Saturday, December 15, 2012

Facts about Bengalis You Didn't Know

Hello dear readers!!

Yes, I am not dead yet. I'm on my bi-yearly pre-exam hibernation. Will be back soon. Till then I shall leave you with a few pearls of wisdom. This post is inspired from the Some facts about Punjab and Being a Punjabi post series by Bikramjit sir on his blog. (Check out his blog to read all his Oh-So-Awesome LOLarious posts). So here I bring you some lesser known (or ill famed) facts about us Bengalis-

1) Every third person in the state has a name with the "Debo" prefix, irrespective of gender. Debopriya, Deboprotim, Debashish, Debojit, Debopriyo, Debnath - the list is never ending my dear ones.

2) Every child in the house has two names - one his proper and official name that we call the "good name" (first thing Bengali uncles/aunts ask you when you meet them for the first time - "Shona, your good name??" ) and his pet name which is usually something not even remotely close to his real name and serves the purpose of embarrassing the person in public. Most common of them being shona, mona, babu, pocha, buri et cetera et cetera.

3) No meal is complete without a sweet - rosogolla, mishti doi, shondesh , cham cham or any other variant is a compulsory for every meal.

4) Sourav Ganguly and Mamata Banerjee are the universal "dada" and "didi" respectively (literally translating to "brother" and "sister" resp.). And we don't give a damn to what India scores in the match...all we need to know is if Dada scored a century or not. And anybody who has wronged our Dada dear is our sworn enemy. Topping this enemy list is Greg Chappel closely followed by Shah Rukh Khan.
This is our Mamata Di !!
Source

5) This one is a corollary of 4 - Every male you meet on the road is your "dada" and your maid is your "mashi" (literally translating to "maternal aunt")...irrespective of their age.

6) Evenings are not complete without "parar adda" (sorry dear people, there is no direct translation for this word. The closest would be rendezvous, but then it wouldn't carry the essence of the evening "addas") and "telebhaja" (fries and fritters). Oh I forget the "chaa" (tea).
This one is called vegetable chop.

7) Corollary of 6 - Every street has a "chaa er dokan" (tea stall) and a "mishtir dokan" (sweet stall) and of course a phuchka wala (Golgappa stall. Sorry, dear non-Indian reader, there is no English word for this extremely unhealthy but heavenly yummy street food).


8) No dish is Bengali enough unless cooked in high-cholesterol Mustard Oil. Yeah, it is not good enough unless the spicy zesty fervor of the dish makes your eyes shed a few tears of joy (literally!!). And no meal is complete without fish.
Source


9) Every Bengali is a born artiste - painter, poet, chef, singer, musician, dancer, football player, swimmer - either or all of these!! And no, I am not kidding. (Sadly, yours only is the most unskilled Bengali that was ever born on this planet :-| ).

10) We do not buy clothes during sales or on our birthdays like most people on this planet. Our species buys 15-20 sets of clothes a month or two before the Durga Pujo :D

I shall leave you with 10 for this time. Might add a sequel to this one if I come out alive after the exams :P

Till then, bubbye.
Wish me luck!!

P.S.- This post is not meant to insult or demean Bengalis. Everything here is meant to be taken in good humor and with a pinch of salt.


48 comments:

  1. A complete Bangali post ... really ... all the points are true :-)

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  2. hahaha, well my name starts with debo :D and i can eat sweet the entire day.

    some of the facts are incorrect though. we still love Sachin more than ganguly, and we don't know much about Mamta Banerjee.

    enjoyed the post.

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    1. Hehehe, thanks!! I'm glad you liked it :)

      Well, true we do not know much about Mamata Banerjee... But she is still everyone's Didi :P
      And well Sachin (or shall I say Shochin :P) is of course everybody's fave. Dada and the favoritism towards him was just for laughs :P

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  3. hahahaha!!! omg, i had such a huge smile on my face the whole time i was reading this! :D lovely, lovely post swarnali! now m gonna go check out the punjabi facts! ;)

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    1. Thanks, girl!! I'm glad you liked it ^_^
      And do check out Bikram sir's posts...they are super hilarious :D

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  4. This was a real fun read!! Some of the points are well known, but some of them are new to me :-). Will look forward to the next ten facts!!

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    1. Hehehe...yeah am already thinking of the next 10 :P Will do a sequel after I return...thanks :D

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  5. hahaa.....interesting and loking forward for its sequal....:)

    BTW after reading you and Bikram I am getting inspired to write about Biharis.....and you must be knowing how INTERESTING that will be :P

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    Replies
    1. Welcome to Dreams n Drama !!
      I'm glad you enjoyed...part 2 will be up soon :P
      And please please do the Bihari facts post....I'm sure gonna love it... :D

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  6. That was some post... I had read your comment on Bikram's post and was waiting for this one!

    No wonder I so so so so love your culture...specially the number 4..yummm.... :D

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    1. Hehehehe...thank you hai ji :D It is actually a lot of fun being a Bengali :D And when are you coming here for a visit?? :-o

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  7. i ve loads of nicknames within my friends, family n relatives. best part is dat those r Pseudo-dynamic, i mean, they ve changed with time n circumstances. i actually njoy wot d call me.....life w.o. nicknames is lyk having known none

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    1. Hi5 on that pseudo dynamics :D
      I've at least been called by 20 totally different names in the 20 years of my existence and it is actually a lot of fun...and I do agree....life aint life without those nick names :P

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  8. Well you almost forgot... each lane, bi lane will have a cigarette shop.. and in every bus stand you will find a never ending queue.
    Awesome post !!

