An out of the ordinary Pitha Festival

As winter almost bids adieu for the year, we turn to our favourite winter dessert to officially end the season. A handful of pitha festivals have taken place all over the country to provide us with an assortment of pithas, all in one place, and the Pran Premium Ghee-Anandadhara Pitha Fest, cosponsored by IGLOO, which took place at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, Dhaka on 25 and 26 January, was definitely one of the liveliest and colourful, with a lot more to give than just pithas.

Luscious green grass, clear blue sky, and a burst of warm scents from all the pithas greets anyone walking into the festival, followed by an array of stalls, beautifully decorated with straws for a countryside feel. The stalls had an assortment of pithas, including the puli pitha and many sweet and savoury versions of it to cater to all taste buds. Stalls also held beautiful eye-catching and decorative pithas like the hridoy hiron pitha, golap pitha, nakshi pitha and shamuk pithas. Since sweets always taste better after a little savoury, burgers, fish fingers, pizzas and other savouries were also available, along with the must-have-festive-foods like fuchka, chotpoti and jilapis.

Pran had their own little stall, showcasing dairy products, and so did IGLOO, with some great softy ice-cream cones.

Besides the food, visitors had more to enjoy, and spend time with lifestyle stores like the TWELVE and SaRa Lifestyle stalls, which were present with a handful of clothing collections, while TAN had a bunch of leather goodies. Star Showbiz, with their stall, had more than just magazines, but collections of books as well. To help the visitors get more excited, raffle draws also took place with amazing prizes from sponsors.

A large portion of the festival was dedicated to the kids, with a huge bouncy castle and other activities to keep them busy such as a digital bioscope and magic shows. To finish things off, the festival included performances in the evening by DOOB, Joler Gaan, Oyshee, Elita Karim and Pooja Sengupata's Turongomi, which gave the open roof fest a lively and concert like feel.

Photo: Shahrear Kabir Heemel