Thursday, September 28, 2006

Pujo time

Landed in Bombay yesterevening. En route to Bill's place:

Mr. S: See, this is the pandal, this is all decorated so nicely.

Me: Yes, it is.

Mr. S: From tomorrow, the kitchen is open only for breakfast.

Me: What kitchen?

Mr. S: Our kitchen. Aunty will make only breakfast.

Me: Oh, thats alright. I know how to cook. (Bill @#$%^&!, just you wait...)

Mr. S: No, no, not that. We will go have food with everyone at the Pujo place.

Me: Oh, I see.

Mr. S: There will be all kind of stalls where we can go get food.

Me: That's nice.

Mr. S: We will also have cultural function every evening.

Me: Nice. What sort of cultural functions?

Mr. S: Tomorrow, there will be Bengali folk songs. Singers are coming all the way from Kolkata.

Me: Oh

Mr. S: And the day after, there's a play by an upcoming troupe from Kolkata.

Me: Hmm..

Mr. S: Don't worry, we will get the Kid(aka the bro-in-law) to translate for you.

Me: Okay (Like the Kid knows any real Bong...)

After a few minutes.

Me: What's this pandal? This looks nice.

Mr. S: Oh no, this is all local. Gujarati festival. They also have Navratri na?

Me: Yes yes.

Mr. S: Anyway, all they have is song and dance. Quite loud too.

Me: I see.

Mr. S: No cultural functions. Just some filmi people they will call and dance.

Me: Of course.

Mr. S: We will also go visit different Pujos across the city

Me: There are different Pujas?

Mr. S: Of course, every locality has their own. In Powai, this time we are having a model of the Dakshineshwar temple.

Me: How cool! (Isn't that an overkill?)

Mr. S: Artisans from Bengal have been working on it for the past few months.

Me: Nice (Of course it takes months, they work only every third day since they have to be on strike the other days)

Mr. S: As you will see, its not really religious. Thats just an excuse. Its mostly a social gathering with a lot of cultural events.

Me: Nice. (Good try)

Mr. S: We are really looking forward to having you here. You will see first hand our Bengali culture.

Me: I am looking forward to it too.

So there. Next few days in Bombay taking the Bong association of Greater Bombay by storm. Moi. Stay tuned.

4 comments:

Anoop said...

You are with the in-laws for Pujo without even Bill for protection?! Am eagerly awaiting the photos. :D

The Black Mamba said...

total colchor-bolchor and all. heard from Bill that you actually enjoyed the folk-singing! pleej to explain such inexplicable behaviour, before we faint.

Veena said...

Anoop: Just being lazy..will upload pictures and stuff soon.

BM: Can you please start doing some research on stuff that you were supposed to do research on like a month ago? We don't have too much time you know.

Unknown said...

Oh, what about the meal? Where have you eaten if it wasn't you to cook? As for me, I adore cooking and don't like to eat somewhere else!!! Even when my husband and I were on Cyprus, we initially made up our mind to stay not in the hotel, but at Cyprus villa, where I had a little kitchen and could cook what I want!!!! Suppper!!! :)