A literary fest with sweets on the agenda

A Kolkata sweet shop celebrates centenary with food historians, confectioners and industry experts discussing the future of the humble mishti

To celebrate its centenary, Jugal’s, a sweet shop in Kolkata, organised a two-day literary festival last weekend, tracing the origins of mishti (sweets), and discussing ways to sustain a highly informal industry apart from preserving this part of Bengal’s culinary history. Bengal has a rich tradition of sweets, often reflected in songs and stories— the literary magazine started by Satyajit Ray’s grandfather, Upendra Kishore Roychowdhury, was called Sandesh (which means both news and a sweet).

It was Lahana Ghosh, granddaughter of Jugal’s founder, Jugal Kishore Ghosh, and finance and operations manager who came up with the idea to hold a literary festival to mark the occasion. “Many sweet shops in Bengal are over 100 years old and even more interestingly, family-run (K.C. Das, Bhim Chandra Nag, Nakur Chandra Nandy, Nobin Chandra Das et al). These businesses have survived war, famine, Partition and other trials. I wanted to create a space to discuss issues surrounding the industry, its future and also to talk about its contribution to Bengal’s history,” she said.

Art of mishti-making

Food historians, writers, culinary experts, karigars (artisans who make sweets) and other stakeholders like dairy industrialists came together at Kolkata Town Hall on February 11-12 to discuss the art of mishti-making, the need to preserve its history, the various influences and what is at stake in the future. The Portuguese, for instance, taught Bengal the art of making cottage cheese (chhana in Bangla) in the 19^th century, leading to innovation in sweet-making like the roshogolla.

One session, The Future of Dairy, took up the issue of the dairy industry being one of the world’s largest carbon footprint contributors. One of the panellists, journalist Vikram Doctor said it might be worth looking at how the mishti industry in Bangladesh has addressed the problems, as they are facing the stark realities of climate change as well. “It’s important to think outside the box,” he said, echoing Lahana Ghosh, who said she wanted the festival to be a starting point for such ideas. Anmol Singh Narula, director of JIS Farms, explained how the milk industry works in Bengal with production generally happening at the household level, and said buffalo milk is “perhaps a more sustainable and green solution for the State, like it has been in Bangladesh.”