From sunga-pithas (rice-cakes cooked in bamboo tubes) to maasor tenga (sour fish curry), Bhogali Bihu, the harvest festival of Assam, is being celebrated with full fervour across the NCR. City dwellers can look forward to scrumptious meal over the weekend with several events lined up by various associations.
Celebrations began from Thursday evening with it being Uruka , the eve of Bhogali or Magh Bihu, where families and friends gather for merrymaking and savour traditional cuisines.
The Assamese community in West Delhi got together at the MCD community hall in Rohini Sector-13 and burnt a 20-feet tall meji (structure made of wood and leaves) at midnight. However, as per the ritual, mejis are burnt early in the morning of the Bihu day (January 15).
“Around 400 people from areas like Rohini, Pitampura, Shalimar Bagh participated at the event. People thoroughly enjoyed gobbling up baked potatoes roasted in the meji fire together with other varieties of potatoes. The traditional dessert doi-seera-gur which is a combination of yogurt, flat rice and molten jaggery was a hit among the non-Assamese visitors as they found it quite uncommon,” said Niranjan Bhattacharya, president of Samannay, a socio-cultural organisation for the Assamese residing in Delhi.
On Friday, the day of Bihu, people can head to the Jakoi restaurant in Assam Bhawan where a variety of pithas will be on offer. “Apart from our traditional Assamese menu, we are also offering pithas and laddoos made of rice, sesame and coconut. Special eggplant fries as well as black sesame chicken have also been put up in the menu,” said the restaurant staff.
For the office-goers who would miss out on these activities, the Assam Association, Delhi has planned an elaborate two-day event over Saturday and Sunday.
To be held at the Central Secretariat Sports Ground in Chanakyapuri, this Bihu carnival is the oldest in the city and promises to be a perfect day-out with a number of traditional games lined up.
