good shape either. The AICC gen- still unclear, though, if they will com-
be electrified. It would have
been better if solar power
in place to remove garbage
from public spaces.
credentials, doubts are being expres- sec, Digvijaya Singh, was heard pletely end the convention of taking
was provided to all the fam-
The comments by the Congress sed within the diplomatic communi- praising the BJP parliamentarian, journalists on board Air India One
ilies instead. This would Yours faithfully,
vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, on ty about the secret of his rapid rise. Varun Gandhi, for making a case for the signature aircraft used by the
have given the solar power K.A. Solaman,
nepotism have stirred up quite a con- refugee status for Rohingya Muslims president, the vice-president and the
industry an incentive Alappuzha, Kerala
troversy: the Gandhi scions state- in India. Diggy Raja described Varun prime minister for most foreign vis-
which, in turn, would have
ment has generated hushed mur- as a misfit in the BJP while harping its. The foreign office has been told to
helped generate jobs.
murs even in the most unlikeliest of
places. The whis-
Glass on the bloodline of the young Sultan-
pur MP. But the praise for the other
scale back the courtesies extended to
journos travelling with the president Parting shot
pers seem to have house Gandhi has not gone down well with- and the VP and trim the number of
Yours faithfully,
S. Kamat, Sir Successive govern-
grown louder in in some Congress circles. Singh once reporters that accompany them.
Alto Santa Cruz, Goa ments have failed to allevi-
the corridors of The Congress may be enjoying the fancied himself as Rahul Gandhis The next stage, some believe, may
ate poverty. Instead, they
Indias diplomat- BJPs internal troubles from a dis- mentor, but is now increasingly get- be a complete emulation of Modis
distribute freebies to the
ic establishment tance, but the formers house is not ting isolated in the Grand Old Party. approach. Sunny days
following a recent False impressions economically weaker sec-
tions of society. The prac-
development.
Sir Deendayal Upad- sault have become quite tice has become contagi-
Dhruva Jaish-
hyaya was a leader of mod- common. The attack on the ous. The State taxes honest
ankar, who is the
son of the foreign secretary and a fel- Footnote trolls to browbeat critics into si-
lence was not paying attention
est stature. Unfortunately,
the Bharatiya Janata Party
actress, Kanchana Moitra,
bears testimony to this fact
citizens to finance such
sops. Is the dependence on
low at the Brookings Institution, has to their bhakts. For even some-
started hosting a show on Rajya Sab- Water woes thing as commonplace as glasses
and the Rashtriya Swa-
yamsevak Sangh are trying
(Kangaroo trial of actress
on city road, Sept 20). Un-
largesse desirable?
ha TV. The programme is about how they carry the Made in China
to make an icon out of him. employed youth and petty Yours faithfully,
the world looks at India, and how In- During the Doklam standoff, there were frequent calls label are being used in the of-
It is interesting that stal- criminals indulge in such N.K. Das Gupta,
dia views the world. Jaishankar has from right-wing trolls for a boycott of Chinese goods. fices of ministers to serve water
warts from the South have crimes. The state govern- Calcutta
established himself as a sharp, well- But, clearly, the BJP-led government while using the to guests. Ouch!