bengalees today :)

i have been thinking about doing this thing for ages..ever since i have been part of an amazingly diverse university that made me meet hoards of interesting souls and brains..so here is a broad classification..just for some fun...and NO debates invited :D

1) the pati Bangali- you see them in groups,wearing ordinary clean clothes that are nothing noticeable..eating rice quietly in the canteens..in one corner of a dirty table.they sport neatly brushed or tied hair dripping with smelly oil...they are scared of the "hep" groups and stick to their kind...and are immensely comical in their English pronunciations..Also, you get a feeling that they are as chaste as can be..with the expressions they give on hearing about some scandal..or simply when they so much as find a couple hugging.


2) the aantel Bangali - they know Shorotchondro and they know Shakespeare and they can lecture you on both..not that they have real truckloads of knowledge..but they know how to exploit the little (?) knowledge they have..and they impress you. they even know Meghnaad Saha and Hawking ..so they are the ultimate all rounders. you find them wearing faded kurtas or khadi material (though fabindia is taking over) and they seldom dress up, in which lies their charm. they can enliven any sort of adda over a fag or a cup of tea. they have an opinion on everything and it takes at least two aantels to prevent a dominating and very boring monologue.


3) the Bong - they dress in kurtas today and body hugging t shirts tomorrow. they even sport sarees and panjabis on appropriate occasions. they listen to bands,metal,rock and soft tracks too, and can be found singing in groups when there is nothing worthwhile to talk about.they dress up one day..next day they come looking like they are straight out of bed.they love patishapta and they love cakes. they use fluent Benglish and can shift to total Bangla in moments of intense love for their heritage,though their English is usually pretty flawless. they have the required knowledge for an adda too...but the adda includes intellectual potential mixed with spicy PNPC (the Bong abbr. for gossip). they form a very versatile group.


4) the T(n)aash - Bengalees by birth, so they cannot change that ..or the way they look..but they behave as differently as possible to be identified as foreign specimens.always found wearing western clothes (sometimes even Chinese :P, but never Indian). they give immense effort not to utter a single Bangla word (unless it escapes by chance when there is a real crisis of some appropriate English word..ahem ahem). they will give you a weird look if u say "tormuj" until u explain that it means "watermelon"...they usually talk about steak and beer and wine and god knows what...not very familiar with bhaat-mangsho or even luchi. i don't know whether they use toilet paper or water though..and i also don't know whether they will be at home if they ever go to live in the foreign lands of their dreams.

PS the classifications are broad and a huge number of people belong somewhere in between the groups...or maybe even belong to a mega mix of two or more of the groups...there there are some who are illusive and you don't get where they actually fall....but still..i am very happy looking at the grouping and the other huge part of the people who fit the bill perfectly :P