My language

When I try to think about stuff I really love about Bengal, other than the cuisine it's the language. Non-Indians, who have heard me speak in Bengali have commented that it is very sweet sounding (except once, when another Bengali friend and I were excitedly talking about some mean guys and someone said "your language sounds so powerful"!!!) To me, a language is not just a means of communication, it is a way to think. Those people who have made me love my language and realize the richness of it are the writers from the Bengal Renaissance who span over a century. They hail from different backgrounds, their ways of thinking are totally different from one another, but they have all contributed to make me what I am today and influence my thoughts, actions and behaviors every moment.

Vidyasagar

I wouldn't say he is one of my favorite writers, but the fact is Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar laid the foundation of Bengali language.With Barnaparichay(Introduction to the alphabet) he has taught us our mother language. Also, if it was not for him, girls would never have been able to read or write. Instead of writing this blog, I would have been washing utensils by the side of the village pond. My gratitude to this person is endless and that will be there for as long as I live.

Michael

Growing up with the only dream to be an Englishman, Modhu kobi (poet Madhu) or Michael Madhusudan Dutt turned out to be a stalwart of early Bengali literature. A rebel by nature, the bohemian Madhu introduced blank verse in his epics. Meghnad badh kavya (the slaying of Meghnad) being one of his most famous works where, the person who hated mundane, cliched things, he narrated the epic with Meghnad (Ravana's son) as the hero and Ram and his team on negative role. He was a genius who is not very well understood. A reason for this is his profound command over Sanskrit made him use words which are very difficult to understand. He was a brilliant eccentric and one of those characters of Bengal Renaissance whom I dearly love.

Bankim Chandra

The creator of "Vande mataram" (hail the motherland), two words that were the base of inspiration for our freedom struggle, was the foremost of Bengali writers whose works are still vastly read. His novels are famous for lots of intriguing characters, flowery language and elaborate descriptions which are very well known to all Bengali bookworms. I recently read his Krishnakanter will(Krishnakanta's will) and liked the story. Rajani, Devi Chaudhurani, Kopal Kundala are some of his very modern and very famous works with women in super powerful roles.

Rabindranath

Writer and composer of national anthems for two countries (ours and Bangladesh's), Rabindranath Tagore is the philosopher poet. He is the person who has the key to our hearts, who understands our every mood, our every thought and has poetry or songs to soothe our hearts when we feel restless, when we don't know which star to follow or when we need inspiration. He has assimilated the Vedas and Upanishads in his poetry and songs. Also, a fiery patriot and warrior by heart, he has taken brave steps during our freedom struggle, including renouncing his knighthood after the massacre at Jalianwalla Bagh in 1919. He is intertwined in every Bengali household and his songs brighten up every season of Nature and human life.


Sarat Chandra

Belonging to the same time as Rabindranath, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was never influenced by the former. It is very difficult to maintain one's individuality when every other person was being overshadowed by Rabindranath's grandeur. Sarat Chandra has written about the people belonging to the grassroot. His short stories are famous for bringing into light the abject poverty faced in rural Bengal. Arakshaniya - about a girl who had to be married off but by a certain age but could not because of her poor family and the insults she faced thereafter, Mahesh - a bull, named after Lord Shiva who was domesticated by a poor Muslim family and Abhagir swarga - heaven for the hapless, can bring tears to anyone. On the other hand, characters like Indranath and Sabyasachi can stir up fire in our souls and inspire us to attain impossible things. Sarat Chandra's easy to understand language and simple descriptions have made him a very popular writer.

Nazrul

The firebrand rebel!! The person after my own heart!! Another person, a poet this time who lived during Rabindranath's reign but wrote stuff completely different. Kaji Nazrul Islam deviated from every known custom in the then society. Hailing from a conservative Muslim family, he married a Hindu lady (without converting her to Islam). Their children were named after hindu mythical characters like Sabyasachi (another name of Arjun) which I don't know if even people from the 21st century would do. His most famous poem is Bidrohi - the Rebel, which is amongst my all time bests. Other powerful and very modern, utterly revolutionary writings include -Aamar koiphiyot - my disclaimer, Samyabaadi - equality, Badhu boron - welcoming the bride.

