A little known fact about the BBC. It may be known as British Broadcasting Corporation all over the world, but in Delhi, the headquarters of the BBC South Asia bureau, insiders would tell you what BBC really stands for. BBC here is better known as the Bongo Bondhu Corporation (Friends of Bengalis Corporation).
When I joined in 2001, in the English section of the bureau, one had a whole bunch of Bengali colleagues.
There was Sanjay Ganguly. Biharis, and even Jharkhandis, too, stake claim on him as son of the soil, they say he is from Jamshedpur. But he has impeccable probashi (non-resident) Bangali credentials, having studied in Delhi's Rasinha Bengali Higher Secondary School.
Then there was Subhranshu Chaudhary. From Jats to Chhattisgarhis to even, rumouredly, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, they all thought Chaudhary bhai was one of them. Fact is, the fellow is as Bengali as good old kobiguru. He even has a beard to back his case.
Geeta Pandey wasn't born a Bengali, but she was raised in Calcutta, did her schooling and college there, even worked for the Ananda Bazar Patrika group. How much more of a Bengali can you be? She does, now and then, claim that she used to eat Tinda in Calcutta, but no one has ever held that against her.
Like Geeta, Vivek (known as Bibek to Shooprokash Da) Raj wasn't born a Bengali, but grew up in Calcutta. Just as converts are known to make the worst zealots, Bibek, oops, Vivek is more Bengali than the next three Bengalis put together. From adda to murighonto to the latest Bengali pop, he has a penchant for things Bengali.
Jyotsna Singh is from Kashi, oops, Benaras, a city that we all know has been part of a longdrawn dispute between Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, with both states claiming it as their own. Besides she is married to Surojit, as authentic a Bangali as you will ever find.
And though Tinku Ray speaks English with an accent that makes you wonder if good old Jolpaiguri is somewhere between New York and Boston, there is no disputing the fact that she is as Bengali as Momota Didi.
But the quintessential Bengali in the BBC bureau was Ayanjit Sen. The predominantly Sikh drivers of the taxi stand which serviced the office insisted on referring to Ayanjit as a Singh and claimed him as a Punjab da puttar. Fact is, even a blind man could see he was not faking it, when you saw the orgasmic look on the fellow's face as he opened his lunch box and discovered Ma had packed macchher jhol aar bhaat (fish curry and rice).
And then there was yours truly. Born a Sylheti, raised in Andamans, and after three decades in Delhi, my claims of being a Bengali are dodgy, detractors insist. On my side is the fact that when you mention the phrase 'pleasures of the flesh', the first thing that springs to my mind is spiecy double fried pork. Besides I am bone lazy, can talk on politics or cricket for hours, and pompous enough to call my blogspace, Postcards From The Edge. Anyone who questions my Bengali credentials ought to get his head examined.
Apart from the above-mentioned, over the years, other Bengalis joined the Delhi office. The bhalo chhele (good boy) from London, Sanjoy Majumder, and the aaro bhalo chhele (even better boy) from Calcutta, Soutik Biswas, who between them manned BBC Online operations in this part of the world.
They both wrote English the proppah way, the way the Shahebs (white folks) taught us, and were remarkably politically correct about most things. What gave their Bengaliness away was the unmistakable gleam in their eyes the moment you mentioned the word "food". The subject usually heralded the beginning of prolonged, rather animated discussions that often ended in serious food binges.
There was a strong rumour at one point of time that Bernard (Baarnard, as pronounced by Subir Da) Gabony, who heads BBC South Asia online, is actually a Bengali, masquerading as a white man. I checked with Bernard, who denied any such thing. But since it is par for the course for BBC management to deny anything they are ever asked, I wasn't too sure what to make of the denial. In the end we all agreed, because of the man's undoubted good tastes, to adopt him as a Bengali. Issue resolved.
Among all these Bengalis, there were a few non-Bongs too. But like all ethnic minorities, they sensibly remained low profile or eventually left the organization. Monica went back to Mumbai after a two-year stint. Upasana joined monitoring. Shilpa came to the Beeb from Bangalore, via Pune, and has survived so far only because most Bengalis see her as a kindred spirit -- her Hindi is decidedly worse than theirs.
Today Rajyashri Rao, Meenakshi Gupta and Abhishek Prabhat are no longer part of BBC. They left at different times, citing different reasons. But those at the Bongo Bondhu Corporation know better.
