Why a London restaurant looked like Puri for one Rath Yatra evening

For one evening this week, a restaurant in the London Borough of Bexley took on the atmosphere of Puri during Rath Yatra. Three London-based entrepreneurs originally from Odisha organised the gathering on Thursday, serving more than 200 free traditional Odia meals to devotees and homeless residents of the borough.

The menu was built around dishes rarely found on a typical London table: ‘arna, kanika, mitha dali, saga muga, besara, pachedi’ and ‘khiri’, all cooked by Subhakanta Das and Sasmita Pattnaik, who wanted every guest to taste the ‘authentic taste, warmth and devotion of Odisha’.

At the centre of the room sat decorated idols of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra. Around them, the evening’s cultural programme opened with an Odissi performance by Soniya Patnaik, followed by semi-classical dance set to Jagannath bhajans from Sabita Pradhan and Upasana Padhi — a line-up put together by entrepreneur Partha Panda.

Fellow organiser Arun Kar explained why the group chose to mark the festival this way rather than travel back to India. ‘Not everyone can travel to Odisha and pull the chariots in Puri. But every one of us can serve humanity. Feeding people with love, without discrimination, is one of the greatest forms of devotion,’ he said.

Among the guests was Vijay Meher, an IT consultant, who said the evening briefly closed the distance between London and home. ‘Although we are far away from Odisha, today I felt as if I was celebrating Rath Yatra in Puri,’ he said, adding that watching the performances and sharing the food made him ‘feel proud’ of his culture.

Local dignitaries also turned up, including the Mayor of Bexley, Lisa Moore, her consort Justin Moore, and cabinet members Brian Bishop and Rags Sandhu. Moore later posted on social media commending the restaurant for offering warm, nutritious meals to residents who needed them.

Rath Yatra, Puri/Wikimedia Commons — by G.-U. Tolkiehn