Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan

At the intersection of food and faith lies some unique stories.

Janmashtami or Gokulashtami as we call it in the south is one of my favourite festivals. It is the only time of the year that I make seedai, a sweet and savoury snack prepared using rice flour as the base. Seedai is the traditional Gokulashtami offering for Lord Krishna. Last year, the Krishna idol in my house received not just seedais, but semi-organic seedais made using organic rice flour and jaggery.

At the intersection of faith and its expression lies food. It may not make sceptics bow their heads in reverence, but everyone can agree that food makes these rituals more tangible. For people like me who have faith and questions about it in equal measure, food is where we find solace that we may not know it all, but we probably know just about enough.

As our food evolves, so does the food we offer our Gods, and a new travelogue/ food book manages to capture just that. Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan by Varud Gupta and Devang Singh brings us some unique stories about our religious foods. From the black peas of the Spiti Valley, to a cicada chutney made by the Karbi Tribe of Meghalaya to the Chhappan Bhog at the Jagannath Temple, Puri- Varud’s words and Devang’s imagery creates a mosaic of places and cultures, giving us a glimpse of what it takes to feed our Gods.

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At the intersection of food and faith lies some unique stories, and Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan gives a voice to those stories.

Apart from the monastery at Kye Gompa, the Karbi Tribe of Meghalaya and the Jagannath Temple, the photographer and writer also explore the Parsi community of Udvada, Gujarat and the Baghdadi Jews of Kolkata.

Talking about their journey for this book, Varud shared that the team had initially looked up about 30 places across the country which have interesting stories hidden in their terrains. Narrowing down their choices was not that easy. “From the very beginning what we were looking at was different geographies, cultures and faiths. We wanted to represent India as it truly is, this hodgepodge of people and cultures.” 

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Varud has a background in consulting but found his love in food. Devang is a marketing professional turned photographer and filmmaker. Their Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan journey, said Varud, was both outward and inward. “We both love food, obviously. But faith is something that we are constantly exploring. This book brought these two journeys together, for us.“

Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan has a lightness to it, as it shares some interesting recipes and pop culture witticisms, but between that Varud and Devang also manage to capture the essence of the communities they interact with. LIke the right amount of tempered spices, the book touches upon concepts of local, native and the difficulties in keeping cultures alive. The narrative is not overpowering, yet enough to experience the flavours.

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Ask them about their favourite moments, and both are quick to respond that it was when they were welcomed in Meghalaya. “There was so much compassion showed for people who are outsiders to the community. It gives you a sense of optimism about humanity,” said Varud. Devang added that apart from Meghalaya an unforgettable moment for him in this journey was in the Spiti Valley where they stopped to observe the Kye Gompa monastery. “I could not sleep the whole night because I was looking at the stars and was so impressed by the fact that they seemed to exist within my grasp.  That moment I will never forget,” he said. 

This book does give you major travel goals, but the creators hope that you will also aim to experience places for what they are and not what you imagine them to be.”We had attachments to some of the stories going into it, but at these locations, we found so many other stories. At the end with the writing and the photography, it became a task of how do we balance the two,” said Varud. He added that the surprises en route were what made this journey more meaningful. “We live in an internet age and there is so much content out there, that it is easy to have something before experiencing it. It really takes away the originality that one can bring to the table.”

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“We need to be better travellers and not tourists,” said Devang adding to this conversation. “When you travel it’s not about you; it’s about the people who live there, their cultures and their habits. As travellers, our aim should be to understand people and history, a little better. We hope readers see that aspect through this book.” 

The writer and photographer bring this perceptiveness to the pages of Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan and talk about issues such as dwindling populations within communities and the need to change food habits to match current trends. “Favourite story that we tell in the book is that of the black peas in the Spiti Valley. It is one of those crops that is indigenous to that region. It is meant to grow there. It is healthy, and it has a great shelf life. But because people prefer green peas, growers have switched this crop out,” said  Varud giving an example of the changes they observed. These are definitely not the kind of discussions you would expect from a book titled Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan.

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What has been rewarding for this writer-photographer team is that people have reached out to them asking for more stories about the communities they describe- the kind of response Devang said he was hoping for. “I want people to look at it as more than a cookbook. We have been exploring food related to faith for the past two or three decades in a certain way. We hope this book will change that. We hope people will look at food beyond its ingredients.“

For more information visit the Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan Facebook Page. 

Featured Image Courtesy: Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan

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