A FESTIVITY OF FOOD

IN less than two weeks from now, the Bengali community's festivities will reach fever pitch.

- VERNIKA AWAL

Durga Pujo, celebrated every year around this time globally, is no longer one community's affair - it is the homecoming of the mother for one and for all.

One of this week-long celebration's biggest joys comes in its community experience with food at its epicentre.

While the City of Joy is understandably the most boisterous, our very own National Capital Region also has vibrant celebrations all around. In each of them, the central offering comes through numerous stalls to eat from.

Before that, though, the experience starts with bhog the community food service offered in the name of Durga, the mother. Opened and offered to all, the bhog experience takes us back to our very roots each year. It is food in its most rustic, most inclusive and most enchanting form.

The menus are hardly complicated the first three days of Pujo see most communities serve an all-vegetarian affair.

Most offerings lean on traditional Bengali fare including one bhaja (fritters), a dal, ,and end with sweet accompaniments. While this is the average template, the only real rule is that the meals are for everyone without any discrimination.