#Title
A popular poem, ‘The Servant Boy,’ by Jagindranath Sarkar continuously reminds me of the Dadkhani r ice — Dadkhani chaal, moshurir daal, chini-pata doi…
This very dadkhani rice from the poem, used to be quite popular in the yesteryears, especially because of the medicinal properties of the rice. It is full of zinc, a mineral that is useful to treat diseases. And hence, as a treatment possibility, the dadkhani was offered to the sick as essential food. It is still available at few notable rice bazaars.
If we closely observe the history of Bengal, we can see that there were more than 200 varieties of rice cultivated in this part of the region. Each variety was easily distinguishable from the other, based on colour, shape, and taste.
The types also varied with the seasons. Due to the tremendous increase in population and scarcity in the number of farming lands, most of the varieties, especially the sensitive ones, could not be cultivated any longer. One example could be the raida rice, which is commonly known as the ‘mother of rice.’ There is even folklore associated with this particular variety — It is said that in the regions of Khulna, fishermen used to roam around the banks of the river in search of food. While doing so, one time, they took some dry grass from the fields around them and used it as fire-starter to make fish fry. And as the ashes fell back onto the lands, it caused the raida variety of rice to propagate. So essentially, the folklore depicts that the raida grows from the grasses.
Raida is essentially a blessing for the culinary world. It helps in the preparation of excellent quality rice pudding and pilaf. Farmers have begun to cultivate this special variety again, similar to the yesteryears.
Other variants in the name of kajal digha, Lakshmi digha and kalarai can withstand flood. There are some more variants by the name of vaad, kaloshoni, and kumri, which can be cultivated even during times of famine. Based on climate change and our current weather conditions, it is almost necessary that we take the initiative to grow these variants again.
Shifting cultivation (jhum chaash) helps produce aspecial rice variety in the name of binni . Upon cooking the binni converts into black, red and white variants of sticky rice. This type of rice is extremely tasty, quite a bit sticky and good for making hotchpotch and plain rice.
Sticky rice is expected to be eaten warm; otherwise it becomes too thick for consumption. Khichuri prepared with moong daal ( lentil) and sticky rice is out-of-the-world appetising, and so are the rice cakes and rice pudding prepared with the same item.
Yousuf, a farmer from Dubail, Rajshahi, who has been farming for the last fifty years, has been successful in cultivating over 150 varieties of rice on his lands. Yousuf wishes to see other farmers get back into the habit of cultivating the long-lost variants of rice, like himself. He wants to celebrate the Bengali New Year with these farmers, preparing different items with the many varieties of rice, and feed the guests at the festival with their unique preparations.
If time permits, it certainly would be an honour to be able to visit the New Year’s festivities at Yousuf’s place in Dubail.
By Shahana Huda Ranjana
Translated by Mehrin Mubdi Chowdhury
Photo: Sazzad Ibne Sayed
Food and Styling: RBR