Sept. 24 - Balcony Invite

There's a very kind family that lives across the street from my building - our verandas face each other. We've smiled back & forth & chatted when their class five daughter is home to translate. I commented this morning, as we both sat sipping tea 30 feet apart from each other & two stories up, that there sure was a lot of hustle & bustle at their complex. Enough said - an invite was immediately delivered to join them for a "small" housewarming, at noon. How delightful!




Chairs & buffet table arriving for party...

Noon arrived & I strolled across to their flat...with workers swarming around a huge buffet table, a field kitchen created behind a screen which should've been my first hint that the West Bengali definition of small differed quite a bit from ours. I was the first to arrive & was seated in the living room. Family members who spoke English stopped by to learn more about me, & I them, until 1:00 pm when the other guests started to arrive.

Many social functions include performances; we had a short, extraordinarily gifted concert from one of the cousins who is a professional traditional Bengali singer & the daughter danced to Enrique, her FAV!

Rangoli...floor decor to welcome guests....

Then, tah-dah - I was one of the guests of honor, standing, greeting, being fawned over again & again as folks arrived...well over 200! No one but the most elderly, i.e respected, could sit with me in the living room, with folks stopping by to talk, standing, of course.


Yet, it still hadn't quite sunk in...working through the language barriers, trying to remember names...lots was happening quickly...so it took me being asked twice "Are you ready to eat?" to realize that all the women of the house were waiting for me to go downstairs to the buffet before they'd start a plate! Such a dunce!

Wow - what a buffet! Salad, rice, dal, Bengali mustard fish, fried eggplant, mutton, Marsala aloo (potato), chutney, Bengali curd & sweets


As you may have noticed....Bengalis dont always smile in pictures....we were laughing, she turned towards the camera....

I ended up staying over three hours...talked to their college age son "in American" & promised to spend a night playing games while we chat when he's home next so he can hear as much US English as possible. One of the many sister-in-laws handed me her mobile number, , asking me to please remember them & should I find it in my means, call to help their son learn English "properly", though bilingual Bengalis speak much more proper English than I. It was such a break from the solitude & I learned so much.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Kol, WB