A thing called ‘PNPC’

Who says we bongs are not good at sports? Just because we haven’t won a gold medal in the Olympics doesn’t mean we cannot. It is just that our favourite games have so far been excluded from the world events by some conspiracy by some unknown group. For example, we would have had multiple gold medals in our possession by now only if one of our favourite games called “PNPC” was there in the Olympics. We will soon find out who did this discrimination against us and launch a petition to include it ASAP.

Yes, in case you didn’t yet notice because you are amongst the elite “Bongs” or couldn’t yet appreciate it because you are not a “bong“, I would like to enlighten you about one of our age old “bong” game called PNPC (Par Ninda Par Charcha – criticizing others and discussing about others). It is a phenomenal game and we play it undoubtedly better than anyone else. It is so much ingrained in our day to day life that I can almost term it as our cultural heritage. And no, by no means I am trying to distance myself from it. In fact, I love it. We all love it. It’s our pride. And it becomes so much difficult only when we can’t do it, we start feeling like the oxygen level has suddenly gone down in the air. Sometimes I think in my mind that there should be a PNPC rating in the bong society, and a bong with a poor PNPC score should be socially frowned upon – “is he at all a bong?” – well this could very well be a potential PNPC topic.

PNPC is dynamic and every single day it only evolves with different forms and shapes, with greater tranquillity and of course for the betterment of the civilization. It’s flexible and can take place anywhere, be it somebody’s wedding we all get together, greet each other, eat food and do PNPC, be it two friends meeting after a while, be it an evening tea party or a Durga Puja Pandal we are always enjoying our good old game in some form or the other. At more micro level, the place can be anywhere – at home standing down the stairs, in front of the bathroom, in the kitchen, living room, bed room, playground, office, birthday party and you name it. And the manifestation is quite evident, every single time it occurs somewhere – you will see a group of bong with some sort of homogeneity somewhere deep down their heart and all they are doing is sitting there idle and gossiping all day long about what’s happening in others’ lives.

The unsaid rule of the game is that one must not oppose anyone else in a group particularly when it’s approaching toward the climax. An anti-climax is a strict no-no. And if you are new to it, here is a word of wisdom. Opposing someone in a PNPC group often doesn’t go down well in the group and if you ever tried doing that you had just risked yourself becoming the topic for the next PNPC. These are only “inter-personal” PNPC. We often do up scaling – particularly if we miss enough “masala” locally we do not hesitate going worldwide.  Like whether #BREXIT is good or bad, or whether Barac Obama should or should not have been given the second term or whether Kate Winslet should work in a Bhojpuri movie or what Ranbir Kapoor told to Deepika Padukone verbatim when she dumped him or something more serious than that. I tell you, in the world of PNPC even sky is not the limit.

After spending a good 18 years of my life in Bengal, with plenty of training and placement in PNPC domain, I moved to Delhi to spread the message of PNPC to the Delh-ites. In Delhi to my pleasant surprise I came across the “Pata hai!!” culture. “Pata hai” is almost inevitably the cater-cousin of PNPC. It is “the” introductory phrase of a potential Delhi style PNPC. Delhi has given PNPC a good light-weight name too “Time Pass”; “Keya chal rah hai?”,  “Kuchh nehi yaar, time pass” – it goes so smoothly so often down everyone’s ear in Delhi that nobody ever had to second guess in their lifetime what the other guy was really up to.

The most positive aspect of PNPC or “Time pass” is that there is no permanent enmity, the guy you are PNPC-ing about today, maybe the guy you are sitting next to, doing lunch and having a good PNPC session about someone else tomorrow. You cannot just resist the irresistible.

Very often you will see so many Bengali groups in the Web called “Bengali Adda”. I will tell you a little secret about “Adda”. Deep down our heart by “Adda” we intellectual Bengalis actually mean doing PNPC of some form, “Adda” is just a fancy name we have given to it so that the world sees it as a critical brainstorming activity by an intellectual group about some worldwide crisis. I had the opportunity to be in one of these “adda” groups in Atlanta (USA) once, and that turned out to be an amazing experience of being a part of world class PNPC. You can see how we have very humbly exported one of our bong assets worldwide without even claiming for an IPR (Intellectual property rights) yet. So to all you guys, if you haven’t started playing this fun game yet, start it now for free or you may soon have to pay royalty or buy a license for it. But if you are already in the race, keep up the good work because it’s such a little sweet thing and it doesn’t hurt, does it? C’mon it’s just a little time pass yaar!