Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Am I Still a Bengali?

For all those following my gym trials - well I am still struggling with inertia and leachy men but the good news is that the weight is definitely going down.

On a completely different note, I just realised with a jolt the other day that my children are getting cut off from the culture that I grew up in. And although we were pretty secular(My dad went to the Brahmo Samaj and Mom was the quintessential hindu rajmata) my brother and I were pretty iffy about our religious inclinations. We both prayed fervently for 10 secs on the day of the examinations and we quite rightly felt that we had done our Godly duty.

Cut to the present. My son is 6 and my daughter is 4. The former follows the dad to the tee- so he can spout the Gayatri mantra and seems to like having a chat with God before he brushes his teeth in the morning. He knows that Diwali means crackers galore and any other festival means that he gets new clothes and we eat like there is no tomorrow. But that's not all of it, is it?

So this Durga Puja I have decided to (a.) Tell him the story of Durga Mata in the simplest Hinglish possible. (b.) Drag him to the pandals at aarti time and try and put the fear of the lady goddess in him. Shreya is still too small to appreciate all these efforts of mine,  but I am sure the sweet prasad will please her to no end.

So to all the Bengali gals who have married into other cultures hoist high the flag of the Bengal Spirit minus all the negativity, with great pride!!!

Pujor Hawa laga!

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