Satyen Dutta

This poet was called Chhander jadukor - wizard of rhythm because his poems have a free flowing rhythm through the verses that is more akin to a lucid melody. With a sharp wit and sense of humor, Satyendra Nath Dutta was very popular among his other literary friends, including Nazrul and Sukumar Ray. A personal favorite of mine, I find his poems not just rhythmic, which makes them very easy to memorize, but also many of the subjects he writes about are my personal favorites too, like Sinhala - Sri Lanka, Raja Karigor - about Lord Vishwakarma, the engineer god, Aamra - Us, the people of Bengal, Daak ticket - postage stamps... he seems to have written those poems just for me!!

Sukumar Ray

Another writer whom I dearly love - Sukumar Ray. He is totally misunderstood by people who say he only wrote for children. No, he wrote for the child in us. Famous for introducing literary nonsense in Bengali (the only one to do so) in his famous work Abol Tabol - nonsense, Sukumar Ray also wrote a number of articles for children in his family magazine Sandesh. (Sandesh has a double meaning - it means news as well as the famous Bengali sweet.) I don't know how many things I have learned from those articles- scientific stuff like sunspots, X-Ray, translations of stories from all over the world, biographies of people like Nightingale, Socrates, Joan of Arc.... Sukumar Ray was a playwright as well. His Lakshmaner shaktishel - defeat of Lakshman is one of the most hillarious plays I have ever read (and acted in!) Same for the story Ha-Ja-Ba-Ra-La - gibberish and  Heshoram Hushiyar er diary - Journal of Heshoram Hushiyar, dialogues from which, like বড় হলে মানুষ কেমন হত্কা হয়ে যায়ে, ২৬" ছাতি , গেছোদাদা , গোমড়াথেরিয়াম (sorry, cannot translate) and many more have entered our daily conversation. Stories of Pagla Dashu - crazy Dashu remind us of the mischievous classmates we all had in school.

Ali Saheb

My favorite Syed Mujtaba Ali had the capacity of writing funny stuff with the joke on himself. His Chacha kahini - Stories told by "uncle" and Deshe bideshe - home and abroad are masterpieces! The vivid portrayal of characters, heartbreaking incidents narrated in a clear, no-nonsense way has won the hearts on Bengalis.

Ashapurna Devi

Her famous novel Prothom pratishruti - first promise is a must read for everyone! She brought into light the Bengali women's quarters, the stinging pain of widows, the society which was submerged in slimy rituals and kept on clinging to conservative traditions of a decaying Hindu religion. Her protagonist Satyavati came from such a background but was a bright shining light herself. Her story of settling in Calcutta during the onset of Bengal Renaissance, her struggle for schooling girls is an inspiration to Bengali women through the ages. The sequels - Subarnolata and Bakul katha - Bakul's story are also very interesting.



Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay

If there's a person who can tug at your heart strings, then that is him. Bibhutibhushan's characteristic is taking the reader close to nature and in such a way that after a while you'll actually feel what he is trying to portray. His most famous novel is Pather panchali - song of the road and so well written is it's sequel Aparajito - the unvanquished. Together they were made into the famous Apu trilogy movies by Satyajit Ray. Those stories have an uncanny ability to make me introspect and fish out my deepest feelings which are generally covered with more worldly thoughts. His Chander pahar - mountain of the moon, on the other hand is a totally different adventurous story of a young man, Shankar in the jungles and deserts of Africa. It is full of positive vibe and it ends with the my often quoted line - "it's much better to be a crystal and get shattered to a thousand pieces than to sit silently all your life being a piece of tile on a roof top"!!! It's hard to believe that the same person can write Apu's stories, so full of an undercurrent of pathos and Chander pahar, which can be an inspiration to leave the nest and spread your wings in the open sky.

