The sweet story behind Chandannagar’s beloved ‘jolbhora sandesh’ at Surjya Kumar Modak
In the year 1290 of the Bengali calendar, Surjya Kumar Modak received a summons from the wife of the landlord of Telinipara. She wanted to trick her newlywed daughter’s husband, her son-in-law, by feeding him a new kind of sweet,” said Modak.
After much brainstorming and experimentation, Surjya Modak and his son Siddheswar created a sandesh shaped like a talshash, or ice-apple, and filled it with dolo syrup infused with rose essence.
“As soon as the new son-in-law took a bite, the syrup inside oozed out and soaked his silk panjabi. The women of the household burst into laughter. The son-in-law had been successfully tricked,” narrated Modak.
What began as a practical joke soon became Bengal’s favourite sweet tradition. “Right from its inception, the Jolbhora Talshash sandesh reached the pinnacle of fame and later became widely known simply as the Jolbhora,” he said.