Morning mist says winter is on its way, and Cumilla University can already taste it. At the main gate of Shaheed Dhirendranath Datta Hall, 60-year-old Nur Mia has set up with chitoi pitha and taler (palm) pitha.
At his small stall, rice-flour batter becomes hot chitoi and palm pitha, served with peanut, shutki (dried fish), coriander and mustard bhorta, which students eat with the hot cakes.
Nur Mia says he has sold pitha here every winter for three years and started a little early this year so that customers get to know him. He plans to add bhapa pitha, lentil pitha and taler bora, and two more kinds of bhorta.
Pitha made with new rice flour, date-palm molasses and coconut is a fixture of the Bengali winter. Once made at home in every village, it is now sold in city lanes, roadside stalls and university campuses too.
Marketing student Fatema Akter Diya says there is little chance of home-made pitha in the city, and finding winter pitha on campus reminds her of her mother's. Journalism student Rubaiyet says winter comes early to the red-soil campus, and eating bhapa or spicy chitoi with friends on foggy evenings is one of their best memories of campus life.
The report was filed by Barta24's Cumilla University correspondent.
Photo: chitoi pitha, Bellayet / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Source: Barta24
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