Attack of the Aunties!

Durga Puja in Delhi certainly does not have the charm of the puja's back home. But there are somethings that even Geography can't alter. Witness this, on DP, I donned my bestest and brightest for the morning Anjali. Reached Kailash Colony Durga Bari and found my bestest and brightest seriously upstaged.

Not to be undone, I decided to brave the five yards in the evening. But the final effect was more "bedsheety" instead of the sophisticated image that I wanted to portray. Hoping that my attire doesn't succumb to irrantional gravitational pool and end up in a puddle right in front of the idol, I placed my odds with "manju pins' (I used the whole effing packet on the whole effing saree), and off to the Aarti I went. While I was making my way out after the 50 odd minutes of devotion, I was stopped by a Bengali lady with the following line:

"Apni bangla niki?" (are you Bengali?) And in the true spirit of pujo, I used my standard answer" Aami Assamese kintu ami Bangla bujte pai, aar ektu ektu

bolti pari" ( I am Assamese, but I can understand and speak a bit of Bengali). What followed was this:

BL: Acha, apnar bari kothai? (Where is your home?)
Me: Guwahati
BL: Aar family kothai? (where is your family?)
ME: Guwahati
BL: Apnar age ki? (what is you age?)
Me: Stioc silence (Age pe nahi jane ka)
BL: Apni married na unmarried? (Are you married or unmarried)
ME: Single
BL: Apni married na unmarried? (I don't think she understood the concept of "single")

By this time, a couple of other Bengali aunties in their brand new Tat sarees had already joined this converation. Turns out the lady was looking for a girl for her sister's son. By the likes of it very desparately too, otherwise among the bevy of item pieces you won't attack a poor soul who is literally holding on to her attire. Bowing out of the coversation with dignity was like taking a ball out of Bumba's (my adorable untrained Golden Retriever) mouth. But, retreat I did. So at the end Vishesh Tioni is this folks: you can take the Durga Puja out of Assam, but who's gonna take out the match fixing out of the Durga Puja?