Saturday, 20 August 2016

When You Have Guests In Bangladesh

Hello!


Hope you are doing well! I'm not! I spent a day without my voice, hit my leg quite hard, had a poisonous insect bite me in the neck twice, huge face breakout, the kitchen heat and this heat itself killing me everyday. I'm pretty sure I'm getting bitten by the ants right now. But that's just my personal struggle like everyone...

First of all... I know I made a similar post months ago. However, this is quite different to the one I posted before. That one was when you have guests in a Bengali house abroad. For me that would be having guests in London. This one is about when you have short time guests in a house in Bangladesh. When I say short time I mean probably like for an hour or 2. We had guests today so I learnt about the steps that happen when you have guests. This is what happens...


1. Knowing They Are Coming

Whoever wants to come will call someone at home to let them know they will be coming over. When they say they are coming they do not expect to have lunch or dinner, they tend to come for tea and chatter. In some instances someone from the house will call them to come over for tea and chatter. This is most likely to be for neighbours as the neighbours in Bangladesh tend to be quite close like friends. Some people inform when they left the house and it is chaotic if anyone does that. The life of the people in the house instantly becomes hell.


2. Preparing Snacks

It is disrespectful to have a guest leave the house without even serving them a glass of water or a cup of tea/coffee. So obviously almost everyone will be helping each other in making the snacks or whatever they'd like to serve. The tea/coffee comes later as it gets cold and you know they are better warm. At the end you all end up gathering a fair amount of food for the guests.

3. The Arrival

They arrive, you greet, they greet. They all sit down and start talking but not too much because some of it needs to be saved for later of course. At first everyone is together in the living room,but women tend to like it segregated from men so they go to a separate room and settle and chat there comfortably rather than with a bunch of men. Other members are introduced to the guests and all those formalities that usually happen when you meet someone new.


4. Serving The Snacks

This is the time when you make use of those fancy plates and cutlery. You take them out, wash them and use them to serve the food you made earlier. You have to serve them separately as the men and women are in separate places. You serve the men first and then the women. You serve them in those fancy trays and hand them the food in person to be more respectful. The last thing a Bengali family wants is an angry guest leaving the house getting a bunch curses. In such families, others come first before you. Being selfish is not going to work in big families in Bangladesh.

5. The Farewell

They leave after some time of chatter. This again takes a good half an hour because they will start new conversations and then the same "You will have to come to my house next" kind of conversations. The farewell is a thing itself. You accompany them outside till the door and they finally leave.

6. Clearing Up

Since they left, you clear up the dishes and you have a bite of the remaining snacks together. You do not want to let food go to waste. You give a bit to everyone. have a little bit yourself, clean that up and rest for a while. Everyone at home will take a breather together and then will carry on with their normal life during the day.


This is not my imagination but what I really faced today. Hope you enjoyed it. If you have any suggestions about my upcoming blogs, let me know! I have decided that from today till the 14th September 2016, I am going to blog only on Saturdays. I will hopefully resume back to my twice a week blogs from that day. This is because my days are getting hectic and Internet in Bangladesh is rubbish. So stay tuned every Saturdays.


Take Care


Yours, Nafiza

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