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    Replies
    1. Hey there ,Samik!! Welcome to Dreams n Drama :)
      hehehe...I could write ten more posts like these...I just limited the number to 10 points here....will add your points in part 2 :D
      Thanks a bunch...I'm glad you enjoyed :)

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  9. Oh yessssssss, you did it .. Awesomeeeeeeeeee.. :) loced it and I also Love DADA, he was the best and will always be the best .. and sure Chappel and SRK are sworn enemies of mine tooo..

    oooh Rosogollas yessss, are they called Sandesh or am i wrong, when i visitied kolkata my uncle use to buy them for us , in those LEAF plates .. yummy yummmy yummmyyyyyyyyyyyyy

    Loved it Swarnali each point awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

    Bikram's

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    1. and hey what about the , I forgot the name , the little ponds they have in almost POKHAR.. in almost every colony or locality ..

      am i right , it was almost 20+ years that i have been there now

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    2. Hehehe...I sure did...couldn't stop myself from posting this one after all the inspiration I got from your series ;) :D
      Hahaha...join in the Dadagiri :D :P
      Well Rosogollas and Sondesh are two different varieties of sweets...sondesh is a dry one where as rosogolla is syrupy...sondesh is kinda like a barfi...Come over to Kolkata sometime...I shall take you to a sweet tasting spree :D :D
      Oh yeah pukhur (the Bengali term for Pokhar)....yeah well, it was 20 years back...the place today is a little different...you don't have that many pukhurs. But yeah, they do exist :)
      More madly Bengali facts coming soon :D Thanks much :)

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    3. right .. when i come ot kolkata I need both of them sandesh and rosogollas :)

      Bikram's

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    4. Sure ...you can have as many you like...my treat :D ^_^

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  10. hehhe...nice list...as a bengali born n brought up in delhi, sometimes we joke on the above mentioned traits of WB bongs :)

    http://www.myunfinishedlife.com

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    1. Thanks :D
      Being a non-residential bong for the major part of my life I can totally understand what you mean...these traits are so typical and hysterical :D

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  11. You captured the essence of Bengal, Swarnali:) A huge thanks for following my blog!!

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    1. Hello Rahul sir!!
      Welcome to Dreams n Drama
      Will comment on your blog asap...caught up with exams. Thanks for dropping in a leaving your comment :)

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  12. Interesting and Fun.

    Point 3 is cute actually, esp the embarrassing part.

    +To Me It Matters+

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    1. Thanks, girl!! :)
      Oh the embarrassment!! You'll know better if you knew what the names meant :P

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  13. How fun! Most of this went over my head, but I do get the jist of it. I really, really want to visit India some day!!

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    1. Hehe thanks, Amber!!
      Do visit India, I'm sure you'll love the diversity here :)

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  14. Hi Swarnali,

    HAHAHA...Lovely post :)
    Enjoyed reading everything about Bengalis.
    I especially, liked the third point. Bengali sweets are just too good. In the sweets, I just love misti doi and kadda paak, notan gud sandesh.
    Wow, my mouth is already watering. :)

    Thanks for this yummy post :)

    Regards

    Jay
    http://road-to-sanitarium.blogspot.in/

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    1. Thanks a lot, Jay....you are really generous with the compliments :D
      Hehehe I guess I lost my sweet tooth pretty early...I don't eat them :P
      Come over to Kolkata someday...shall take you to a sweet tasting spree...you can have as many you want :D :D

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    2. Khoob bhali laglo...,,,😊

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  15. You have GOT to do another post,this one's hilarious...what does Debo mean anyway??
    Bengali is a language I definitely want to learn.The words all rolled up sound soo cute!!
    P.S. Thanks for joining my follow-ship...I'm such a sucker for increasing blog stats!

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    1. Muchas gracias, senorita :D
      Will do a sequel as soon as my exams are done with :)
      I suppose Debo is a derivative from "dev" and might mean from the gods...maybe...I'm not sure.
      Bengali is super sweet...and I don't say that coz its my mother tongue...it does sound very cute...thanks :)
      Hehehe....you are welcome...thanks for joining ours too!! And you are freakin hilarious yourself...read the joining mail at the admin account of ALOP and I almost died laughing... :D

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    2. Dev huh...you should add that to the sweet's names then!Definitely food for the gods...debo-rosogulla,debo-sandesh...yum yum!
      Thanks about the mail anyway...ALOP is super fun too!:))

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    3. Hehehe....That is one hell of an idea...debo named food :P

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  16. It's really...really funny and interesting read!! I know Bengali people closely so I know....I was smiling while reading this. Looking forward to reading it's sequel:)

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    1. Thanks so much, Tarang!! I'm glad you enjoyed :)
      Sequel is on its way!! :D

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  17. hahaha its really funny -enjoyed reading it :) :)

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  18. oh my god. i cant take my eyes of that fish pic swarnali! thoroughly enjoyed this post! am yet to read your get published post. shall do that soon. Happy new years!

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    1. Hehehe...the fish is yummilicious :P
      ...thanks :D
      A very Happy new Year to you too :)

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  19. Replies
    1. LOL... Loved it...
      Well u forgot to mention d fact that most of the bengali aunties pronounce 'v' as 'b'... Remembr biddda ?? :D

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    2. LOL... Loved it...
      Well u forgot to mention d fact that most of the bengali aunties pronounce 'v' as 'b'... Remembr biddda ?? :D

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  20. R u foodies?? Max u r talking about food only.. I think u r just like one of my fatty friend.. who only think about food and sleep..

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  21. Haha! this was fun to read :D and totally loving your blog :)

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  22. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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