I had just arrived in Nuremberg by train and was checking in at the hotel. Viktoria was the name, I think. There came another Indian to check in and as soon as he asked the receptionist about checking in, I knew that he was a Bengali. The accent and the sentence structure are dead give-aways.
I waited for him to check in and once he finished asked him, “apni bangali na ki?” (Are you a Bengali? I hope this is correct!). His face lit up like a 1000 W bulb. He said, “yes!” (of course) and proffered his hand and asked, “are you a Bangali too” in English. That made things easier. I said “No, but I can speak a little Bangla”.
He said, “Great, let us have dinner together! You will be my guest. I have been traveling for the last few weeks and am sick of talking to clients and only in English.”
An hour or so later, we met at the reception again and he took me to a Chinese restaurant and we had a great meal. The conversation was tri-lingual. Hindi, English and Bangla. I had a great time. I was not a comfortable traveler in those days (I am not much better even today). So, his company was most welcome.
Not bad for just a few words of Bangla, eh?
2 comments:
Wow! 4 posts Anil!! I read them all.
Anyway, coming to this post, a school friend taught me how to read, write & speak(a bit) Bengali. Though I haven't used it much yet but I learnt this language to talk to Dada :-)
Not bad at all!
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