Saradindu Bandopadhyay

Byomkesh and Ajit in the famous tv show

My most favorite story teller of all times. If I have to choose the best among all these favorite writers, I'll choose Saradindu... he's the jewel in the crown! Versatility is something that can define him as a writer - from the extremely intelligent detective stories of Byomkesh Bakshi, the sweet romantic historical fictions like Tungabhadrar teerey - on the bank of river Tungabhadra, thrillers like Jhinder bondi - prisoner of Jhind - transcreated from the Prisoner of Zenda, innumerous social stories, horror stories and stories for kids and teenagers span the spectrum of his writings. I can read his stories again and again without losing the charm ever. I love to dream of the far off places... distant in both space and time... and to dream of Arjun... :-)

Narayan Gangopadhyay

My grandmom was literally ROFL after reading a story written by Narayan Ganguly and my dad once told me, if you actually don't LOL after reading one of these stories then you are not a normal person. Narayan Ganguly's stories of the famous Teni-da and his gang can make any glum person smile. It's impossible for me to translate those stuff but the descriptions of situations the four guys find them in and the special East Bengali dialect one of them, Habul Sen speaks have made many people laugh their hearts out! I can only say that Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men in a Boat" can be the only close contestant of Narayan Ganguly's stories of Teni-da.

Satyajit Ray

That time, when we were teenagers and spent month long summer vacations, the time after lunch were mainly dedicated to reading story books. Curling with a book under a ceiling fan rotating at high speed, me and people of my generation have perhaps learned the most interesting things gleaned from Satyajit Ray's books - Felu-da, cousin Felu - the detective, Professor Shanku - a scientist who invented strange things and many other short stories. Apart from being a talented  writer, he was a world class movie director as well. His movies having paved the way for modern Indian films.



These books have come a long way... from young wives reading them in the afternoon when everyone else in the household were taking a nap to me downloading pdfs and reading them on my PlayBook. I'm sure they will live through many more changes yet to come...

Something fishy

A continuation of my last article, this one is about all those fish preparations of Bengali cuisine that make my salivary glands function to their fullest!

1. ইলিশ (Ilish) - I think it's already quite known that I love almost all types of Ilish preparation, barring a few that eclipses the taste of this strong flavored fish. For example, I don't like it being cooked with yogurt but the plain fare of ilish with egg-plant is pretty nice. With this fish, almost everything is heavenly!

Pabda

2. Not close, but second in list will be পাবদা (Pabda) in a mustard flavored gravy. This is very simple to cook though. Heat oil, fry the fishes lightly. Then throw in a few কালো জিরে (kalo jeerey, nigella) seeds and let them splutter. Then put the fishes back in the wok, add a paste of mustard, turmeric and green chillies or you can add whole green chillies with cilantro later as well. Simmer for a while and it's done. Ready to be eaten with steamed white rice!

Rui

3. পাকা রুই-এর কালিয়া (Rui curry) would be next. This is a rich preparation that needs onion paste and a host of other spices. I haven't cooked this and have had it only during family occasions as we didn't have much spicy food in our house. It has a warm, rich taste to it but needs a lot of oil to cook.

4. This is mostly eaten as an accompaniment as it's not possible to mix with rice, but a good ভেটকি মাছের fry (fried fillets of Bekti) can make a meal. Fishmongers of the local market will fillet the fish if you ask them and all it needs is a few eggs and some breadcrumbs to create this. Dip the fillets in beaten egg, roll it on breadcrumbs to cover them evenly and then deep fry them. This is among my Dad's top 3 fish preparations.

Prawn curry

5. চিংড়ি মাছের মালাইকারি (prawn in coconut curry) is one of the best preparations of prawn that I've had. The gravy is made from coconut milk and sauteed prawn is added to it. This dish has featured in many Bengali stories so it can be easily guessed that it has continued to be a favorite for ages. Also, prawn (or its cousins) are considered to be a symbol of West Bengal like Ilish is of the East. So during the famous Mohunbagan vs. East Bengal football (soccer) matches (equivalent to the rivalry between Huskies vs. Cougars in Washington or Roll Tide vs. War Eagles in Alabama) if Mohunbagan won, there'll be a lot of prawn cooked in the West Bengali households. Likewise Ilish would be eaten to celebrate an East Bengal win!

