The festival was organised at the Norita Ground in Hiranandani Gardens.The festival was organised at the Norita Ground in Hiranandani Gardens.
MUMBAI: Approximately 11,000 Bengali natives from all parts of the city gravitated to Powai over the weekend. The Powai Bengali Welfare Association (PBWA) hosted a two-day cultural extravaganza to celebrate the 156th birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore May 7.
Sourav Mitra of PBWA said, “We have been celebrating Rabindra Jayanti since 12 years but its scale has grown in the past two years. This time we invited Bengali associations as part of our Collective Communities programme. Guests arrived from Bandra, Juhu, Andheri, Vashi, Colaba and Lower Parel.”
Bengalis are famous for their love of food, and the highlight of this event was a rasgulla eating competition, a puchka (pani puri) competition and an ethnic Bengali food festival ‘Aharey Bangla’. Song and dance was also on schedule. The festival was organised at the Norita Ground in Hiranandani Gardens.
“Non-Bengalis arrived for biryani, fish fry and mishti doi. It was such a treat to watch the rasgulla competition. The winner gulped down 18 large rasgullas in three minutes. The puchka competition saw the winner eat 25 puchkas in 1.17 minutes. My wife ate as many in 1.20 minutes and stood fourth,” laughed Mitra.
PBWA has a full calendar of social events, having adopted three tribal villages and organizing a film festival as well.
Source: Bella Jaisinghani | TNN | May 9, 2017, 01.00 AM IST Times of India
