Ekdin Rosher Khoje (One day in search of Date Juice)..

If you don’t know, Jessore area is famous for it’s Date plant juice. I remember as a child coming to visit Nanubari (Grandparent’s) and having Date plant juice early winter morning with rice bubbles. I never really enjoyed the taste of Date juice but always loved the whole experience of being with the whole family on early winter foggy morning, watching the tree climber detaching the claypot from the date plant and bringing it down. I would be shivering and having ice cold date juice fresh from the plant.

  

So, last Thursday night I was craving date juice, or may be I was craving the experience of my childhood. On Friday morning we woke up early and went driving around Jessore surrounding areas, in search of some Date juice. Date juice is not readily available these days. We should have left the house by 6am but instead we left around 8am. Then we started driving towards the villages. We stopped at multiple different village bajars (shops) and asked the locals where we could find this rare juice. Everybody kept on pointing towards the next village and then the next village and then next village….. We drove for two hours outside of Jessore but sadly had no luck…

 

Funnily enough, that evening my aunty shared our experience with the neighbour’s daughter and without a sweat she turned up with a full bottle of Date juice that night. The juice was good, but I am yet to go on a journey to find Date juice myself and go back to my childhood even for a moment…