Getting Punjabi flavours right in Agartala

Growing up in Agartala, a small city in Tripura in north-eastern India, during the 90s was tough, especially for someone obsessed with Punjabi food. My mother's Bengali kitchen was modest: thin curries with occasional sides of bamboo shoots or dry fish chutneys. Our food choices were dependent on local market offerings, which were further decided by blocked roads.

In contrast, some food shows on TV beamed an otherworldly universe of Punjabi cuisine: thick, tangy tomato-based gravies generously dressed with coriander leaves. Oh, how I craved that impossible red gravy in logistically forgotten Agartala!

One summer, I learned about Punjabi dum aloo from a popular cooking show and demanded to take it for my school potluck. My parents faced a culinary mission impossible! The problem? Tomatoes — the soul of this iconic dish, and coriander— a must for garnishing, were winter-only luxuries in our seasonal north-eastern market. Thanks to disrupted road networks and irregular supplies, they cost a fortune.

But my parents somehow pulled it off, though I feel guilty in retrospect. That memory, delicious as it was, revealed a deeper reality— food insecurity in the Northeast. Till date this problem still prevails. And it is not just about availability, it is about access, infrastructure, and historic neglect. Tomatoes and coriander were more than vegetables, they represented the cost of inclusion in the nation’s culinary map.

Dr Swarupa Deb, Agartala