Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A lil’ of Bengal in Dilli…

Of the famous colonies of Delhi, one cannot miss the name Chittaranjan Park. A visit three years back has just become a memory of visiting relatives. But yesterday, my visit there will be engraved in my memory as a nice and livening experience. I saw a little bit of Bengal in the Hindi-populated streets of Delhi.

The market where I went, is one of the largest in C.R Park and has a completely ‘Bengali’ atmosphere. There were the typical Bengali Babus in their adda (and I am told this will be found only in this place in Delhi). We (that is my brother and I) entered the fish market first. It was quite a sight!! I felt I was suddenly uplifted from the crowds of the capital to the heart of Bengal. The shopkeepers were Bengali, everyone was talking in Bangla and it just seemed that a part of Kolkata was lifted and placed in here. The screams, the bargains, the men in kurta all were not part of delhi.

Coming out of that place, I heard tits and bits of some conversation. There were the older generations vividly talking about politics and the events of the day while the second generation young Bengalis were having their share of adda in Hindi. My brother later explained that these second generation Bengalis in Delhi have become a curious mixture of Hindi-wallas and Bengalis. There language just shows that.

Though I was there for a very little time, it was heart-warming to find that there were people from my place who had managed to build their own space that no other community has managed to do in Delhi yet.

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