Why Bihu celebration in Assam is incomplete without pitha and laru

Alaka Devi Chakravarty’s house sits on a hilltop in Assam's Guwahati. It is a quiet surrounding, unlike the city which is becoming noisier with time. As one enters her house, however, there is a buzz all around it. It is the sound and song of bihu —to be precise Bhogali or Magh bihu —one of the biggest festivals of the Northeastern state.

Assam celebrates three bihus—Bhogali or Magh in January, Rongali or Bohag in April and Kati or Kongali in October. All the bihus are rooted in the rural and agrarian economy. Bhogali (enjoyment or feasting) bihu celebrates the harvesting of grains, Rongali bihu is for sowing seeds, and Kati bihu (the sombre of the three festivals) is all about cutting and binding of grains.

Alaka Devi Chakravarty prepares narikol (coconut-stuffed) pitha on a hot griddle.

As Magh bihu was around the corner when The Federal visited Chakravarty’s house, the 53-year-old was busy preparing pithas (the rice-based sweetmeats which have become synonymous with Assamese identity). No bihu in Assam is complete without preparing and eating the staple food. There again are many medleys of the delicacies. Some pithas come in steamed form (prepared in a tekeli or ketli or kettle) and some are fried (in tel or oil).

Chakravarty was preparing a variant using pounded rice flour, spread in a round shape on a hot griddle, resembling a roti. The home-based chef gently tapped the flour with her fingers, then added a scoop of grated coconut (narikal) mixed with just the right amount of jaggery to ensure the mixture wasn't too sweet for the palate. As the black griddle held the flour, resembling a white moon, the rice base held the coconut paste, like layers of emotions.

“This is narikal pitha,” Chakravarty smiled, as she rolled a pitha and set it aside at the corner of the griddle to cook a little more. A warm fragrance filled her kitchen, making the cold January weather feel a bit more bearable.

A Bhogali bihu feast: Laru, pitha, mah karoi, nimki and bhut jolokia pickles.

Likewise, she prepared sesame seed (til)-based pithas. As soon as the sticky and sweet sesame seed paste touched the rice flour on the griddle, it spoke with a hiss. Chakravarty, her daughter Bondita and her daughter-in-law Narmada broke into laughter. The three women worked in tandem as if they were performing a bihu dance, the folk dance of Assam.

During the festival season, most women in households across the state follow a similar rhythm. It's a bustling time for them, and they need to maintain their routine without interruption. Each household typically prepares at least a hundred pithas of various types.

Chakravarty prepares thousands of them. She also prepares thousands of larus (or ladoos) made of coconut and sesame seeds, nimki (fried savouries) and mah korai (a crunchy savoury made with black gram, sesame seed, ginger etc), to name a few delicacies. She gets bulk orders from individuals and shops. She also takes part in exhibitions and food festivals to sell her products.

“I am taking part in a bihu exhibition soon. There I will sell the food cooked in my kitchen. When there is a huge volume of sweets and savouries to prepare, I temporarily shift my kitchen to the courtyard and use the chulha (the small stove made of brick or earthenware),” said the former teacher.

Cooking lip-smacking food has always been the 53-year-old's passion. But she never thought she would sell them. She was working as a teacher and left her job during her husband's illness three years back. “Unfortunately, my husband did not survive. After his demise, I did not rejoin my teaching job and decided to concentrate on making Assamese food,” she added.

Her son Gaurabjyoti, who looks after the packaging and marketing of products, said, “My mother has been selling her products for close to a decade now. However, it has always been on a small scale and there was a gap of three years when my father fell ill. We are still at a nascent stage. It is difficult for me to point to the profit we make selling Assamese sweets and snacks. We are not a loss-making entity. We want to scale up production.”

Narmada Das Chakravarty scans the flour in a sieve of any lump as the dheki pounds rice into fine powder. 

Like Chakraborty, many women across the state have become small-time entrepreneurs, selling Assamese fare. “These are time-consuming preparations. Not everyone can prepare pithas and larus at home. So they buy homemade food from marketplaces. Some of these are authentic and taste like grandmother's food. Some are poor in quality. It pains me to see Assamese women not knowing how to prepare indigenous food,” said Binita Bora, 60, another home-based chef from Guwahati.

“I hope making pithas and larus doesn't become a rare thing. I would suggest everyone (irrespective of gender) should learn to make Assamese food. Nothing tastes better than homemade food,” she added.

Bondita Chakravarty uses her right foot to pound rice in the dheki.

In Chakravarty's household, it is not a subject to worry about. Everyone knows their job well. If daughter Bondita pounds rice at the dheki (the foot-operated pounding mill), the daughter-in-law Narmada collects the rice flour and sieves it well to remove any lump. The rice flour quickly goes to the kitchen for pitha preparation. A special rice, bora saul, is used to make pithas. It is glutinous and thus sticks together well even in a powdery form.

It is not common to see a dheki in the city. A dheki, however, adorns the backyard of every village house. In cities and towns, people usually use mortar and pestle and some also trust a mixer grinder for a quick and effortless result. “There is a reason why the dheki has been used for generations. It pounds the rice well without the flour losing its sticky character. A pitha tastes the best when the rice (its building block) is turned into flour in a dheki. The dheki-pounded rice flour never lets pithas break into crumbs,” said Chakravarty.

Mother and daughters: Alaka Devi Chakravarty (centre) poses with Bondita Chakravarty (left) and Narmada Das Chakravarty (right).

A strong believer in the wisdom of her ancestors, Chakravarty decided to learn weaving. “I was born and raised in Guwahati. People don't weave here nor do they have a loom. I am in awe of traditional Assamese design and motifs. I weave my mekhela xador (the traditional two-piece attire worn by women) and gamosa (a traditional hand-woven cotton cloth that is a symbol of Assamese culture and identity). I get a lot of orders for gamosas during bihu. I weave and sell them,” said Chakravarty.

As a custom, a guest in an Assamese household is welcomed by offering him a gamosa. Thereafter, the guest is served sah (tea) with pitha and laru.