The recent brouhaha over an open letter from a rather outspoken Madrasan to the flashy Delhi boy urged me to put on my thinking cap and pen down some random thoughts- not that I ever let the cap leave my head for even a moment, for what is a Bengali lad without the essential 'thought'! And yes, henceforth I'll be referring to myself and my extended tribe as 'Bong(s)'- gives it kind of a zing. So coming back to the blog, it made me wonder whether I should be passive towards it- like a lot of my fellow lazy, reclined Bong-ites,who are normally laid back and raise their voices in protest only if their daily cup of tea at the roadside 'chai-stall' has less sugar in it. Or should I go all out and make myself heard- like, again, a lot of my fellow adrenaline-charged, thoughtful Bongo-bashis, who feel it is their birthright, through hereditary, to opine on things ranging from the rising Auto-fare to dipping Stock prices, and from Irom Sharmila's fast to the recent slutwalk.
It's true that me and my kin do not possess the flair for style like the Delhi boy, or the desperate urge to make money like the Gujju lad, or even the hard-core,education-oriented mindset of the Madrasi.Life,for most of us,is a debate- quite literally so since we either spend our time haggling with vendors at New-Market or at a higher level, with the Industrialists (read Ratan Tata), trying to sell both parties our side of the bargain,which is obviously the best by our own judgement. While there are Bongs you will find who in their pursuit of happiness have left their nest and settled elsewhere, we,who chose to stay back have zealously chosen to defend our culture, tastes and mindset.So for a Bong, Rabindrasangeet is the benchmark of Music- who cares for Carnatic music! We believe,by default,that anyone blessed with a good voice must dabble in Tagore's songs-and this is not a result of the bard bagging the 'Nobel'- which only helps to re-affirm our belief in the previous sentence. Likewise,Prada,Ferrari,Versace,BMW are not topics we generally waste time on (here's our similarity with the Madrasan).We'd rather talk on Literature,Politics and in general-anything that's capable of holding our attention for hours- because 'adda' is not a passion, with us it's a 'Ritual'.We're again,admittedly,a bit slow in catching up with the accent part.Infact,we speak Bong-versions of all languages, be it Hindi,English or even Punjabi (fancy that!)For us, 'weather' has to be 'oyether', 'kya baat hai?' will be 'keyaa baat haaye?' and Navjot Sidhu will be 'Nobhojyot Sheedhoo'.Amitabh Bachchan by default acquires an 'O' at the start and end of his name-making him 'Omitabho'.
But that's not all.One of our greatest passion-Food- remains to be discussed.So just like the Delhi boy loves his 'Chicken Tangri Kebab',we too proclaim our loyalty towards sweets and fish.Not that we don't care for anything else-food in itself is an entity for us,and we shower our love and adulation on anyone whoever speaks admiringly of the Bong cuisine.We are emotionally driven about food to the extent of organising a 'Food-fair' within the intellectually approved and universally famous Kolkata 'Book-fair', being strong believers of the fact that the mind and the mouth complement each-other.Anyone who steps into my city know that we hungrily lap it up when they say they love our Mishti Doi/Roshogolla/Maacher Jhol/Sourav Ganguly. Oh yes,we love our 'dada' too.He's made us all proud,and after years of resting on the laurels earned by Tagore,Satyajit Ray and Amartya Sen-who mostly treaded in the Literary territory,dada gave us a new domain.Him and Rani Mukherjee took Bongs to places that were yet to be explored,and we suitably applauded them,suffixing and prefixing their names with every praise-worthy term available.While we may appear to be not bothered in general,dada's ouster from the team showed the nation how we Bongs can also protest(often for the illogical,unnecessary stuff-but that's besides the point).The generally peaceful bhadralok in us turned crusaders,and we backed our boy.And perhaps this again differentiates us from the rest of the country.We follow our heart and get down to melodrama to prove our point-probably the Delhi guy or the Mumbaikar would find these trivial,but for us-even if it goes to the extent of taking a day off work to join the 'cause',we will do it.Very rarely are we callous towards a situation,and as I said before,if nothing, we will certainly give our opinion on what's the right thing to do.
We are romantics at heart-though it rarely shows.But our poetries and sonnets stand proof to the eternal lover in us.We may not be able to grab a lady by her hand and sing a song to her,but we have our own subtle ways to convey the message.A Bong appreciates beauty and terms a woman 'beautiful', not 'sexy'.We do not try to impress a girl with expensive stuff (mostly because we don't own them!),we'd rather win her heart by penning down a line only for her,and by making her the muse of all future gestures related to being artistic.Of course,there are many that will disagree calling us fools to be still living in the age of poetry where people greet each-other with a tweet and end the day with a wall-post.But we still love our poetry forums-inspired by the numerous talents who have used the pen for both love and war.We hold sessions of poetry recitations,and are so absorbed in it that not even a terrorist attack could deter us.We choose consciously not to use foul language in our daily conversation-'Bhaag D.K.Bose' was a down-right insult to our modesty- for the most we could accomodate is a 'shuorer bachcha' and even then we feel guilty about it later.Dignified conversation is our forte,and though it is largely restricted to Bengali, nevertheless we make up for it by listening to Bob Marley and Michael Jackson, and drinking Whiskey/Vodka.
So that,in a nutshell was us.We may not have the wealth of a Delhi guy,the flash of the Mumbai lad,or the degree of a Chennai fellow, but what they do not have is our intellect,our wit and our passion.We can make even Mamata Banerjee look like Margaret Thatcher,and get a Maradona,a Pele and a Messi to come to our city-our sheer passion for Football compelling these stalwarts to play on our grounds.We are comfortable both in our 'Pyjama-Panjabi' with the khadi Jhola, as in a Lee-Cooper pair.We are ready to accomodate our taste buds to any food item,as long as one meal of the day is Rice (and if possible a fish thrown in!) We respect our woman and think they are the prettiest in the world-case in study Suchitra Sen,Sushmita Sen and Sharmila Tagore.We embrace Mother Teresa as she embraces us,and no one is an outsider in our city.We love people,food,poetry and protest.And we love to be laid back and enjoy life.Had it not been for the Madrasan,I would probably not have made an effort to let the world know that we,in our own way,cast a spell on others that forces them to admit that Bongs are passionate.And oh yes, we are the quintessential examples of what the world calls- a 'mama's boy'!
