It was a festival with a difference: as the rays of the setting sun cast long shadows on the tastefully decorated shamiana . the feast spread out on the tables was a Joy for sore eyes. There are festivals and there are festivals, but few. I am sure, bring such culinary pleasures, as a pltha festival : plthas being the traditional rice cakes prepared in rural Bangladesh and a great delicacy with young and old alike.

It wa. an idea with a difference: Gulshan Club decided to have an afternoon of plthas' and tea. to introduce specially its diplomat members both to the facilities offered by the club and the delicious 'plthas' of Bangladesh. The plthas' had been specially prepared by the ladies of the club at their respective homes and not only was one impressed by the variety, but one could also be sure of the highest stan-

dards of hygiene being maintained. There were plthas' of various designs and colours, there were sweet 'plthas' and there were hot 'plthas'. All mouthwatering and delicious.

Pltha' making is an art. highly developed and requiring great skill and practice; it is an art which unfortunately is dying out with the times. But a glance at the laden tables at the Gulshan Club, that afternoon, would have left many of us speechless. It brought back fond memories for the elderly, of misty, cold mornings. with entire families gathered around the fireside. the master of the house spinning out his yarns’and the mistress dishing out the hot 'plthas'. Trips were made specially to the village homestead, to eat 'pithas'. traditionally eaten during the winter months. Plthas' are specially made when the new paddy harvest is brought in and it is a time of Joy and merrymaking for the entire village. The slightly burnt smell, of the 'plthas' roasting over a spitfire. is enough to make the mouth water, of many a staunch diet-watcher. There are fried plthas' and there are roasted 'plthas'; there are steamed plthas' and plthas' cooked in milk. And there are plthas' eaten only with poultry meat, freshly Cooked, or 'plthas' eaten only with fish Just caught from the pond or the river and freshly fried. 'Pltha' making is a skill, highly technical and precise and not many are blessed with it Since the staple ingredient is rice flour, the new harvest is Just the time for the 'plthas'.

Although the plthas' at the Gulshan Club were not cook|ng over the spit-fire or being

eaten with the fish ot the poultry, it was a treat for all. There were as many as twenty varieties of 'pithas' with an equal number of eyecatching names like, path! shaptha'. bhapa pitha'. chol pitha'. mera pitha'. chitha pitha'. etc., etc.

And one could only come away feeling sorry, that our physical limitations do not allow us to savour as many pithas' as our eyes feast on. For the pithas spread on the tables was a feast fit for kings — or maharajahs. Perhaps more of these pitha festivals' In Dhaka city would encourage and revive an art, dying out fasL Life is all too complicated and intense to Indulge in 'pitha' feasts, unfortunately. A fact which leaves many of us sighing in memory of days gone by.