“Connecting with the Cultural Diversity of Haryana - Food and other Practices” - Pushpesh Pant
Freshly rejuvenated from the month-long summer break, the team reunited with the customary Large Circle Time where we welcomed the presence of Pushpesh Pant, celebrated food critic and historian to speak about “Connecting with the Cultural Diversity of Haryana - Food and other Practices.”
Pushpesh Bhaiya spoke on the long history of Haryana through the lens of dietary practices, intricately weaving his store of personal experiences and knowledge into an absorbing narrative with subtle humour and laughter. He began by discussing historical culinary practices dating back to the Mahabharata. Spanning several eras, he talked about the symbolic significance of the Lotus and Roti to send secret messages in the 1857 struggle for independence from the British Raj visible in the construction of the Shaheed Smarak in Ambala City. One school of thought suggests that had there been no such apparatus, Ambala would have been the seat of mutiny and not Barrackpore.
He also reflected on the intermixing of traditions in 1000 year old dhabas arrayed along the Grand Trunk Road and his time working alongside the finest Indian culinary minds at the 2001 Agra Summit.
Team members then shared their thoughts and experiences which led to some interesting tangents like the origin and evolution of the momo, the olden Punjabi Sanjha Chulha custom of communal cooking around a central tandoor and the introduction of potatoes to the Indian diet as a gourmet ingredient in royal courts through Portuguese colonialism.
The talk drew to a close with a short video on Haryana and its people expressing reverence for the Ganga river which they embrace as their own and its importance in their lives. The session felt like an easy conversation that could have stretched for hours into the evening and several team members invited Pushpesh Bhaiya to share a meal with them in their homes. In a rare experience, a guest speaker at Shikshantar talked in detail about the history and cuisine of Haryana, leaving many of the team members nostalgic for their childhoods and reinforced the love for their roots.