Matters of Modak-a Ganesh Chaturthi Special 

Unless you’ve been living in a parallel world, you have probably, by now, become exasperated by the perennial, needless Delhi-Mumbai debate. For me, matters get worse-you see, I have my roots deeply ingrained and split across both these cities. I’ve lived in Mumbai for over a decade, and soon, it’ll be a decade in Delhi as well! If you’d ever need to personify the exasperation behind the heavily-charged discussions around which city is ‘greater’, I’m a living example of it.

The reason why we start this week on this rather conflicting note is that, for one week every year, I get to step back happily and savour the marvellous effect that food has on our culture. As Ganpati Bappa descends upon us, the week-long revelry spurs Delhi to forget its differences with the inimitable Mumbai and take a leaf out of its culinary handbook. Perhaps world peace really is this simple?

But, digressions aside, this week marked Ganesh Chaturthi, the festival that celebrates  Lord Ganesha’s presence among us. Maharashtra is prolific at celebrating the mythological God of wisdom and luck, which is why Mumbai makes for the perfect place to be in on the day of this festival.

No celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi is complete without the ubiquitous modaka sweet that is traced all the way back to the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Modak, traditional to the Western parts of the country, is always associated with offerings to Ganesha and is said to depict wealth and prosperity. It is fundamentally simple a flour coating shaped like ancient purses of coins, filled with grated coconut and jaggery stuffing.

In Delhi, you will increasingly find places that join in on the celebrations by offering the modak as part of their fare. So much so that ventures like Rohini’s Modakwala are celebrated across the breadth of the NCR. Even new chefs and startups are delving into various modak experiments in order to tap into the audience’s demand for a slice of the Mumbai experience in Delhi.

All of this, interestingly, ties into a significant narrative of food serving as the bridge between urban preferences. As we’ve found proof on multiple occasions, food is a fantastic enabler of the sharing of cultures across communities and helps in opening ourselves up to more diverse ways of life. It helps us understand cultural differences, while also pointing towards the connections. For instance, the similarities and parallels between the modak and, say, Bengal’s nadu or kheer kadam are hard to miss.

If you are craving something festive this week, you will find a number of choices across the city to grab yourself an (almost) traditional Maharashtrian meal. One such experience can be found in the Delhi culinary startup, Bombay Boy’s offering of a Ganesh Chaturthi special thali, which comes complete with amti, aloo subzi, sabudana vada, puran poli and churma laddoos for dessert.

This humble slice of Maharashtra in Delhi marks a pan-Indian festival, along with forget-me-not blue skies-the pristine clarity in Delhi’s air (I know, right?) in the past week and the nip of festivity in the air that you can’t really miss. The vibes make it hard for you to not find reasons to smile, and the food exchanges only make our cultural identities stronger.

It’s not just startups that join in on the celebrations. Long-standing established cultural hubs, such as Delhi’s India International Centre, ran a 10-day special menu in celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi to mark the start of the festive season. This special menu featured no less than 15 items, including sev batata puri, pithla bhakri, zunka bhakar with garlic chutney, misal pav, sole kadhi, bharli wangi and batata vada in the main fare, and puran poli, modak and ambachi barfi in desserts.

Through these special fares, you realise that what we have here is a confluence of cultures bridge that puts our debates of Delhi versus Mumbai at bay. It is the festivity, celebration and revelry that brings us together, and underlines the unity in our identities, despite the diversity.