Chronicles Of The Sassy Fork

There are very few community festivals...the Koli festival being very prominent and  the Pathare Prabhu festival which was held on 3rd and 4th November 2012 at the Pathare Prabhu hall at Khar.Pathare Prabhus were one of the earlier settlers of Mumbai and owned properties in Girgaum,Fort,Malad,Uran and Bhayander.Even today, majority of Khar is owned by them.They started the Mahalakshmi Temple in Mumbai and Bhaucha Dakka Jetty. Actually it's quite interesting to observe that some facial characteristics are typical to each community and one can guess this on seeing a person. I was invited by Bimba Nayak from whom I learnt Malvani cooking.She also teaches cuisine of Pathare Prabhus.She made a Kojagiri special thali on the last day which had Dudh Pohe and nonveg items. On Sunday morning the Beetroot Sambhari stood out...a lavender colored veg gravy! The menu at the exhibition was different on Saturday evening,Sunday morning and night.On the first day...

The Bengali Durga Puja Festival lasts for  five days as compared to the nine nights of Navratri.The main puja for the Goddess starts on Mahasaptami.Today is Maha Ashtami,the next day.We visited the Mahalakshmi temple,then the Ekviradevi Temple and finally the Bengal Club Durga Puja. It is the 77th year of its celebration.The place was vibrant! We were in time for the Anjali.Several people from other communities also come here so I landed up explaining it to the Punjabi lady standing next to me. Maa Durga and Kalimata are both avatars of the Goddess Parvati.  Pandals offer Bhog first to the Goddess and then to all that come.This is mostly Khichuri made of rice,lentils and vegetables.Here the drums played while the Goddess was covered and offered the food. I was quite keen to try it today but the line was oh-so-long!!! In fact this happens globally.My friend Pree told us that the Toronto Kali Bari Durga Puja was super long too ...