All Hearts are dead except those with knowledge... All those with knowledge are asleep except those who perform good actions... All those who perform good actions are deceived except those with sincerity... And all those with sincerity are in a constant state of anxiety... [Imam Shafi'i]

Monday, November 07, 2005

Bangali formalities!

Saturday:

At the evening, an aunty calls and asks to speak 2 my parents.

Me: Aunty, ammu abbuto ektu baire giyeche. Ami ki kono message dite pari abbu ammuke?
Aunty: Na ma, eid e to tomra ashla na, ei jonno bhabchilam ajke raat-e tomaderke ashte bolbo.
Me: Aunty, ajke raat-e je amader ekta dawat ache ***** Uncle er bashai.
Aunty: Tai? Acha tahole, tomar ammu abbuke bolo je kalke raat-e jeno amader bashai ashe. Bikale char tai to tomar uncle bashai ashe tai raat-e amra shobai mile khabo. Acha?
Me: Acha aunty, insha Allah ami abbu ammuke ei message ta dibo.

This is what I can remember of the convo (not word for word though). Ta ami ar ki korbo? Abbu ammu bashai ashlo, I gave them the message. And they said, "OK we'll go".

Sunday:

This being the night of the dawat, we went to this aunty's place. We went a bit early because abbu ammu hadnt spoken 2 them in a while so they wanned a jomjomat adda. Plus I told them, if u do early, go b4 maghrib coz i hafta pray there then. And thats what we did. The whole family went, all 5 of us (abbu, ammu, me, sis and fupi). The first time in MONTHS we all went someplace 2getha so it was a real festive feeling. Kintu, oi bashai giye dekhi aunty-der dorja janala shob locked. Ar ki kora, abbu gave a call on the aunty's mobile.

Aunty: Ki bhai, ki khobor? Bhalo achen?
Abbu: Eito achi arki. Tomra kothai?
Aunty: Amra to *****der bashai. Ken bhai? Ashben?
Abbu: Uhhhh (lost for words - long pause), Shelleyr shathe kotha bolo.
Shelley (aka ammu): Eije, ishita naki bolchilo je tumi ajke raate dawat diso.
Aunty: Koi, nato.
Ammu: Tumi naki bolso je ajke raat-e ******** (her hubby) ashar pore amra ekshathe khabo. Ei jonno ashte bolso.
Aunty: Koi, erokom kono kotha to hoini. Kintu, tate ki hoise, apnara half an hour pore ashen. Shomosha ki? Ekshathe khabo amra.
Ammu: Na thak, ishitar to namaj porte hobe, eijonno bashai jai.
Aunty: Na na apa, apnara ashe pashe ghuren, amra adha ghontar modhe ashchi.
Ammu: Na na, tomra berau, amra jai. Onno arek din beraiye jabo. Heh?

After that there was a long convo where the aunty was telling us 2 stay and my parents were saying that we were leaving... Then on the way back home...

Ammu: O ki asholey tomake bolechilo je amaderke raat-e jete?
Me: Ami ja message peyechi, tomake tai bolechi.
Ammu: Bujhechi, o hoito emni beraite jabar kotha boleche ar tumi oitake dawat mone korecho.
Me: Hoito tai. Uni amake bollo je raat-e tomaderke khete jete bolte, eita dawat-er motoi mone holo amar. Man, this bangali formalities! I dont get it! Dawat dile keo bolte parena je dawat dilam! Eto ghuriye pechiye keno bolte hoi!
Fupi: Etao to hote pare je unara tomake msg debar por tomar abbu ammu fone kore confirm koreni. Ei jonno unara bhebeche tomra ashbena.
Ammu: Kintu o je bollo, oishob kotha ishita ke o ekdom bolei nai.
Me: Tomader o dosh ache! Ami bollam je dawat dise, ektu fone kore confirm korba na. Ei jonnoi to unara bhule gese.

Anyways, the moral of that story is:
Keo jodi kokhono amake ba amar family ke dawat deo, clearly bole diyo to je "Eita ekta DAWAT, not just an invite saying come over sometimes". Or better that u leave the msg with abbu ammu or if u leave it with me, who is completely oblivious to bengali formalities, we'll show up when u dont want us there :P

PS. Is it just me or is every1 having trouble accessing PA's blog? When i go there all it shows is a blank page with the blogger toolbar thingo at the top :S

2 Comments:

Blogger »|m|u|n|i|r|a|« said...

ohg! omg! How incosiderate of them and hoe embarrassing for you! Ammu was in a situ like this in BD, it was a little diff *lol* She told this aunty, 'amader bashai ashben.' So the next day she came over, she's like 'What happned? Why did you ask me to come?' Ammu's like 'For no special reason, just emni dekha shakkhat!' And she's like 'Oh!' It was so funny!

1:19 pm

 
Blogger L said...

yeah! i cant visit pa's blog too!

6:27 pm

 

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