6. সিঙ্গি মাছের ঝোল (Shingi in light curry) has been immortalized by Pyalaram. He's perhaps the best connoisseur of this fish and the soupy thin curry that's so light that it's provided as a healthy food to kids and those whose digestive system is not that strong. (The reason why Pyala used to have it.) I love this fish as well as the preparation. Potatoes and পটল (potol, no translation available) are usually added to it and we queeze a piece of lime while mixing it with rice. There's no alternative to this meal for a sultry summer lunch.

Pomfret

7. Fried pomfret doesn't look like a very traditional recipe to me, nonetheless, it's a favorite of mine (and other fish lovers too). The fish just needs to be rubbed with salt and turmeric and pan fried. I love it as an accompaniment to rice and daal, but shredded veggies can be added to it and a full meal can be made from that.

8. কই মাছের গঙ্গা যমুনা (Koi/Tilapia in two flavors). The word by word translation would be Tilapia Mississippi-Missouri as a single fish has two flavors on two sides. It is one of the most difficult things I have ever cooked in my life. My grand-mom used to make it but I have never had it before the one I made myself. Here's the picture of it. The green side is spicy and the brown one is sour.

Koi in two flavors

When this recipe was successful, it made me realize that wherever I may be, my genes have kept all the information handy. So this proves a Bengali girl can never fail to cook fish, however difficult the recipe might be!!

On Bengali cuisine

There has been a lot already written about Bengali food and cooking but I want to add my bit to it. It's possible to write page after page on Bengali cooking - starting from the appetizers to the dessert, subtle flavors, methodical use of spices, about particular shapes of potatoes required for specific dishes... there's truly a lot of stuff to write about...

My encounter with Bengali food dates back to the same time as my experience with Bengali language. From the time I have started speaking a few broken words in Bengali, I have also started eating rice and fish. So, it's quite clear that it's impossible for me to write an unbiased article on Bengali food. I'm plainly in love with it.

I'm a super non-vegetarian, that means I thrive mostly on animal protein and I love it! After coming to the US I have experienced a lot of different cuisines as well, I love Asian food - dumplings, tom yum soup (among the top favorites, especially the one cooked by a Thai friend of mine), yakisoba. I live on varieties of pasta when I'm on a scarcity of time to cook. I LOVE bacon and anything that has bacon in it. Burgers and fries have made my dinner many many days... but at the end of the day, call it my comfort food or my fall-back-on food, it's always rice and fish (Bengali style).

I'll not try to write about all the different kinds of ঝাল - ঝোল - অম্বল (curries, soups, etc - bad translation) that we eat, I'll only jot down the ones I love most from the main courses this time. Sweets and snacks will follow in another article, sometime later.

1. শুক্ত (Shukto) - a bitter preparation of diced vegetables (potato, green banana, bitter gourd, drumsticks, etc) in a light curry. It is flavored with aromatic spices like whole mustard and asafoetida. I don't know if any other cuisine has bitter tasting dishes, but Bengalis love eating this. It is always eaten as the first course.

2. উচ্ছে ভাজা (Uchhe bhaja) - Fried bitter gourd. Such a simple thing to cook but so tasty! Another bitter preparation made by chopping bitter gourd into thin slices, smearing some turmeric and salt and deep frying them. It goes well as an accompaniment to daal and rice.

3. মুসুর ডাল (Masoor daal) - This is called "poor man's meat" as it is a good source of protein but cheap enough to be affordable by poor people for whom meat is too expensive. Daal is lentil soup so this particular daal (in a can't-be-mistaken shade of red, unlike others which range from pale to dark yellow) is cooked in a soupy way. I like it plain, with whole green chillies and a few cilantro leaves added for flavor.

4. লাল শাক (Laal Shaak) - Red leaves (a very bad translation)  It's a red leafy vegetable, like spinach, which when mixed with rice turns the rice to a rich red color. I don't know how to cook it, as I've never seen it around here. The one that's cooked at my home in Calcutta is awesome! That's all I can tell :-)

5. মোচার ঘন্ট (Mochar ghonto) - It is said that no part of the banana tree is ever wasted. Green bananas are eaten as vegetables, ripe ones as fruits, the leaves are used as plates and the stem is eaten when young, for older trees, the stems are used as lightweight dinghies. Baby bananas are made into a spicy dry curry and it tases very good. I haven't tried to cook this either.



