When Durga Puja comes around, for food anthropologists Amrita Bhattacharya and Amit Sen, it is not merely a festival. Together, they trace the migrations, memories and histories that lie behind Bengali kitchens.
A Puja plan rooted in rural vibes
“Our ideal plan is to stay put in our farm, completely immersed in the rural beauty of the season.” Amrita said. Over the next five days, they intend to lean into quietude: walking across fields, watching crops, and breathing in the scent of shiuli petals drifting in the dusk air. For them, Durga Puja is a moment to touch the pulse of nature, to feel the land speak its own stories.
The tasting of home, not menus
When asked about food, Amrita speaks of experiments in her own kitchen. “This Puja will be taken up by home-cooked meals and culinary exploration.” As someone who researches diasporic Bengali cuisines from Burma, Andaman and beyond, she and Amit see each dish as a node in a migration map. Ingredients are not incidental: they retrace the movements of families, tracing lost tastes and adapting what time and soil allow.
Five days, five wardrobes, one identity
In matters of style, their approach is quietly declarative. Amrita plans to adorn a beautiful sari each day, while Amit will wear a crisp dhuti-panjabi. “Classic and traditional,” she calls it — attire that roots them in Bengal, yet carries the dignity of their work exploring culture and memory.
Why this Puja matters
For Amrita and Amit, Durga Puja is more than ritual; it is a moment when culture, food and identity converge. Their project, Handpicked by Amrita, is not a restaurant but an open lab where they resurrect forgotten recipes and share through meals the stories of migration and belonging. In their hands, pujo becomes an archive of taste, a pause to collect impressions, and a gesture of preservation in a changing world.