Hello, my lovely Blogworms!
How have you all been? Good? Hmm?
I’ve been on holiday in, you’ve guessed it, India. Well, Kolkata/Calcutta, to be precise.
Being a British Bengali OCI (Overseas Citzen of India) has its pros and cons, one of which is not having enough time (or the mood, to be honest) to blog about my holiday capers. But I do know that some of you have been eagerly waiting for my next post and I’d like to thank you for your patience. You’re wait is over.
Here I am and so is my theme of the post: My Personal Pet Peeves and Craves about India.
So here goes:
Pet Peeve #1 : We get too emotional over good-for-nothing words. Why do we talk so much bakwaas (it’s Hindi for “rubbish”) in the first place, I ask you?
Pet Crave #1: Isn’t it lovely that you’ll always find someone you can talk to/pour your heart out to in Kolkata?! If you don’t happen to find a relative or friend, which is 0.1% of the time, your nearest, rickshaw-wallah, shopkeeper, street-food seller etc, will only be too happy to oblige and be your fleeting confidant!
Pet Peeve #2: Ugh, how you can never the cross the road to the other side, as often as you like. It takes a good 30 mins to make one such journey and if you’ve forgotten to get something which is on the side you left, you want to beat yourself up, honestly! I do not exaggerate, one of my aunts got so fed up trying to cross the road, she decided to sit down at the nearby tea stall, have a cuppa and then attempt to venture this mission!
Pet Crave #2: Streets food in Kolkata is hard to beat anywhere else in the world! Puchkas, aloo kabli, jhaal-muri, oh yummy yum yum! There’s nothing like sticking a puchka into your mouth and a car/truck/HGV honking its horn full blast into your ears, as it wants to climb over your shoulder! I’m a much braver person for it!
Pet Peeve #3: How power cuts or load-shedding as it’s known in Kolkata still happen at the drop of a hat, just like that, giving mosquitoes the chance to bite you, and you startle and say, scat, scat, scat!
Pet Crave #3: I love it how everyone huddles around together in front of the nearest candle/emergency lights, fanning themselves with newspapers and carrying on with their conversations/discussions, showing that they can carry on without electricity. Indeed, why should we be enslaved to it?
Pet Peeve #4: How native Indian young men, who’ve never stepped outside West Bengal, never mind the country, think they know everything about the phoren (read: foreign) land you’re from, (in my case, London, UK), more than you, even though you live there!
Pet Crave #4: How native Indians, generally the elderly folk, academics, shopkeepers, etc, respect your efforts in practicing Indian culture. The way they beam their smiles makes me feel all warm inside, honestly. 🙂
Pet Peeve #5: These are the last ones, before it gets boring/tedious for you. The sheer hypocrisy that is so prevalent, people don’t even notice it. For example, educated, smart women, who efficiently use computers and do the housework, can’t shampoo on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as it’s not what the planets like, according to their mothers! Needless to say, this rule does not apply to men. Oh and I hate the word ‘Bong‘- a new lingo for us Bengalis. It’s so derogatory and has no sound appeal. We might as well have called ourselves, Bing or Bang then?! Shucks! There’s even a film called The Bong Connection, for crying out loud!! Gaah!
Pet Crave #5: How we’ve progressed and modernised our city centre and suburban locales. The highways are fantastic and make travelling from one end of the city to the other very easy indeed. I like the liberal-mindedness that is slowly dawning on to the youngsters too, despite their love for the ‘Bong’ word.
Disclaimer: this list is my own and refers to my own opinions and thoughts and does not intend to offend anyone. If anyone is offended, I can’t help it! 😉
Me too, to be honest! 🙂
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