Celebrating the Bengali New year

[Guest guest]

Rediscovering our roots

Swaha Bhattacharya

The cool, shower-drenched night of April gives way to yet another

splendid dawn. Accompanied by the auspicious sound of conch shells,

this dawn heralds the first day of the Bengali year, 1413. These 24

hours unlike others, are very special especially for us Bengalis and

shall be celebrated in a purely Bengali way.

The roads will be flooded with beaming faces and the starched

crispness of new clothes straight off the rack. Even the most

anglicised Bengali, it is told, cannot resist buying a new saree for

Poila Baisakh.

But, Poila Baisakh is not just about `Chaitra sales' and new clothes.

For the trader, it is the time to close one set of accounts and open

another, after the credit he has allowed is squared, and creditors

greeted with sweets.

An age-old custom, we shall visit our favourite shops to wish them

luck and prosperity for the year ahead. The shops will be decorated

with flowers, and stringed lemons and chillies, used to ward off the

evil eye. The air will be thick with incense and the benign affable

Ganesh idol will be offered more sweets than is good for him.

Unlike the Roman calendar, when the year bursts through the chills and

frost of winter, full of the dreams of spring, the Bengali new year

begins right in the heart of sweltering summer. Summer when we

virtually roast under the furious glare of the sun which seems to burn

right through our hearts and souls.

But, then again what better season to welcome the new year in, than

summer — so passionate and grub-loving, yet laid back and breezy in

the evenings, much like the Bengali frame of mind. We must acknowledge

that no other season suits the unflappable Bengali spirit better.

However, Poila Baisakh is not just about new clothes, traders and `Hal

khatas' alone. The mouth-watering fact about delectable Bengali

cuisine is that good food is inextricably linked with Poila Baisakh.

After all this is one special day when the insatiable appetite of the

Bengali `Bhadrolok' must be cooked, pampered and satisfied by the best

available fare.

This is a day when typical homemade delicacies are a must. Grandma's

recipes of `daab chingri' and `illish maacher paturi' are brought out

and painstakingly prepared. Nowadays, multi-cuisine restaurants too

allure customers with their advertisements of traditional culinary

delights and `complementary gifts' of papad and `aam-porar chutney'.

Thanks to the fast progress and rapid westernisation of our lives, it

is becoming increasingly difficult for us to cling to our roots. But

festivals like Poila Baisakh, and other regional celebrations, which

we can safely call our own, helps us rediscover ourselves as Bengalis

year after year.

In fact it is like a lifeline we try desperately to hold on to in

order to avoid being swept away by the tide of westernisation under

the pretext of modernisation and globalisation.

Here's wishing the ever-enthusiastic Bengali spirit, `Shubho Nabobarsho'!

 

Swaha Bhattacharya,

Coordinator, Loreto House

Swaha Bhattacharya

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