Sidewalk Snacks: Smriti's Phariwala

These familiar scenes can be seen at the crossroads of village or mofusal roads in the dim light of the dark night. Some very simple shops and houses where there is no expensive and flashy decoration but there is sincere love of people. In the first picture, we can see a young man's shop. He is sitting wearing a red jersey and his table is decorated with various traditional Bengali sweets and snacks. Here, round sesame khaja and square jaggery patali made of jaggery are arranged very beautifully. Along with it are muri murki and jhurjhur batasa.

Seeing such food makes your tongue water. The white food in the plastic bowl next to it may be yogurt or kheer which is tempting to eat. Again, in the bowl below, some black food filled in polythene bags can be seen, they may be dates or some kind of sweet pickle. Standing in front of this shop, I feel like I am going back to my childhood memories for a moment when I used to promise my parents to eat these foods in the afternoon. These parts of our national heritage are still alive today thanks to these small entrepreneurs who are working day and night to keep these traditions alive.

The second picture is of a very simple banana shop. Bananas are arranged neatly in a simple blue basket or tray. Here, the yellow ripe bananas mix with the unripe bananas to create a beautiful scene. These bananas are being sold by simple people in the village who may have collected them from their fields or nearby gardens. This scene of bananas reminds us of the simplicity of simple life and food in the village. The natural and fresh taste of these bananas is much healthier and refreshing than the flashy packaged foods of the luxurious super shops in the city. These two pictures awaken in our minds a strange emotion and respect for those people who find special joy in even the simplest things. This may be the true identity of our common Bengalis, where everything is very simple yet heartwarming. I hope you liked this short story.