MANIKGANJ, Jan 31 (BSS): With the progress of winter, hundreds of seasonal Bhapa pitha makers are busy running their trading in all the seven upazilas of the district as demand for the delicious indigenous cake increased heavily.
Market sources said the demand for tasty Bapa pitha made of rice powder, coconut and molasses is created during the winter. A big section of local people, including rickshaw pullers, van-drivers and truck drivers, take the cake as breakfast.
To take advantage of the demand, a good number of mostly poor people, both males and females, engage in the seasonal business to make their fortune. They usually set up makeshift shops along roads and highways and in local markets to produce and sell the pithas.
Khorshed Ali (40), one of the Bhapa pitha makers at Manikganj Bus-stand, said some bus passengers before boarding their vehicle early in the morning like to have one or two Bhapa pitha as their breakfast.
So he opens his temporary 'pitha shop' at dawn. His wife helps him to make 'guri' (rice powder) at home at night. He said he earns at least Tk 400 to Tk 500 per day.
Like Khorshed Ali many others run similar pitha shops at different public places of the district.
Hajera Khatun (45) said she runs a shop in the morning and evening beside Bijoy Mela Math every day. Her school going daughter helps her.
Hajera said a good number of her customers are from the high society. They come to her shop after dusk.
One woman buying Bhapa pithas in the evening said she herself and her family members like very much the coconut mixing Bhapa pitha. But she has no scope of making the cake at home. So they buy it from the market specially in the winter. At times, I entertain guests with Bhapa pithas buying from market, she said.
When visited some remote rural areas, this correspondent found that a large number of males and females are engaged in making and selling Bhapa pithas. Some people are also making and selling Chitoi pitha (pancake).
Most of the Chitoi pitha makers run their business round the year for their livelihoods.
