Rupohi Haat & Kolkata Bhogali Bihu A Melting Pot of Cultures

Joydip Sur

The end of the harvesting festival of Assam marks the beginning of the mist and foggy dawns of the Bhogali Bihu. The food and feast festival have crossed borders with the Kolkata Assamese Cultural Association (KACA) bringing the festivities to the City of Joy.

The third edition of Rupohi Haat, a fair of handloom, handicrafts and food of northeast region was held in Kolkata at the Assam Bhawan under the initiative of KACA. Various groups producing handloom, food and handicrafts participated in Rupohi Haat. These included self-help groups, NGOs, government organisation, designers of fabric & looms, ethnic food experts from Kamrup, Chirang, Dima Hasao, Guwahati, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Kokrajhar districts of Assam, Nagaland and other parts of the northeast.

Rupohi Haat was inaugurated by Mr. Anish Sarkar IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police of Bidhannagar alongside other dignitaries which included theatre artist Ms. Kalpana Baruah, Joint Resident Commissioner of Assam Bhawan Kolkata Mr. Tapas Deb, Joint Secretary to the Government of Assam Ms. Miranda Das, KACA President Mr. Khanindra Pathak and KACA Executive President Mr. Hiten Hatkhowa. The fair was announced open to the public with the Chief Guest Mr. Anish Sarkar opening the gate of the fair which depicted a traditional gate of the households of Assam known as nongola. It is worth mentioning that KACA comes up with unique ideas of inaugurating the fair every year by introducing different ways that are deeply rooted to the culture and tradition.

This edition of Rupohi Haat brought some of the finest fabrics of the northeast, handicrafts of bamboo & cane that are handcrafted and organic foods from the farmland of the region. KACA Vice President Ms. Orihana Ojah mentioned that the hotspot of this edition was the live kitchen of Nagaland & Assam where ethnic food was being prepared & served. Other food ingredients of the Bhogali festive season like komol saaul, joha saaul et al that are not easily available locally in Kolkata were being sold at the stalls of Rupohi Haat. A live demonstration of loom was setup by the weavers from Dhemaji where people witnessed the traditional way of crafting designs and cloth. On all the days of the fair, several activities like games, music et al were conducted by Gitanjali Goswami, Dulumoni Gogoi, Debashree Chanda, Kashmiri Kotoky, Manash Sarma, Chandana Saikia, Prabal Bhattacharjee, Dibyendu Ghoshal and others.

Esteemed personalities like DCP South Kolkata Ms. Bidisha Kalita Ghosh IPS, actress Ms. Jaya Seal Ghosh, General Manager IOCL Mr. Pankaj Bhattacharya, Senior IRS official Mr. Tridib Sarma and Mr. Chandan Bora joined the celebration. The Uruka night was a celebration of the Bhogali Bihu with the lighting of the meji (bonfire) where people indulged themselves to worship, song & dance and concluded with the festive food like pitha, laaru & a grand feast festival Uruka where people joined for a community dinner.

The event attracted a huge footfall across all the three days of the fair and proved to be a grand success.