Rosogolla to be the theme of this Malda puja

Artists are working round the clock to recreate the manufacturing process of the famed sweet

The idea germinated in his mind when the two neighbouring states, West Bengal and Odisha, were fighting over the ownership of the iconic rosogolla.

And just when the dust settled over the matter last November with the Banglar rosogolla getting the GI tag, Krishna Sundar Das, now 71, made up his mind. He decided that the rosogolla would be the theme of his community puja in distant Malda town.

“The squabble between Odisha and West Bengal made me think of using this as a theme for our puja, organised by the Malda Dilip Smriti Sangha. Moreover, this is also the 150th year since the invention of this sweet by Nobin Chandra Das,” Mr. Das, president of the puja, told

The Hindu from Malda.

So what exactly is being done there? “We will recreate the sweet’s manufacturing process right from the stage of milking of a cow to preparing of the sweet and placing it in a sweetshop. We have engaged artists and potters to create clay models of the various stages of making this sweet,” he said, adding that the rains brought on by Cyclone Titli was making their job hard.

There will be a traditional cowshed, a sweet-making unit with a cauldron full of boiling rosogollas, and a sweet shop – all through life-size clay models. Artisans led by Raj Kumar Pandit are working round-the-clock to complete their work before Durga Puja starts early next week. There would also be a bust of Nobin Chandra Das.

Even the goddess and her children will be wearing ornaments in the form of the various sweets that West Bengal is famous for. “Our budget is modest by Kolkata standards, say around ₹5.5 lakh. We raise it mainly through contributions,” Mr. Das said.

Inaugurating this puja would be Dhiman Das, executive director of KC Das Pvt Ltd and fifth generation descendant of Nobin Chandra Das. “We are thankful to Odisha historians who raised this issue of the origins of the sweet in June 2015,” Mr. Das said, “this helped us get the records straight.”

It may be mentioned here that a bitter-war had broken out over the origins of this `white-dripping-with-sweetness-ball of cottage-cheese,’ between the two eastern states with each claiming its ownership.

Odisha staked claim to have invented years ago the sweet, associating it with a centuries old ritual of Lord Jagannath while West Bengal always thought of it as its own.

The city’s Das family rallied to stave off the `threat’ even as the Chief Minister Banerjee swung into action. Dhiman Das told The Hindu that the sweets offered to Lord Jagannath were never made of chhana (casein), so they cannot be called rosogolla. They look different and are made differently. Rosogolla is a cow-milk product made out of cottage cheese, sugar and water and using heat energy. It was invented in 1868 according to him. A GI tag is a sign used on products which have specific geographical origin. EOM

Photo 'A' Caption: Work in progress on a model of a sister offering sweets to brother on Bhai Phonta ( Bhai Duj)

Photo 'B' Caption: Goddess Durga and her family will adorn clay replicas of rosogolla and other Bengali sweets as ornaments and decorations at this puja.