Says Sharmi

If you have seen Sofia Coppola’s 2006 historical drama Marie Antoinette , thenyou might remember the scene where the 14-year-old Marie Antonia enters her chambers in the Palace of Versailles for the first time. The young Austrian princess who has been sent to marry the dauphin of France as a sign of political alliance is starry-eyed seeing the architecture and interiors of her now home. Her exquisite and opulent royal home. Despite being born and brought up in a palace herself. The fair lady almost gawks at the large halls decorated with European art-deco furniture finished with rich silk and chinoiserie upholstery, the flowing velvet curtains and the ornate gilded carvings on the ceiling. The shimmering glass chandeliers, the invaluable table accessories, the luxurious stain sheets and bedspreads. After exploring one room, she peeks into the other to find golden chairs upholstered with duck egg blue satin and a colour palette of ivory and pink ruling the room. Nothing is out of place.…

A long, long time ago, there were jute mills in West Bengal. And, in those mills, the labourers were the migrated communities from Bihar, the neighbouring state. They brought a bit of their culture and a lot of their food in their own ‘promised land’. As they worked and lived in Bengal, they adopted the food habits of their new settlement and adapted to its living as well. But they did not forget the food of their motherland. They ate the simple meals at home and spread the flavours around. The merge and the mix were somewhat inevitable.
This simplistic deconstruction doesn’t really shed light on the plight of the jute mills workers when gradually the mills shut down one by one but it does one thing… point out how, with time, the food of the two cultures grew close. Yes, the foods of Bihar and Bengal have much more similarities than one might be aware of, but as I tucked into the Litti and Baingan ka chokha at the Bihari Food Festival called Purvaiya in Holiday Inn Mayur Vihar two days…