Students of five schools from nearby localities, escorted by their teachers, had come to a Sector V hotel management institute campus, which was decked up to celebrate a humble food grain that is now being hailed as a smart food. The day-long celebration, titled Millet Mela, was taking place at the Institute of Advanced Management (IAM) through food, games and activities.
A millet khichudi was being cooked in full view of students by Kaushik Kumar Saha, the associate director of culinary arts of a sister hotel management institution. “I would have preferred to use sprouting bajra but the bajra did not sprout due to rain in the past couple of days,” he remarked as he got three final year students of IAM acting as his assistants to chop the required vegetables — carrots, yam beans and turnips. “Feel free to replace these with summer vegetables when you cook this dish in summer,” the chef cum teacher told them and the audience.
A winning poster at Millet Mela at IAM
As the dish was cooked, a quiz was held in the courtyard which was open to the audience of school students who were often prompted to give the right answers by their accompanying teachers. The quiz master, Kushal Chatterjee, the director of training and placement at IAM, kept the focus on the theme of the day — millets. Each correct answer fetched not a millet snack but a chocolate.
“Millet is a part of their chapter on agriculture,” said Sushma Upadhyay, a geography teacher at St. Mary’s Orphanage and Day School, Dum Dum.
After 15 questions, the quiz master took stock of the school that got the maximum number of correct answers by counting the number of chocolates its students got. Swastik Nath and Ambika Gupta of Class IX, National High School on VIP Road, showed an equal number of chocolates. But Sunny Rozario, a Class XII student of St Mary’s, confessed to having eaten two of the three chocolates he had won. He could produce the wrappers as proof, though.
Meanwhile, the dish got ready and the three assistants were asked to taste it before passing on portions to the guests. “We will try it at home after adding proteins,” said Shakil Ahmed, one of them said.
Saha admitted that millet did not taste good by itself. “So it is the responsibility of us, chefs, to create tasty recipes for millet,” he said, as guests claimed to like the dish.
Prosenjit Batabyal, from the food safety wing of the department of health and family welfare, who had been invited as chief guest, stressed on the need to push youngsters towards healthy choices before they got hooked to junk food. “As the saying goes, let food be your medicine. Otherwise, medicine will become your food in later life,” he said.
Lunch comprised a varied selection of courses — from Johar Bhel and multi-grain Uttapam as snacks to a delicious Bajra Risotto as a main course. All these had been crafted in-house, starring a variety of millets. A cake had also been cut on stage, made of millets, which was later sliced and distributed. “It is crumbling easily but it tastes fantastic,” said second year student Shaheena Kalim, who was serving it.
Games were also played and a poster contest held on the theme. “We sold 50 bajra cookies,” said an IAM student at the snacks counter, which also sold ragi muffins and johar pancakes.
“Since millets are grown in arid regions, it can feed the world if there is a water crisis. So we wanted to show students how it can be incorporated in daily meals. A lifestyle change will also bring about health benefits,” said Maitreyee Chaudhuri, director, IAM.