They ate from the sohari leaves
IN GOOD SPIRITS: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, an official from India, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Darrell Allahar.
Modi embraces ancestral tradition
ON Thursday night, when hosted at the Diplomatic Centre, Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared an experience that has been preserved by the nation’s diaspora for 180 years.
In images that have since gone viral, PM Modi was seen eating on the leaves of the sohari (Calathea lutea).
In a social media post to Angelo Bissessarsingh’s Virtual Museum of Trinidad and Tobago Facebook page, Patricia Bissessar said the serving of food on the leaves of the sohari is “a practice rooted in Indo-Trinidadian cultural heritage”, particularly among the Hindu community.
By Shivana Lal
TIME TO FEAST: Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar enjoy a doubles.
“This practice of eating a meal on a leaf is, in fact, a practice deeply rooted in cultural and religious customs in South India…Today, it’s commonly used at religious gatherings, weddings, community feasts, and festivals such as Diwali. An entire meal, including rice, channa, curries, and sweets, is often served on a single sohari leaf, making it a meaningful and eco-friendly tradition,” Bissessar continued.
This occurrence was described by pundit Navin Omadath Maharaj as a “rich cultural and spiritual tradition”.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Maharaj told the Express that the practice can be traced back to indentureship.
“In the Hindu scriptures, holy guests, such as pundits, would have been served in golden utensils. However, when our forefathers came from India, they adopted the tradition of serving on leaves as a matter of humility and respect to the holy one; they couldn’t afford these utensils, so they began the tradition of serving on sohari leaves,” he said.
The Bhojpuri term “sohari”, when translated, meant “food for the Gods”.
“Sohari is a type of fried dough, which is used for Durga puja (worship). This dish, paired with sweet rice, was served to holy men when they visited your home.
In the scriptures, it is said that serving a guest is an act of humility and eating on a leaf is seen as such. More importantly, it is a divine and sacred act when a guest partakes of food on the sohari leaf,” he said.
And today, the tradition of serving food on the sohari leaf to honorary guests endures.
“The sohari leaf continues to be extensively used in religious ceremonies and weddings in many homes and at temples. This practice is still maintained today even after 180 years of arrival of the first Indians to this land. It is a rich cultural and spiritual tradition that would have been maintained from when our forefathers came up until now,” he said.
While the leaves of the banana tree have also been used, Maharaj said the leaves of the sohari were often the preferred choice for serving food to guests.
“Sohari leaves are easily available. Unlike the banana leaf, it doesn’t rip easily; the sohari leaf is more robust and it can hold quite a bit of food on it. The leaves are biodegradable, so there is no impact to the environment,” he explained.
He noted that similarly, in Guyana, the lotus leaf is used.
Maharaj said that the inclusion of this tradition would foster deeper diasporic identity.
“It is commendable on the part of the Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, to think about incorporating this tradition. It extends humility in hospitality, yet maintains a certain level of diplomacy. It shows a strong connection to cultural roots and to cultural identity,” he added.
And he continued: “It was heartwarming to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi acceding to the request and partaking and enjoying this tradition. That certainly says a lot about the gentleman. It takes a great sense of humility and it shows that he has retained the roots of his identity.”
Yesterday, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Barry Padarath said the Government worked with the Indian High Commission to ensure that Modi’s dietary requirements were met.
“Prime Minister Modi is a strict vegetarian and he had expressed to the Indian High Commission that he wanted to try a bit of Trinidad and Tobago’s food, particularly local Indian vegetarian dishes. In consultation with the Indian High Commission, we thought we’d give the honourable Prime Minister a true authentic Indian experience here in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said during a phone interview.
Among those experiences was the opportunity to taste local Indian cuisine on a sohari leaf.
“The sohari leaf is used for puja and weddings to serve food and it was agreed that he (Modi) would like to experience that,” he continued.
Asked what was on Modi’s sohari leaf, Padarath said: “There was curried chataigne, mango talkari, channa and aloo, pumpkin. He also asked to have some choka. So, he had baigan (eggplant) choka, and also some paneer (cottage cheese).”
And the local Indian gastronomic experience was not complete without doubles.
“I think out of everything he (Modi) ate, the entire dish he completed was the doubles. And it was a big doubles. The size of that doubles was the size of two regular doubles,” he said.
And how did Modi prefer his doubles?
“He had slight pepper, some cucumber, coconut and mango chutney and some kuchela, as well. He had the full experience,” he added.
Yesterday, Persad-Bissessar presented Modi with an array of local sweets to celebrate his visit to the nation.
Included in the tray were rasgulla, gulab jamoon, jalebi, and barfi, among others, Padarath said.
“When Prime Minister Modi arrived at the airport, it was discovered that the sweets were left behind at the Parliament. He sat on the aircraft and waited until his staff could have gone back and retrieved the sweets at the Parliament. His flight ran a little bit late. It was so endearing and it tells you so much about the individual about how appreciative he was—and also, I guess, how much he enjoyed it,” he said.
