Man hands out free momo plate with ‘pithe-puli thali’

There was a time when the Bengali festival ‘Poush Parbon’ was incomplete without ‘pithe-puli’ and ‘patishapta’ (food made with flour, coconut, rice powder).

However, with the passing days, the young generation has gradually started losing interest in eating pithe-puli.

Due to lack of time, many people do not even cook pithe-puli in their homes. Therefore, the tradition has started losing its importance.

With the aim of sustaining the tradition, Tapash Paul, a food seller of Siliguri has taken an initiative to attract the new generation and to make them taste different varieties of ‘pithe-puli’. He started selling a special thali of ‘pithe-puli’ which he named as ‘selfie thali’ and has been giving one plate of momo free-of-cost with the thali at Poush Mela which is going on near Suryasen Park in Siliguri.

In this thali, he is serving eight varieties of ‘pithe-puli’ at Rs 150 along with the free plate of momos.

“Nowadays, youths are more interested in junk foods rather than traditional foods. Therefore, sale of pithe has decreased noticeably. If this continues, this tradition will go extinct in future. Therefore, I have come up with this unique idea. Many people have bought the thali,” said Tapash Paul.

There were a total of 100 stalls at the fair. Out of this, there were only four stalls of ‘pithe-puli’ and the rest were of other products.

Jyotsna Agarwal, General Secretary of North Bengal Poush Mela committee said: “We have organised the fair to bring back the importance of this tradition but only four sellers booked stalls for selling ‘pithe-puli’.

Although, ‘pithe-puli’ are available at the stalls but their sale is very less. The initiative taken by Tapash is very unique.

Let’s hope for the best.” Sima Roy, a woman who came with her daughter said: “My daughter does not like to eat pithe but we bought the selfie thali. From this thali, she tasted pitha and momos together.”