Irresistible Lure Of Prasad In Cuttack’s Puja Pandals

Cuttack: The Cuttack Durga Puja is virtually a gastronomer’s delight with its vast variety of prasad. The devotees just love what the goddess eats and when it is free of cost, who wouldn’t like it. So much so, that it would not be an understatement to say that for some devotees, the prasad may be a bigger draw than the puja itself.

The 155 puja committees in the city offer a variety of gastronomical delights to the deity, which is later distributed among the devotees free of cost. The puja is incomplete without the bhog.

The 150-year-old menu of the bhog offered by the Choudhury Bazaar Puja Committee is as popular now as it was then. Nothing has changed. There is Dahi pakhal (curd rice), Chanka (mixed vegetable), Janhipoda and Chopi tarkari, which is a special curry prepared with the skin of different vegetables. It is the first in the state to decorate the deity with silver tableaux.

Every year, devotees can be seen queued up to partake of the Chopi tarkari, which is a speciality here. “Devotees actually jostle with each other for it. Around 12 quintals of rice is used for the Prasad,” said Purna Chandra Dutta, secretary of the Choudhury Bazaar Puja Committee.

“Puja at our pandal started 150 years ago. We don’t believe in wasting money on decoration of the pandal, instead we focus more on the prasad and the puja rituals,” added Dutta.

Food loving devotees also throng the pandals of the Khannagar, Chauliaganj, Balu Bazaar, Chandini Chowk, Sheikh Bazaar and Dolamundai Puja Committees.

Women like the kheeri served by the Khannagar Puja Committee on Ashtami. “A lot of milk and the best quality rice goes into preparing kheeri. Hundreds of women, who observe fast on Ashtami, throng to our pandals to get the prasad,” said Prafulla Sahoo, secretary of the Khannagar Puja Committee.

The taste of curd rice and mixed vegetable fry is as unchanged as the faith of the devotees. “We have been trying to maintain the taste as devotees are used to the bhog for over three decades,” said Niranjan Sahoo, secretary of the puja committee. “The uniqueness of the curd rice lies in its thick consistency and the flavours of ginger, green chilly and mint leaves for a more refreshing taste,” added Sahoo.

Residents of Balu Bazaar eagerly wait for the Kanika bhog offered to Goddess Durga. “Piping hot kanika and a vegetable curry is offered to the goddess on Ashtami. Later, the prasad is distributed among the residents of the locality,” said S. K. Sangneria, president of the puja committee.

Then there is Khicudi Bhog for which people head to the pandals of Durgabadi Samiti and Sarpadurga Committee. The speciality at the Jobra Puja Committee pandal bhog prepared with Chuda (flattened rice), while Chhatra Bazaar Puja Committee offers ladoos to the deity. The denizens get a lot of variety to choose from.

“Undoubtedly, the bhogs served by the puja committees have a distinct flavour and taste. One will not get the same flavour at any hotel or even at home,” said Shamilla Dutta, a housewife.