PUJO ON A PLATTER

As kash-phool sways and shiuli scents the dawn, Pujo finds its truest form in kitchens — humble, inventive, and always shared

- VERNIKA AWAL

THE sun has mellowed, its fire subdued though the air clings with the damp insistence of this year’s endless rains. There is a quiet shift one senses now.

As one crosses the Yamuna, swollen and restless in its monsoon swell, the sight is unmistakable — the kash-phool rising tall along the floodplains as if to announce what the heart already knows: Sharodiya has arrived. The goddess is near.

It is the season when the city begins to hum with anticipation — of pandals taking shape, of familiar rituals rehearsed, of homecoming. But the goddess is welcomed not only in idols fashioned from clay, nor solely in the rhythms of aarti. She is invoked in the kitchens, too, Across Delhi, festive suppers unfurl: Pujo-special caterings, supper clubs, popups tucked into homes and restaurants alike — each carrying the spirit of celebration in ladles and platters.

Recently, the spirit of Pujo found an eloquent expression at GK-2’s Mezze Mambo, where head chef Shridula Chatterjee joined hands with home-chef Toonika Guha to craft a sit-down feast like no other: A ten-course menu, each dish was conceived as a reflection of the festival's ten days — not in rote imitation, but as reimaginings of tradition, where memory met innovation on the plate.