6. আলু পোস্ত (Aloo posto) - Poppy seeds with potatoes. Like it's other variant ঝিঙে পোস্ত, is one of the most common favorite foods. Originating from West Bengali houses, now Calcuttans in general are in love with this dish. I had it for Saturday lunch for many many years. The potaoes are diced and lightly fried, then a paste of poppy seeds and green chillies is added to it and boiled with it for a few mins. That's it!

7. কলাই ডাল (Kolai daal/Urad daal) - This is always paired with the dish just mentioned above. They have been cooked together so many times in all households that now it's impossible to have one without the other. Also, people would name them together as well. Urad daal is cooked with fennel and asafoetida as the only spices. You just need to boild the daal with those two and you are all set!

8. পাঁঠার মাংস (Panthar mangsho) - Aaah...it brightens up my day to even think of this. I haven't tried cooking this mutton curry and haven't had it in a long while though, but it always makes me happy. This is a rich preparation which requires onion, garlic and gorom moshla (garam masala, hot spice(?)) and I don't know what else. It might be a little too much to digest, but the taste is awesome by all means.

9. মুরগির ঝোল (Murgir jhol) - This is a lighter version of the above one, made with chicken. Though using almost the same ingredients, the curry is lighter and it always has potatoes cut into quarters with it. A speciality for Sunday lunch, I have made it many times and is quite simple to cook. Kids love this very much.

10. লুচি (Luchi) - Puri but more refined in texture and taste. An invention hailing from Calcutta, the white fluffy balls of flour are darlings of Bengalis all over the world! Generally loved with mutton or rich chicken curry, it can be eaten with anything from fried potatoes to any kind of vegetables. The dough of flour is made into round balls and rolled to small discs. Those are then deep fried in oil (traditionally in ghee - clarified butter) and they pop up as thin white balls! It gives a heavenly satisfaction to eat it!

11. Fish - Probably I'll need to write a separate article just for fish. You've read about my ode to Ilish I guess, but that's just the tip of the iceberg! There's small fried fishes like Puti and Mourala, huge ones like Rui or Katla, Pabda to make a mustardy curry from, Bhetki to be made into fillets and fried, Chingri, best loved in a curry of coconut milk... oh this will go on and on...

Before I make you all super hungry, let me end this article here. Here's a platter of traditional foods from my wedding...  

Value of life

Recently when Rahul Dravid retired, Facebook seemed to be flooded with sorrowful odes to the "wall". It sounded as if the Great Wall of China is no more, literally. People forgot all the boring matches that he had played, those test matches where he scored 0 out of 100 deliveries... it was all about how great he was. Now, Sachin Tendulkar has scored his 100th century. Well, he's playing from 1992 I guess and with all these tournaments all year round, is that very unnatural that a person will eventually score his 100th 100 one day? I admit he is a very good cricketer but people seem to have elevated him to the pedestal of a super human, or better still, a god!

These make me re-think the value of human beings. These above mentioned guys, and many more like them, mostly in the entertainment business are considered to be superheroes. Who are they? Have they invented something for the human race? Any scientist who invented a life giving medicine? Any businessman who created thousands of jobs? Any philanthropist? An artist who has created something? Or even a teacher who molded several young bright minds to achieve their potential? None of these!! They are very ordinary human beings who have somewhat talent in a field which is considered very precious by their fellow men. That's it! What would have happened if these people were not there? I wouldn't have cared, for sure. I don't think it would have affected any of us by any means.

Spare a thought for him

Now think about that guy who is away from home... at the borders of Kashmir, at Siachen glacier, on the dry lands of Afghanistan... waiting for orders, not from his captain on how to arrange the fielding positions but how to fire at the enemy. How much salary does he get? How can we ever calculate his salary when his job description calls for the ultimate sacrifice? He works for us, he lays down his life to keep us safe, so that we can live to be entertained by those "superheroes". How much do we think about them? How many Facebook posts are written for these people who are the true heroes of mankind?

