Festivals, melas, munchies…….and the discerning scientist.
posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 12:05 PM

Calcutta annual religious melas or fairs are among the many rural vestiges that the city will never outgrow. Many of the villages in the state of West Bengal are identified by a particular craft, usually utilitarian and always beautiful. Craftsmen come in and set up shop at the Charak Mela at Puddopukkur in South Calcutta and on Beadon Road in the north.
The focus is on traditional kitchenware of clay, stone, wood and bamboo. Basketry is Calcutta’s own handicraft. Baskets large and small, lidded and un-lidded arrive for shopping, storage and picnics.
No visit to one of the melas is complete without a taste of just-off-the-fire thel bhaja – onion rings, squid with white pepper, samosas stuffed with spiced beef, peas and potato, sliced brinjals and potatoes in a tasty lentil and pepper batter and fried in mustard oil on the roadside.
Well known citizens, among them the great scientist of the city, Professor Satyen Bose, (of the Bose-Einstein theory fame), have been known to travel from one end of the city to the other for these crunchy, munchy mouthfuls.


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