Food Festival – Flavours of India
March 28th, 2019. Valia hall. Many attempts have been made to reach the heart of India, mostly without success. The Bhawanipur Education Society College (BESC) took up the challenge and going by the adage “the way to a Nation’s heart is through its stomach” decided to celebrate the Unity in India’s Diversity on a platter!
Stalls were set up that had a delectable spread – representing cuisine from the far corners of the nation that was cooked up by the students of the college. While most of the dishes that were on offer were “officially” lite-eats, they were not only wholesome in taste but were also very heavy in terms of their calorific value, not to mention the ability to fill one up.
Prof Minakshi Chaturvedi, herself a cook of delectable distinction was the spirit behind the show and pointed out the fact that the event was much more than a cook-up for the students, for it was meant to also teach them invaluable lessons in entrepreneurship as the students were not only called upon to draw the budgets, invest in the raw materials and prepare the dishes of their choice, but were also required to do the marketing, attract the crowds to their stalls and sell their products with the ultimate aim of turning in a profit from the venture.
The high point of the event was the visit by the students from the University of Georgia, USA, who were in the campus. The visiting students were not only struck by the sheer variety of the food that was on offer, but were also enamoured by the very concept of a pot-luck being used by the college to impart life lessons on entrepreneurship and empowerment. Said Michael Griffith on behalf of the visiting students, “I am overwhelmed by the sheer energy in this campus. We had heard about India being synonymous with exotica before our visit – now I know what was meant. The food is simply superb and so are the people. Wish we could take some back home for our families”.
(This report has been filed by Medha Pandey with camera person Souvik Das of the Expressions Collective of the BESC.)
