Jamai Sasthi is one of the important Bengali festivals where all the Bengali mothers-in-law prepare a feast for their sons-in-law. According to Local 18 Bengal, this festival is being celebrated today, i.e.- June 12. On this day, 200 years ago, a luscious sweet named Jalbhara Sandesh was prepared that is popular amongst people even today. There is an amusing anecdote behind the origin of this sweet.
As per reports, In 1883, a landlady named Abdar decided to cook a sweet which would help her play a prank on her son-in-law. Two confectioners named Surjya Kumar Modak and his son Siddheshwar Modak were entrusted with the task of preparing this sweet. After much contemplation, they invented a new type of Sandesh shaped like a palm tree. They filled it with fragrant rose water and sugar juice and made a new sweet called Jalbhara Sandesh.
Both Surjya and Siddheshwar then informed the landlady about the successful completion of their task. Abdar, the landlady served these sweets to her daughter and son-in-law. The moment the landlady’s son-in-law took a bite of the sweet, the rose water and sugar juice inside spilt out on his clothes. He turned red with shame in this incident and this incident became a matter of humour for the ladies sitting in women’s quarters. It is because the landlady had finally managed to cheat her daughter’s husband with an intriguing prank. This incident led to the serving of Jalbhara Sandesh and her Bengali delicacies in front of the son-in-law on Jamai Sasthi’s occasion.
Today, besides the mixture of rose water and sugar juice, many different combinations are used in Jalbhara Sandesh. Surjya Kumar Modak’s family has continued the tradition of serving these sweets and the current member to handle this shop is Shaibal Modak. According to him, his shop is still serving Jalbhara Sandesh not only on Jamai Sasthi, but many other occasions as well. Shaibal said that keeping up with the current times, they have come up with many interesting fusions in the sweet for the customers. His shop is located in Grand Trunk Road, Chandannagar, West Bengal.
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