Puffed rice, commonly known as Muri in Bangladesh, is one of the most essential items of Iftar during the holy month of Ramadan.
Although it has demand throughout the year, but during the Ramadan its demand increases sharply. Now a days, it is very hard to get pure puffed rice among the chemically made ones.
The taste of handmade puffed rice of ‘Muri Gram (Muri village)’ of Pabna is beyond description. At present, men and women of the village are passing very busy time making handmade puffed rice. From dawn to dusk, they pass hectic hours making this Iftar item.
Most of the people in this village are involved in making puffed rice. By lineage connection, the generations after generations are getting involved with this task. Through their longtime hard labor, the puffed rice production has been turned into an art in this region.
Mahmudpur village, about 6km away from Pabna district town, is situated at Malanchi union under Sadar upazila of the district. The village is popularly known as ‘Muri Gram’. The main livelihood of the people in this village is making and distributing puffed rice across the country since long. In the village, making puffed rice is the main hereditary profession.
The puffed rice produced here is popular at different districts including Dhaka. In the village, puffed rice is produced throughout the year. But in the month of Ramadan, their business increase by several times.
Hasan Ali from Shyampur village started making puffed rice before the Liberation War when he was a very child. Since then, it has become a family tradition.
Muri making has now spread beyond Mahmudpur village to others villages like Shyampur, Bill Kola, Gopinathpur, Bhabanipur, Raghbpur.
Sources said that the people of the village are used to busy with buying rice from the hats, busking it, selling the puffed rice in the local market and women engaged in various activities like including boiling, drying and making the puffed rice.
Hasina Begum and Sufia Khatun who involved in the puffed rice making, said that they made the puffed rice from Shwarna, BR 11, BR 29 and Aus paddy. The taste of Aus paddy’s puffed rice is very good, and most demanded in the market. About 22 to 24 kg puffed rice is made from one maunds of peddy. The profit remains good, they said.