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Welcomed by two one horned rhinoceroses at the Manas National Park, April 2018 |
To Assam and a new dawn
something in the stream ahead,” said Ishani.
travels hours to work but still takes the time out to blog on food. Along with us in the car and with his characteristic ‘been there done that’ look was Sisir Kumar.
trip to the city and to the state of Assam and, barring Darjeeling, to the
North East for that matter and I was super excited.
Rajdhani Regency. We thundered down the lovely highway from Guwahati after a
keteli pitha (steamed rice dumplings with a layer of grated coconut and jaggery
inside) and lal cha (black tea) breakfast on the streets at Six Miles. We passed the Brahmaputra on the way and saw the stupa like white memorial (in the pic) set up in honour of the singer, the late Bhupen Hazarika.
another breakfast stop later at a dhaaba for a quintessential Eastern Indian dhaaba meal
of green moong torka dal, egg bhurji and hot rotis with chai. I mixed the torka
and egg together to make a quasi egg torka. Ishani had insisted that we stop
for breakfast while we were on the road. She looked at me earnestly and said,
“sir, we don’t know what will be the arrangements there and you will be
hungry.” She later explained, “that she can’t think when hungry.”
completely relate to what she said. I knew I was in good company.
road so good in the whole of Mumbai. Our driver, without my asking him to do
so, drove very carefully even on the empty roads and which was a blessing for me as I was recovering from a bad back pain attack.
the more well known Kaziranga National Park in upper Assam. The road got a bit
bumpy for a sedan once we entered the park as the path was pebbled and that’s
when Ishani made us excitedly stop to see what she had spotted.
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“Something is in the water” |
Turning poison into medicine, one rhino at a time
iPhone and used the zoom mode and got some decent pictures. Ishani
assembled her DSLR and many lenses and got more pics. Mr Rhino wasn’t in a
hurry to go anywhere and happily posed while his wife napped.
destination and that too just in the nick of time.
Festival and the inauguration ceremony was going on. All the guests had spoken and it
was my turn to address the audience. This, of course, was after my hosts put a scarf (gamosa) around
my neck. Everyone whom I met in Assam would put one of these beautiful scarves
around my neck. Some put a second one if we met twice.
than they do in Assam!
as I realised later during a conversation with Deba Kumar Dutta, a senior project
officer with WWF India, wonderfully captured the spirit of the Manas National Park.
Manas National Park. The entire rhino population at Manas was wiped out in the
1990s by poachers during the Bodoland agitation. Once the BTAD accord was
signed in 2003, the BTC (Bodo Territorial Council) came forward to save Manas
and to rebuild it with the help of the Government of Assam and organisations
such as the WWF and local citizens. The Indian Rhino Vision programme was
launched in 2005 and two male rhinos from the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary were
released in Manas at 2008 as a start of the Rhino Translocation Project.
charge of Manas, they encouraged the former poachers to surrender and to use
their understanding and knowledge of the jungle to help (!) the conservation
process initiated by the WWF.
Dutta. Puspanjalee is the wife of Deba Kumar Dutta, someone whom she proudly describes as being “responsible for one of the largest rhino relocation projects in the world.”
Human Revolution: Taking the responsibility of the changing ones environment by changing oneself
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With Puspanjalee Das Dutta at the Manas Spring Festival |
Puspanjalee is a publishing editor and blogger and a lovely cook too. She is based in Guwahati now and originally belonged to Barpeta in lower Assam.
She loves her state and her culture and takes great pride in showcasing its beauty to the
world at large. She is the one who had invited me to the Manas Spring Festival and that’s how this magical journey began and I am eternally
grateful to her for that.
Spring in North East’ series, draws its origins to another far sighted initiative of WWF India. This was an initiative to involve the entire local community, and not just the men, in productive activities. One of the plans for this was to tap the cooking skills of the local women and the wives of the former poachers for culinary tourism opportunities and thereby making the process of sustainable development far more holistic. I found this plan to be an acknowledgment of the wonderful spirit of gender equality that I seemed to sense in the few days that I spent in Assam.
Now the thing is that the food of the Bodos is built on using indigenous produce and forest vegetables. It is very low on oil and has near minimal spices in it.
So minimal, that our urban tastebuds might rebel against its purity and find it ‘bland’!
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With Mitali Datta, enjoying a Bodo lunch at her baby, the Manas Spring Festival. |
Mitali went to the Manas National Park and took workshops with the locals showing them how to cook in bulk for a commercial set up. Being Assamese herself and from the city, Mitali could sensitise the Bodo ladies on how to cook in a manner where the taste and quality of the food is is consistent and hygienic and which would appeal to the palate of a larger audience by making some minor tweaks to it. Once her wards were ready, Mitali came up with the idea of the Manas Spring Festival where this food could be offered to those present.
out to visitors to Manas at the Manas Spring Festival was a runaway hit. The ladies had to replenish the vessels again and kept
the fires going during the festival, such was the demand!
the festival revelled in the simplicity and honesty of the food. Many who were
staying at the local resorts came to the festival grounds came to the try out the food and thereby adding to the sales.
To me, what happened was truly an example of people changing their own lives and ways of thinking to thereby change circumstances that they found themselves in.
two days and yet felt so light and fresh at the end of each meal. The magic of using good and fresh locally sourced ingredients elevated the meals to a different level of purity.
was core to the meal and to go with that, there were simple yellow dals and for those who had asked me about it,
there were vegetarian dishes such as slow cooked ladies finger and sabzis made
with potatoes and local greens such as kosu and matikalda.
simple home food to many from across India.
wood fires. The meat was seasoned with just a touch of salt and chopped chillies
and the taste was all about the smokiness of tender pork with the meat being the hero of the dish.