The X chromosome

Today is International Women's Day. I sometimes wonder if it is as overhyped as all the other "days" like - Valentine's Day, Mothers' Day and the rest. How many women actually know that there's a women's day? What would they do even if they knew that? For someone toiling through the drudgery of illiteracy, oppression and being victims of almost all the crimes that ever exist on the face of earth, would a "day" make much of a difference? Would we, living plush lives in cities and being pampered as a daughter, a sister, a wife or a friend by men of all races, ever realize the plight of mothers in Africa whose only dream is to bring up a healthy child in an AIDS infested area, who'd live past his 5th birthday?

We have had enough of "feminist" talks, about showcasing women who are "empowered" (though I am yet to know what these terms mean, truly) and we've also had lots of girls vs. boys fights starting from high school. I don't want to get into those... what makes me wonder is the marvel of the creation known as a "woman".

It's just the information stored in the X-chromosome that makes us what we are... the ethereal being. We have some disadvantages over men. We are physically not that strong. Also, we have days when we just have to "suck it up and be quiet" for the thing that draws us back is within ourselves. Still, we have caught up quite fast. From the time, not even a century back, when Indian women were not allowed to read or write, we have advanced enough to have Kalpana Chawla who went "out of the world" with her talents. Women's franchise is not a very old thing in human history as well. Has that stopped women from running in Presidential elections? Marie Curie was not allowed to pursue a career in science. Do we see a dirth of women professors and researchers in science now? No way!

Keeping abreast in society with professions and education equal to men doesn't mean we are losing our individuality. What we don't like is the stereotypical template men wants us to mold into. We cannot be contained in a shell... we need our own free sky to spread our wings and soar up. The thing I like most about being a woman is the various roles we play so well - how we adapt ourselves to the situation, the versalitility that we possess...

However technical we may have become, juggling with the intricacies of 3 different smartphones, loading builds on servers, automating processes to stress test applications, when we come home, doesn't the sight of a vase out of place on the accent table catch our attention? Don't we change to the "family mode" and reach out to see what we can cook for dinner? I'm sure the smartest businesswoman loves to share a girly gossip with as much enthusiasm as a high school girl. Haven't you noticed during conferences, how one lady would whisper to her female co-worker - "those are nice shoes, where did you get them from?" That's what makes us - us! And how we love that! Then there's another thing that binds us to every woman in the world - motherhood. That's where we are all the same! From that mother I mentioned above, getting help from a Child Survival Unit in Africa, to the one in modern 21st century cities getting the best care ever, there's only thing they are thinking about - their child. This is where we beat the guys hands down. We have been given such a huge responsibility by Nature - to nurture a life inside us and to bring that life to the world! Can there be anything greater than this?

There's one story I need to mention in connection of motherhood. There was an Indian lady and her husband who were transferred to some remote parts of Africa for work. The husband was working for UNO or something like that. The lady was expecting at that time and was in a miserable state of mind. She didn't know anyone in that part of the world, couldn't speak that language. Also, she was having morning sickness and felt like death. The husband had to leave her to go to work. When he came back in the evening, he saw a host of village women have come to his quarters to attend to his wife. They had seen her crying and they figured out that she was expecting. So they brought all the traditional food that they eat at these times for the lady and were trying to make her feel comfortable. They didin't need any cognitive language, as they spoke the language of compassion and friendship.

Our lives are like the five-petaled rose of Venus. With the unfolding of each petal we go from childhood to maturity, then to motherhood and finally gracefully move on to the silver headed experienced grand old ladies! That reminds me of an experience. I was on a trip to Lake Chelan a couple of years back, when on the boat, I met two ladies. One was 4 years old, who constantly kept us amused with her nursery rhymes and comparisons of the various Disney Princesses, the other had already crossed her diamond jubilee and was steadily progressing towards platinum. She was married for 46 years and was telling me how to keep a marriage happy. They both appreciated the blue bead necklace that I was wearing! That made me realize how we all share the common traits. We were at different petals of Venus' rose, but we belong to the same flower after all.

We are the daughters of Eve and we love it!

[Dedicated to all the warriors in society, nurturers and versatile hard working women I've known about, those who are proud to be a woman!]