Are you a Bengali?

Yesterday on my way home from office, I heard an elderly couple lamenting that "Ajkalkar chhelemeyegulo ar Bangali nei!"  (Youngsters, they are not Bengali anymore!). Then they went on to say how those good olden days were and how times have changed. Inspired by their discussion, I thought of preparing a checklist which contains all the eligibility criteria that someone need to satisfy to be called a "Bangali" (Bengali/ Bong!!). Here it is.

1. Do you love the "Rasogolla"? If you don't, then sorry my dear friend, your application for being called a Bengali will be summarily rejected. This is the first criterion that you have to satisfy.

2. You have to love Rabindra Sangeet. Period.

3. You have to support either East Bengal or Mohun Bagan and you have to argue vehemently that your team is the best. No, supporting Manchester United or Arsenal or Barcelona or any other team will not do.

4. Do you have a nickname which is a member of the infinite set of Bengali nicknames like Babu, Bumba, Tatan, Papai, Rumpa, Piu, Riya, Rana etc.?

5. You have to believe that Sourav Ganguly is the best Indian cricket captain ever. Non-believers may say otherwise but at their own risk.

6. Boys and girls, you have to wear pajama-punjabi / dhuti-panjabi and sari respectively on festive occasions.

7. Have you ever tried to write poetry or sing a song or tried your hand at drama or painting or in any other form of art?

8. You have to love food, be it Biriyani or Posto bata and be open to try new recipes.

9. You should speak weird Hindi.

10. You should have an opinion on politics.

11. You have to read books, especially the works of some of the finest wordsmiths like Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bibhuti Bhushan Bandyopadhyay, Manik Bandyopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Joy Goswami etc.

12. Last but not the least, you have to master the art of procrastination.

Paul-a different point of view

The recently concluded FIFA World Cup 2010 has given birth to a new star. No, I am not taking about the Ozils or the Sneijders....it's Paul...the omnipotent Paul.
This man(oops... octopus) can predict the results of the games,that too with 100% accuracy. So media should go gaga over him.

But skeptical as I am, just thought about a possibility. What if Paul was not able to predict successfully? This is very much possible since the prediction is nothing but an illustration of good,old probability theory. The fact that it was able to predict the results correctly does not necessarily signify its psychic powers. Why can't we understand that it's purely by chance, not by some so called psychic power or anything else???

I have seen men, even the most educated of them,indulge in this kind of irrational activities. Why can't we be a bit more rational in our approach? Why do the supporters of the defeated teams show their frustration over Paul? Why don't they realize that they have been defeated due to poor football and not by any psychic powers?

Don't know when people will be able to think and act rationally??Till then...
Long Live The Paul....