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.