Shoroshpoa

Tomorrow is sankranti. The last day of the month Poush ( a bengali month). They used to harvest on that day and give offerings to god with the harvest.

It bring back so many old glimpses of sweet moments in my mind. Moments related to Pitha's , malpoas, patishapta's, stories related to burning of house made up of collection of fallen barks and branches of tree and sheded dry leaves ( concept behind this is to clear garbages, as during winter most decidious trees shed there leaves and barks). Now you all must be wondering why I named this post Shoroshpoa..well, that was my favourite sweet meat or pitha prepared by my thakurma. It was made by mixing grated coconut, ghee, milk, sugar, flour and sujhi. and then making oval shape out of the mixture, frying them lightly and then dryingng that after putting a sugar coat. I can bet that nobody can make it like my thakurma. All these delicacies were prepared and kept ready for sankranti and then offered to god as thanksgiving on that day.

Thakurma along with ma and Rangama used to prepare all these and then misti pishi, nini pishi and all used to come home to have a sweet delight. They used to clean the Tulsi bedi in the coutyard of our Gopinath house and that was nicely decorated with Rangoli. Young boys with khol and kortal used to come, sing song and then ma used to give them a plate full of delicacies. Oh, I forgot to mention, Gurr or jaggery of different variety ( from sugarcane, dates and e.t.c.) and another sweet delite called Tillai was something must in the servings. They were given all this in one plate and after the song ( generally for the God- hare Krishna , hare ramo) , they used to toss all these goodies. And whoever can take a better catch used to get the main share and they used to gather them in there respective bags full of collection from different houses. We used to wait throughout the day as how many such groups will come to visit our house.

Whenever Sankranti used to come, specially my baba used to get very excited. It seems they used to have picnic with pitha's and tea inside that shade that they used to make out of the bark, branches, hay and dried leaves ( BURIR GHOR) and early in the morning after taking a dip in the chilling cold water of the pond, they used to put fire into the house and used to take the warmth of that fire. Then after praying in there own house they used to go out singing in groups along with friends to different houses. It seems my baba used to have collection of maximum goodies and the heaviest bag at the end of the day among all his friends and brothers ( since he was the naughtiest kid among all). I spend all those shankranti's of my childhood imagining the way my dad and uncles have enjoyed as most of the fun were already missing in our time. But now looking back at all those days, I atleast feel happy that I have so many memories compared to others who must be completely unaware of even what shakrati means.