Bingo Bongo !!

Well….this is one day I look forward to! There are days when it is fun being a bong and this is one of them. Today Bengalis celebrate a feast known as ‘Jamai Shashti’ which if literally translated would read something like a ‘son-in-law day’. This is an occasion dedicated to the son-in-law/s of the family and hence the name Jamai shashti.

But why should ‘boys’ have all the fun? For as many years as I can remember, we have celebrated this occasion at our home with all fervor and without any son-in-law (you see, I am the eldest). My granny says that it is an occasion of blessings and so she been organizing this event to bless the younger ones in the family ever since. All of us are made to sit in an order on the floor which is followed by a series of rituals. I especially like the one in which we are fanned with a palm leaf, a traditional ‘fan’ if u will. We are served an assortment of seasonal fruits and a yellow thread is tied on our wrists.

Can any Bengali celebration be complete without food, and loads of it! Then we indulge in elaborate feasting including mouth watering delicacies and sweetmeat drawn to a close with our very favorite roshogullas! And the ones available back home, they are mmm….finger licking good! Well, the son-in-laws and especially the new ones are pampered with new outfits and other gifts on this day. Though we don’t get any, we still eagerly wait for this day! It’s fun yeah….

Updates from the Maximum city within a week or two. I am waiting…

Brainy talk...

IITB main building

It is becoming increasingly difficult to generate posts sitting here because all I can think of is the scorching heat and the snail like crawling days. But I don’t think it fair to bore you with loads of crap, it’s not fair to the name Mumbai salsa either. So, I thought of writing about a hip place in Mumbai that I know of. Haha…really hip! Believe me; I am going to change your perceptions about this institution.

You have read about them in Five Point Someone…I had read it too. But it’s only recently that I have got an insight into the lives of the ‘ten point someone’ s too and I don’t think there’s much of a difference. You thought they are all zombies with glasses and intellectual looks who live in the world of computers and books…! (phew, note the accidental rhyming here ). You gotta give it a second thought. They are the lucky lot who have earned a life much more fascinating and exciting than most of us and they live it to the fullest! Don’t get the impression that it’s a cake walk…it’s not. Making it to IIT Bombay up till passing out from there is a journey marked with hardships at every step. That is why, only tough guys survive in this fray.

Okay…firstly it’s important to let you know how I have come to form an opinion about them. Thanks to a number of friends I have made there! And thanks to all our night outs together. Night outs because the rules of the hostels there don’t let me sleep. Incidentally, most of the people I know there are guys and I am thrown out (not quite literally) of their rooms as soon as the clock strikes ten. All we can do is chat our way through the nights loitering in the campus or lazing by the lake-side. There have been nights when I have slept in the hostel mess and painfully watched movies non-stop till the next morning. Oh, yes…you must have heard about the fair sex crunch in the IITs. It’s too much in your face there. There are a total of thirteen hostels out of which only two are occupied by girls. Ohh….what a pity! The skewed ratio is to blame if I don’t have a single girlfriend there.

I suddenly feel I have too much to write about them. I just can’t go on like that. So, let me bring out the striking points first…( that struck me as interesting obviously):
1. The walls of the boys’ hostels are white or yellow whereas the rooms of their scarce counterparts are painted in a girlie shade of pink! hehehe…that’s really so girlie ! I like pink walls too but unfortunately, I have a boring yellow.
2. They are served four interesting meals a day. The menu seems inviting more often than not though the guys can’t stop cribbing about it. Paneer parathas, butter chicken, pani-puri and what not! Not to mention, the extra servings of tea and maggi at midnight during their exams.
3. These guys love to celebrate! Be it any trivial reason, they are always game for parties. Sometimes, even without a reason or for all wrong reasons like screwing their exams! None of them ever needs an excuse for a ‘daaru party’, as they call it. Get drunk and forget your woes..!
4. Last but not the least, they drink, they dope, they fag (a staggering number of them, if not all). And whatever time is left with them, they use it for studying. Thanks to their amazing brains…..they still rock the world!!

Swinging mood

kempty falls at Mussoorie


I guess I have been conspicuous by my absence of late after my short presence in the blogosphere. I am very much alive and kicking, to inform my well-wishers. But being alive has not been a cake walk all these days. Soaring mercury, bouts of sickness and constant mood- swings have been dominating my life lately. It’s too arid and hot back home and I am missing aamchi mumbai terribly. Same with all my friends as shown by their status messages on social networking sites. No doubt, it’s humid there and one keeps sweating endlessly but one is spared of the hot winds at least that keep one grounded at home. It’s really unbearable.

On top of that, the boredom that grips one at home after a certain period of time makes matters worse. Being lukhkha is not the most pleasant state to be in. What an irony life is! You crave for a few moments of solitude in the hustle-bustle of life and when you have all the time in the world to yourself, you actually hate it! Everyone seems to be missing campus life and home -made food seems to be the only attractive prospect to keep us at our homes.

And to top it all, my mood swings….! They just come out of nowhere and make my life hell. I am a different person altogether who is so much a stranger to me. I become extremely irritable and sulk all day long. Thankfully, I can blame the virus that my body played host to this time. Maybe the viral fever did it all, maybe the hot climate. Everyone thought that the trip to Dehradun-Mussoorie would be a respite but I played a spoilsport even there. Ask me what I enjoyed and I will have to rack my grey cells. But I can give you a list of things and people who got on my nerves throughout the trip. Gawd… I am scared of myself! Whatever, I am trying hard to keep my blues at bay and looking forward to getting back to the Maximum City.