One night @ a Bengali gathering

A strong whiff of deep fried fish, echoes of high pitched boisterous laughter and unlimited variety of food.. Welcome to a Bengali gathering.

Needless to mention Bengalis love their food. Breaking all barriers of calorie counts they HAVE to have their fish, Beguni (Deep fried Brinjals coated with a mixture of chickpea flour) for starters which will be served thrice, each time giving you that you-eat-like-a-bird look. And your stomach will be so full of them , you would want to kill yourself before the main course arrives.

Apart from the food there are also small sub groups formed in the gathering. On set of aunties will be hovering around the kitchen irrespective of whether they are needed there, sharing tips of improving the already known dishes (Aunty1:"Put this along with that and you see how the kids love it. I always do that" Aunty2: "Accchhhaaaaa??") Some busily indulging in gossip of who wore the worst sari in the last gathering or who spoke something highly offensive or some latest gold earring someone bought followed by all ladies examining the piece of jewellery like a molecular biology scientist and raving like they just saw one of the rarest pieces of jewellery in their entire life.
The men will be either discussing politics or cricket and if a match is on then they become visibly oblivious to their surroundings. Their food intake is directly proportional to the no. of wickets fallen in the last overs. And no matter who is talking to them their eyes will be glued to the TV screen like they originated from there and the collective scream of joy at a fallen wicket will shake the whole apartment.

Group number 3 will be of the youngsters who will catch up while giving an occasional glance at their phones for new text messages. Topics of discussion will range from how boring family functions can be to discussing universal mommy dialogues (and hi5-ing at them) to how difficult it is for us, Bengalis, to lose weight no matter how hard we try and all this while digging into copious amounts of high calorie snacks.

And finally arrives the main course. Not one, not two, there will be at least 5 side dishes and every aunty expecting you to eat "her curry" properly or else you will be blamed of how less your appetite is or the usage of the classic line "tum bacche log nahi khaoge toh kaun khaega?".

Just when you thought it is over, wait for it....there will be juicy Rajbhog or chamcham waiting in line to seduce your eyes (your stomach becomes numb at this point) and you will be gladly offered two if you have the reputation of loving sweets (I m a perfect example)

The party spirit will go on till the hosts drop all the guests to their car with another round of bosterious laughter and never ending bye byes and "Aabar ashbe" (Please come again) and all your weight loss plans will be disposed in deepest of deep ditches.