Everytime I have come across someone who hails from a part of India, different to the one I belong to,my introduction has conjured a raised eyebrow, a sly grin, a near perfect failure to comprehend my name,an almost universal case of my surname being misspelt,..... the comedy of errors goes on!! It ends only when I to " okay..so you are from K-aayl-kaa-taa..proper K-aayl-kaa-taa?", answer in a diminutive voice, "yes, Proper Calcutta.."
To 'Indians', we Bengalis seem some creature from outer space, a touch shy, very defensive, not apolitical and born experts in chain smoking and procrastination.
According to 'them', We lack the aggro of the Jaaths, the business sense of the Gujjus and the Maroos, the strength of the Paajis,the agility of the Marathis,the courage of the Rajputs and the rationale of the Southeners.
The treatment is as if, We actually hail either from erstwhile Soviet Russia or from Communist China and have set up some sort of a habitat in an isolated portion of India.
Time to address certain questions...
One, the national animal is a Banagali FYI :) Indians do not portray the Gujju lion or the rajput peacock or the assamese rhino or even for that matter the kerelite tusker as the one worthy of national acclaim..the BENGAL Tiger is right on top of the podium..1-0!
Two, any Indian who knows the national anthem (don't smirk , the Brazilian squad for World Cup'94 were trained 'cause they did not know their anthem) knows Bangla-"..dravid utkal BONGO.." 2-0..
Three, the identification of Bengalis with Left politics is not unjustified, I concede- especially when a certain coalition has ruled a state for over 30 years now. It would be helpful to note, however, that one Shyamaprasad Mukherjee was the godfather of strictly Anti-Left politics..am not justifying either this way or that, point is We are , and can be ambivalent..points shared..2-0
Four,defensive,lack of aggro?? After all, in the history of Indian politics,it is only a Bengali who has the credit of snatching a victory from the jaws of the Mohandas-Jawaharlal nexus.Imagine, someone who could plan an attack from lands as distant as Deutschland, undertake a horrendous journey under sea in the face of incessant torpedo attacks and then set up an entire army to take on the British..3-4-...5-0!!
Five, okay.. I give you one...MOST bengalis enjoy a dual citizenship..while the Brazil-India and the Argentina-India combo are among the more common ones, the glory of the EPL (read Man Utd) has ushered in Portugal-India and England-India combos.
I, a member of the rarer breed, got my German citizenship in 1990 at Rome, and will continue to enjoy it for the rest of my life..yes , it is Deutschland Uber Alles BEFORE Saare Jahaan Se Aachha!! 5-1..
Six,shy? Indeed, when one of the favourite sons of our race and stand bare chested on the Lord's balcony and hurl expletives all beginning with a mighty F !! 6-1..Game Set Match..
Thus, the DADA is not entirely a non-Indian. Okay, he : cannot speak Hindi- probably,the national language -properly,really gives a damn about it;trusts Kharagpur and Calcutta to be better than Kanpur ,Bombay,Madras,Ahmedabad,Bangalore and the likes; believes Sourav Ganguly to be slightly better than Sir Don-doesn't compare the former with 'Shochin' though;embraces football as the game of life;worships Amartya Sen and organises protests when any of the ministers even one who had won by a landslide majority speaks anything untoward about Dr Sen;trusts Uttam Kumar to beat Big B hands down and recommends rice and fish to be the best diet on earth!
Bengal is a land which has produced and will continue to produce greats.Geographically, a part of India, the erstwhile Calcutta-now, KOLKATA (watch the spelling-ONE T) is a fine city to live in if you are one who believes in leading a comfortable lifestyle according to your means.The stretch of green right in the heart of the city -the Maidan- presents an idyllic milieu;College Street would, on any day hold thrice over the number of books in the rest of India combined; the sweets of course are deadly and yes, there are colonies of Paajis, Tamils,Gujjus and Maroos in the best areas of Cal..habitually trouble averse,bengalis live to eat rather than the other way round, and in doing that they consider a life well lived.
The above are entirely my views and no conscious efforts have been made to offend any community. Inspite of this if any one reading this wants to bare his fangs, a fitting riposte will be served in the form of spits of venom..ACHTUNG
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2 comments:
well you have settled one myth for sure - that Bongs dont's give a rat's
a** for what the lesser mortals say/think about them...thus bearing testimony to the fact that times are changing and with it the bongs are changing too...
saala
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