Introducing some class to cuss...

The world is a bad place and we all know it. There would be situations where you would want to curse and yet in elite circles that might not be a prudent thing to do.

 Bengalees realized this problem a long time back...and used their love for subtlety to incorporate curses into the languages.

Let me get to the point with one particular incident.

Place: Not West Bengal.

My friend: Not conversant in Bengali.

Incident: Teacher gives us a cumbersome assignment.

My reaction: “Ye to bamboo ho gaya!”

I found my friend looking at me with a confused expression. I understood that “bamboo” does not have a similar connotation in Hindi as it does in Bengali. I explained to her that it meant we are in a soup.

She asked: But why is it a bamboo?

And I realized the sinister meaning cleverly hidden behind the nondescript bamboo.

It signifies a profanity. “A bamboo up your ass”...shortened to the unassuming bamboo.

Some more everyday phrases for you:


 Pechhone laga: This means teasing...all types...from harmless joking to obnoxious  potshots.

Literal meaning is again a very impolite “bugging your ass”

Merechhe re:  The polished and apparent meaning is “We’re in trouble”

Literal meaning is “We’re screwed”...it’s actually short form of “G*** merechhe”

Fatiye diyechho: Meaning awesome...explosive. But what explodes in the literal meaning? Of course...the ass.

Chutiye adda deoa: Apparent meaning is unbridled fun. And I don’t think I need to explain the literal meaning. :P

All the phrases given here are ubiquitously used by men, women and children from all strata of the Bengali society and believe me there is no obscenity associated with these phrases.

But of course “gali” is a part of Bengali...we reserve the right to curse as and when we please...but we also do it as sweetly as possible. Winks! 

Once in a lifetime...

“This job is once in a lifetime career opportunity”, “That vacation was once in a lifetime experience”, ”We fall in love once in a lifetime ”...if you start to count you’ll see that you’ve used “once in a lifetime” definitely more than once in your life... [and the good news is that your life is not over yet.]

The nectar of such an experience lies not in its uniqueness. You stumble upon such moments several times...[or may be the moments stumble upon you!]

Its beauty is manifested in how it blinds all your past experiences into oblivion and lifts your spirits to a seemingly unattainable high. The bliss that you feel in every “once in a lifetime” experience successfully spins a web of illusion that convinces you about its uniqueness.

Let’s hope for a life that would give us more and more chances to overuse this phrase.

After all what is life but a heady concoction of dreams???