My favourite memory of this time of the year, is from my grandfather’s courtyard in Majuli. Of the women and men adorned in red and golden muga silk garments, dancing across the Ashoka and causing a frenzy among the butterflies on trees. For it is Bohag Bihu, or literally, the festival of happiness.
For a long time for us cousins, this Bihu – one of the three celebrations that hinge on Assam’s agricultural cycles – had been a grand time to play cricket and catch up, all while consuming copious amounts of tea and homemade Bihu pithas, which are rice cakes made with rice flour, sesame, coconut, jaggery. Also called the Rongali Bihu or Zaat Bihu, this festival marks the harvest season and the Assamese new year.
The other two are Kangali Bihu (or the poor man’s Bihu) in October, when prayers are offered at a time of depleted harvest stock, and Magh Bihu (or the festival of feasting) in mid-January that spells the end of the cultivation season, just in time for bonfires and feasts.
An Assamese girl performs Bihu on the occasion of Rongali Bihu festival in Guwahati.
At this time of the year, as spring arrives, every household prepares for a harvest festival of their own. In mine, we drape a fresh, new mekhela chador (Assamese traditional dress), decorate our palms with jetuka (henna) designs, and tuck some kopou phool (foxtail orchids) into buns and braids, and welcome the festivities.
In Delhi, which has now been my home for over a decade, the traditional weeklong fare that celebrates the sacred and fragile bond between people and nature is obviously altered from its rural and agricultural roots. But the spirit of the celebrations, with the dance and music, has been kept alive.
The obvious choices
The Assam Association in Delhi will have Xatriya Guru Bandana opening the evening for regional dances at the IGNCA grounds on the 21th of April. In Gurugram, the Assam Association will celebrate on the 13th with popular singer Dikshu Sarma. In Noida, the Assam People’s Welfare Association (APWA) is bringing in Jitu Sonowal, a young Assamese singer to perform on the same day. The Assam Association of Faridabad will celebrate on the 20th. All the programmes are conveniently slotted for post-work hours – 6 p.m. and after – and are free for all.
The hidden gems
There are quieter celebrations, through just food (with their undeniable star-stature during festivals) in the nooks and crannies of the urban tapestry of NCR. A whole host of smaller Assamese restaurants have stitched together special menus to celebrate Bohag Bihu.
I’d recommend the Baankaahi in Assam Bhawan, which offers lunch and dinner buffet meals (Rs.650 + GST per head) on the 13th and 14th. Designed as an eleven-course meal, these consist of local Assamese delicacies such as alu pitika (mashed potato salad), khar (raw papaya dish), kharoli (mustard chutney), bengena bhoja (brinjal fry), pabho maas curry (Pabda fish curry), and outenga pork (pork with elephant apple), with the usual assortments of pithas .
Oh! Assam, a restaurant located in Humayunpur, is offering a lavish 15-item Assamese thali for its customers (Rs 350 per head). Noroxingho paat pokora (curry-leaf fritters), bilahi tok (tomato chutney), mati dal khar (alkali dish with black gram), chicken liver, gizzard fry have made it to the curated list.
If you’d much rather take part in the festivities from the comfort of your house, a home-delivery-only option is Axomiya Pakghar —the Assamese Kitchen. Nestled in Lajpat Nagar, it serves up duck, pork, fish, and chicken meat.
Having spent several Bihus away from home, I pick up on little memories of it when I hear the joyous rhythms of the Bihu husori on tape . It stirs in me a week-long urge to go back to my grandfather’s courtyard and break into the circle of dancers there. Instead, I put on my mekhela chador and head to one of the Bihu programmes in the city. Here, my two worlds now come together in one nice, crisp bite of a brinjal fry.
