From Bihar to Kolkata, tilkut-makers bring Sankranti flavours and nostalgia each winter

Kolkata: Every year, they make their winter sojourn to the 'City of Joy', travelling over 500km from Bihar to spread some sweetness and warmth among the diaspora in Kolkata, who long for their home, especially as the new year kicks in. For the new year brings with it the warmth of sesame and sweetness of jaggery, the blend of which forms one of the traditional winter delicacies of Bihar – tilkut, a must for Makar Sankranti, celebrated on Jan 14.

Several popular markets of the city – from Janbazar in north to Jagubazar in south – are abuzz with makeshift shops selling tilkut, chura (flattened rice), jaggery and other traditional sweets for Makar Sankranti, giving the Kolkata-based Bihar natives a mix of both nostalgia and taste of their motherland.


Thanks to the tilkut-makers from districts like Gaya, Jehanabad and Patna, who leave their home for one-and-a-half months to come to the city to prepare the delicacy here.

A group of 16 such tilkut-makers from Jehanabad and Patna have been camping in the city since Dec 1 for a local manufacturer.

“We have been coming to Kolkata for the last 15 years. We usually leave home on Nov 30 and stay till Jan 13 or 14 before joining our families for Makar Sankranti,” said Vijay Yadav from Jehanabad, who heads the group.

Yadav, who earlier used to work in Gaya, charges Rs 16 lakh for the group with earnings of each member ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh, depending on the skill.

Youngest among them is Mukesh from Patna’s Bihta, who has accompanied his elder brother to the city for the first time to help the group in non-hazardous work like packaging. Though the 15-year-old Class VIII student wants to be a police officer when he grows up, he says he utilised the winter break to learn the traditional skill of tilkut-making as well as explore Kolkata. The Rs 10,000 he got for his packaging work would help his humble household, said Mukesh, son of a daily-wage worker.

Similarly, Chunnu Kumar from Jehanabad is happy to earn Rs 40,000 from his month’s work. He said he would take a 10-day break after reaching home on Makar Sankranti, before leaving for Tamil Nadu where he works at a textile unit.

Yadav said their lodging and food is taken care of by the Notun Bazar-based manufacturer, who claimed that they are among the foremost tilkut producers of Kolkata, who bring makers from Bihar.

Vinod Kumar Gupta, who runs the production unit, said it was in 2007, he decided to bring in tilkut-makers from Bihar to give the ‘prabasi’ Biharis the authentic taste they long for.

“I started with just Rs 5,000, which I took from my father, travelled all the way to Bihar, and brought five workers here, paying them an advance of Rs 2,000. With time, my business expanded. Now we also make different varieties of ‘gajak’ and ‘chiki’, for which makers from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh also come to Kolkata,” said Vinod, adding this time, he brought a total of 50 people.

About earnings, he added their turnover is over Rs 1 crore.

His son, Aditya Gupta, said they prepare around 22-25 tonne tilkut in both sugar and jaggery variety, price ranging from Rs 160-200 a kg. These are supplied not only across West Bengal, especially Asansol and Burdwan, but several other states like Assam, Telangana and Goa, he said.

One such retailer from Howrah was found waiting outside Gupta’s workshop in Notun Bazar on Friday afternoon, ready to buy tilkut worth Rs 20,000.

The retailer, Manoj Kumar Yadav, said he came to Notun Bazar to buy tilkut for his shop for their authenticity as they are prepared fresh in Kolkata by the makers from Bihar.

“The price is also better as compared to the readymade tilkut brought directly from Bihar, as there’s a transportation cost involved. Besides, these are very fragile. There’s risk of breakage, which adds to the cost,” said Kundan Poddar, who runs a makeshift tilkut stall at Janbazar.

Manoj said he earns a 20% profit, buying freshly made tilkut from Notun Bazar.

Not just Notun Bazar, several manufacturers, based in Barabazar, also bring in tilkut makers from Bihar, besides, of course, bringing the readymade sweets from Gaya itself, to cater to the huge demand in the city.

Poddar, himself a native of Vaishali district, said Bihar natives, of course, buy tilkut in huge quantities, but over the years he had seen the local Bengali residents also relishing the delicacy.

For those who have left their homeland decades ago to settle in Kolkata, the makeshift shops, and the aroma of chura and ‘gur’ evoke the memory of their home.

“Tilkut used to be prepared at home, and we used to distribute them among our relatives on Makar Sankranti. That taste was something else. The ones at the shops can’t match them but we are happy that at least we are getting tilkut here,” said Bunni Tiwari (69), who was buying the Sankranti essentials at Janbazar.

Tiwari, who had come to Kolkata from Bihar after her marriage 50 years ago, added back then there weren’t many shops selling tilkut in Kolkata. “At times, we used to bring tilkut from Bihar. Now, there are so many shops, which gives us the feel of home,” she said.

As Sarita Sharma, a native of Hajipur in Vaishali district, residing in Kolkata for the last 45 years, said, “Nothing tastes like home-made delicacies, but here we are getting the next-best tilkuts as makers from Bihar are preparing them fresh in Kolkata.”