No other sweetmeat in the recent past has evoked such extreme sense of state patriotism as the rasogulla. But has all the brouhaha really got the answers?
It’s almost official now: Rasogulla is Odisha’s. A recent article published in a leading newspaper a few days ago, ensured that parental issue of ‘Rasogulla belonged to whom’ has been partly resolved, thanks to the unearthing of a 400-year-old document that claims that the sweet did owe its birth to Odisha and was addressed as chenna munda (or as some would call it chandamonda) because of its milky brownish colour matching that of a new moon. So it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that its advantage Odisha, when it comes to the right to earn the GI status, and in turn may change the fortune of the sweet makers here, some of whom have been making rasogulla for generations. Bhubaneswar’s Ganguram Sweets to name one of the many.