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Hamming it at the Khorika pit |
Assamese Porkaholics…an urban legend
While there are some from the cities who now consume pork, this is more out of personal choice it seems than as part of of the norm I was told.
There are many Assams as I realised during my time there!
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The Manas Spring Festival Kitchen |
local and bony river fish with greens added to them for example. Plus goroi fish smoked on the kahorika pit. I was not a big fan of the fish dishes I must admit as I am wary of bony fish
There was a touch of exotica too with snails (a bit sandy but the meat
was pleasant and fresh), silkworms (the texture was pasty and like machher deem or fish
roe as a fellow Bengali there felt too) and eel which I didn’t get to try.
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Snails |
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Silkworms |
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Smoked Goroi khorika fish |
the gallon and it was the most popular stall in the fair and yet there was no drunken
revelry. Just happy faces.
fruity, a bit like lychee juice. I didn’t venture much though as I am a bit wary of alcoholic drinks I
am not familiar with.
At the end of the festival I was told, enthused by the crowd response to their food, the ladies of Manas decided to set up the Gungzeema Kitchen from where they plan to offer food on sale to those who visit the park. I later saw on Facebook that Mitali now plans to launch something called Gungzeema Culinary Expeditions with them and you should contact her if you want to book and try the food of the people of Manas.
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Rice beer cheers |
Weaving a succes story
One of the folks that I met at the Manas Spring Festival is a gentleman named Saumar J Sharma. He is a fellow Mumbaikar whom I met for the first time at Guwahati when I went for the festival. Like me, Saumar too is an immigrant to Mumbai and has found a stage there to live his dreams but feels most connected to his homeland too.
Saumar helped in ensuring that the execution of the Manas Spring Festival was a success.
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Some of the weaves produced by the locals were on sale at the festival too. I bought textiles from there and later from Saumar’s office at Guwahati too. I bought so much (!) that I had to carry the bags in my hand to avoid being charged for excess baggage in the flights back but everyone (the ladies on both sides of the family and my bother and mama in law) was happy with the gifts I bought…saris, stoles, scarves bed covers…which made me happy.
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Joining the local Bodo women and men who worked
tirelessly to welcome us to the Manas Festival, and all this in between cooking lavish feasts and showcasing local
dances in the fierce heat, were many others starting from the paramilitary
forces who ensured the safety all present.
There was the deputy chief of BTC, Mr Kampha Borgowary too. He had played a key role in getting the locals involved initially, I was told, in the rhino
relocation project. He spent an entire day at the festival encouraging the local
community despite being a very busy man.
come to support the movement.
Take popular chef TV chef Gautam Mehrishi from Mumbai, for example, who was there as one of the chief guests. He got fully into the thick of things and took part in all the activities. He gave a special cooking lesson/ demo to the Bodo home cooks using locally available ingredients and showed them how to give twists to their traditional dishes and make it look contemporary without interfering with the integrity of the dish. This was his first trip to Assam, Gautam told me, but he has spent a part of his growing up years in the North East and feels a strong affinity to the region .
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That’s Joi Barua in the yellow scarf. Saumar in the black shirt |
There were volunteers from Guwahati starting with Puspanjalee and Mitali’s husbands and kids and family members, the owner of Rajdhani Residency hotel who had hosted us in the city, influencers such as Sisir Kumar and many more working hard to make the event a success.
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With the husbands, Deba in dark blue and Abhijit in light blue |
country who were put up in tents set up by the organisers and who were
enthusiastically participating in the festival, recording what has
happening and sharing it. Some like Debjani Paul, a Bengali from Pune, continued
her Assamese journey of discovery after the festival too and shared some wonderful pictures on her
Instagram account.
Facebook group who responded to a call from Mitali and descended upon Manas from all over (including some international guests),
stayed in the tents, and worked as volunteers at the event.
inspiring tales coming out of the forests of Manas were truly unending.
When winter turns to spring
write about.
Do watch the video below encapsulating what happened at the festival:
Acknowledgments:
Do read:
- Ishani Nath’s Blog Post on the Manas Spring Festival for details on the food, dance forms and handloom patterns
- Mitali Datta’s blog for booking Gunzeema meals and tours
- Puspanjalee Das Datta’s blog
- Website of Indian Weavers’ Alliance Inc
- Debjani Paul’s Instagram account
- My post on tarka dal
More pictures
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Bogrumba dance of Bodos |
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Jhumur Dance |
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Bihu Dance |
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Pork in jute leaf where the jute leaves a bitter after taste |
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Chilli paste similar to thecha of Maharashtra |
Natural beauty
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Tea gardens at the start of Manas |
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The Smiling Tusker Elephant Camp where domesticated elephants whose owners can’t keep them an more and housed: |
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View from outside the cabin at the V Resort at Manas where I was Put up at the Manas National Park |
Happy humans
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With Mitali and Puspanjalee |
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Rejuvenated post Manas |
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Our driver who drove us carefully and smoothly |
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Lunch at Puspanjalee’s |
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My mom saw the masor tenga (yellow here) and said, it looks like our maacher jhol |
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Add caption |
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Assamese meal essentials as shown by Mitali including cherry tomato or kon bilahi for tenga Banana peel which is burnt for the khaar |
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Dinner at Mitali’s |
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Saumar tells us about the various types of silk |
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Assam you beauty |