By: Heidi Kwok, Staff Writer
On October 25, the SFU Bangladesh Students’ Alliance (BSA) celebrated the fall season with a Shoroter Mela event in the Student Union Building ballroom. In Bengali, Shoroter Mela translates to “autumn fair.” The cultural event featured traditional Bangladeshi street food, fair games, vendor stalls, live music, and performances. Attendees also came dressed in traditional attire.
In Bangladesh, both rural villages and cities alike host over 5,000 festive fairs or “melas” throughout the year. A Shoroter Mela, in particular, is a seasonal fair that’s held during Sharat, the autumn period that lasts between Bhadra and Ashvin (mid-August to mid-October). The Peak was unable to attend the event, but spoke with BSA vice-president Md Rownak Abtahee Diganta to learn more.
Diganta shared that during a meeting to plan future events, BSA members reflected on what they missed most from back home and decided on the mela. “We never had melas in Canada that much or that often, none of the [SFU] cultural student associations ever did that. So, we thought, you know what, let’s organize our own mela.”
The mela featured traditional Bangladeshi fair games like darts, Ludo (a popular board game), pen fight, Panch Guti, and other classics. “I thought, let’s remind all our people about their childhood so they can be a little nostalgic,” Diganta said. Attendees also had the opportunity to purchase a variety of traditional handmade arts and crafts created by vendors. A free Mehndi station was also on-site, decorating attendees with intricate pattern designs.
Diganta and BSA president Abrar Shahriar reached out to small, local food businesses to bring the event catering to life. To emulate the atmosphere of an outdoor mela, food vendors, including Gulshan’s Cuisine, Nimontron Bari, and Sharmin’s Kitchen, were recruited to serve popular traditional Bengali street foods. The mela featured delicious treats like Chop, Fuchka, Jhal Muri, Samucha, Biryani, and Pitha, a cake-like delicacy that’s both sweet and savoury, as well as Chotpoti, a spicy dish made with chickpea and potato.
The latter half of the evening featured a live music and singing segment. The night ended with an original BSA stage drama written and directed by Diganta that drew inspiration from Meena, a cartoon character from a UNICEF film series. Diganta told The Peak that Meena is beloved by children across South Asia, “so it’s really close to our heart.” He decided to bring Meena to Canada, dramatizing her life as a newcomer and a student at SFU. The drama was well-received by the audience.
Diganta said the BSA organized the event to cure homesickness, as attendees “can commemorate what they used to do back in the country.” He said these events are a “good way of gathering a lot of people,” so the event turns into a reunion, and bonds “become stronger because these events give us some good memories to share together.”
He also said he hopes that by attending a mela far from home, attendees will realize that
“Home is not made of bricks. Home is the people around you — home is the small moments or experiences to enjoy.”
— Md Rownak Abtahee Diganta, vice-president of the Bangladesh Students’ Alliance
“[I hope] they felt, for a little bit of a moment, they feel like they’re at home, enjoying with their loved ones.”