When I joined in 2001, in the English section of the bureau, one had a whole bunch of Bengali colleagues.
There was Sanjay Ganguly. Biharis, and even Jharkhandis, too, stake claim on him as son of the soil, they say he is from Jamshedpur. But he has impeccable probashi (non-resident) Bangali credentials, having studied in Delhi's Rasinha Bengali Higher Secondary School.
Then there was Subhranshu Chaudhary. From Jats to Chhattisgarhis to even, rumouredly, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, they all thought Chaudhary bhai was one of them. Fact is, the fellow is as Bengali as good old kobiguru. He even has a beard to back his case.
Geeta Pandey wasn't born a Bengali, but she was raised in Calcutta, did her schooling and college there, even worked for the Ananda Bazar Patrika group. How much more of a Bengali can you be? She does, now and then, claim that she used to eat Tinda in Calcutta, but no one has ever held that against her.
Like Geeta, Vivek (known as Bibek to Shooprokash Da) Raj wasn't born a Bengali, but grew up in Calcutta. Just as converts are known to make the worst zealots, Bibek, oops, Vivek is more Bengali than the next three Bengalis put together. From adda to murighonto to the latest Bengali pop, he has a penchant for things Bengali.
Jyotsna Singh is from Kashi, oops, Benaras, a city that we all know has been part of a longdrawn dispute between Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, with both states claiming it as their own. Besides she is married to Surojit, as authentic a Bangali as you will ever find.
And though Tinku Ray speaks English with an accent that makes you wonder if good old Jolpaiguri is somewhere between New York and Boston, there is no disputing the fact that she is as Bengali as Momota Didi.
But the quintessential Bengali in the BBC bureau was Ayanjit Sen. The predominantly Sikh drivers of the taxi stand which serviced the office insisted on referring to Ayanjit as a Singh and claimed him as a Punjab da puttar. Fact is, even a blind man could see he was not faking it, when you saw the orgasmic look on the fellow's face as he opened his lunch box and discovered Ma had packed macchher jhol aar bhaat (fish curry and rice).
And then there was yours truly. Born a Sylheti, raised in Andamans, and after three decades in Delhi, my claims of being a Bengali are dodgy, detractors insist. On my side is the fact that when you mention the phrase 'pleasures of the flesh', the first thing that springs to my mind is spiecy double fried pork. Besides I am bone lazy, can talk on politics or cricket for hours, and pompous enough to call my blogspace, Postcards From The Edge. Anyone who questions my Bengali credentials ought to get his head examined.
Apart from the above-mentioned, over the years, other Bengalis joined the Delhi office. The bhalo chhele (good boy) from London, Sanjoy Majumder, and the aaro bhalo chhele (even better boy) from Calcutta, Soutik Biswas, who between them manned BBC Online operations in this part of the world.
They both wrote English the proppah way, the way the Shahebs (white folks) taught us, and were remarkably politically correct about most things. What gave their Bengaliness away was the unmistakable gleam in their eyes the moment you mentioned the word "food". The subject usually heralded the beginning of prolonged, rather animated discussions that often ended in serious food binges.
There was a strong rumour at one point of time that Bernard (Baarnard, as pronounced by Subir Da) Gabony, who heads BBC South Asia online, is actually a Bengali, masquerading as a white man. I checked with Bernard, who denied any such thing. But since it is par for the course for BBC management to deny anything they are ever asked, I wasn't too sure what to make of the denial. In the end we all agreed, because of the man's undoubted good tastes, to adopt him as a Bengali. Issue resolved.
Among all these Bengalis, there were a few non-Bongs too. But like all ethnic minorities, they sensibly remained low profile or eventually left the organization. Monica went back to Mumbai after a two-year stint. Upasana joined monitoring. Shilpa came to the Beeb from Bangalore, via Pune, and has survived so far only because most Bengalis see her as a kindred spirit -- her Hindi is decidedly worse than theirs.
Today Rajyashri Rao, Meenakshi Gupta and Abhishek Prabhat are no longer part of BBC. They left at different times, citing different reasons. But those at the Bongo Bondhu Corporation know better.
1 comment:
hi
Jaideep here, long lost but never too late to find. Send me your number.
Jaideep@zeetvusa.com
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