We were living in Calcutta, now Kolkatta in the early nineties. Hubby was posted there.
It was a new experience for me. Just married and from a small city, coming to live in a big Metro was a drastic change. I never did learn their language though, in our two year stint there.
What stunned me most were the women. Absolutely lovely, dusky and with such unblemished skin! Lovely, long hair to match. It must be the fish that they ate daily, I thought. Even Brahmins consume fish, though meat's not allowed.
Their sweets are awesome too. Mishti dois and sandeshes and rasgullas... Wow!
Their dialect amused me sometimes. They have to use 'O' in each word they speak.
Thank you: dhon-no-baad,
Water: jol,
Good: bhaa lo,
How should I do it: ki bhabey korbo
Beautiful: Shundor
I Love You: Ami Tomake Bhalobashi
I Need to go toilet :Ami Toilet e Jabo
What Are You Doing? :Tumi ki korcho?
Just look at the number of words with "O".
Once I was at some place and wanted to use the restroom badly. Not knowing the word for key, I simply said 'chobi'. And lo! the key appeared. Whether it was really 'chobi' I don't know. My friend congratulated me. "You do know Bangla," she said. I smiled. Just put 'O' in every Hindi word. Behold, you get a Bangla one.
Jokes apart, there was one incident that happened in the last October of our stay there. Puja holidays had begun and preparations for the celebrations were in full swing. We lived in a somewhat posh locality. There was frequent load shedding too.
One current less night, we both were in the living room, our room only lit by some candles, when we heard some commotion, followed by very loud knocking at our door. A little scared, we opened the door. "Puja ke liye chanda lene aaye hai hum," they said in Hindi when they saw we couldn't get their dialect.
Hubby refused to do so, saying we really didn't celebrate it. Honestly, we didn't even know them. And moreover they were so brash and demanding in their demeanor, as though it was their right. This angered an elderly, drunk man so badly that he started screaming wildly. "We'll smash your car windows..we'll do this and that." This coming from an educated, well-to-do man.
I intervened. "Is this the way you men talk to women?" The crazy man quietened down. They respect women there.
They walked away greatly agitated. Upset, we waited for the worst to happen. Was that how they celebrated, by hooliganism and manipulation?
Next morning, a young guy from the same group approached us again. He apologized for the old man's behavior. He spoke in such a nice way that in no time we contributed a bit for their cause. He smiled and walked away.
Were it not for him, we would have left Calcutta some months later with only bitter memories.
