Kebla

Right at the start let me ask you, is not wit, liveliness and an attractive personality deceptive traits? Is complexity and ambiguity a good trait we look forward in people we want in our lives? After you have pondered enough over these 2 questions do read further. [Cautionary warning - you would be bombarded with my opinion and feelings. Proceed further at the risk of having to live the rest of your god damn lives with an intense repulsive opinion without being able to give vent to it or in the most unlikely scenario you might be charmed and captivated by my opinions]

Now there is no definition of ‘kebla’.  It does not mean foolish, dull witted, idiot, prat, dork, moron, jerk and imbecile. Because people perceived as ‘kebla’ are not trying to play silly bugger. Any one with sloppy over sized clothes to nervous mannerisms, person with distorted speech to unnatural stomping gait are branded as ‘kebla’. Some easy going lazy person who has an air of reluctance about the mundane rituals of living are also leveled as ‘kebla’ and so are people going through acute internal psychological struggle. Do these traits make a man less evolved for living on this earth than so called smart people? To me a good human does not need to wear the facade of self importance and appear a smart Alec. It is the wicked soul that needs to be witty and vivacious to run down the humble and subdued ‘kebla’. To hide their devilish intentions and cover a certain moral weakness they need to be bright and sparkling than the deep and thoughtful ‘kebla’.

In Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ you can stamp Mr. Collins as a pompous fool, a ‘kebla’ but unlike a wealthy Darcy he doesn't hurt a poor young girl by telling her “she is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me, and I am in no humour at present to give consequences to young ladies who are slighted by other man”. In one of the defining films of the French New Wave Cinema '400 Blows' by François Truffaut, a 12 year old boy runs out of school and finds his mother kissing a complete stranger on the street. What would you call that being fashionably smart or arrogantly 'kebla'? In Vittorio de Sica's masterpiece, 'The Bicycle Thief', it was the 'kebla' unemployed father Ricci, who brings up Bruno with more love and care than a derelict father calling himself smart could. 

The most dreadful word for a teenage guy (and sometimes even for those not so young) in this part of the world speaking Bengali, is ‘Kebla’.  This word is nothing less than a nightmare. The fear of being perceived as 'kebla' by prospective romantic interest (read pretty girls) can alone be attributed as one of the biggest factors responsible for the sale of hair gel, high throttle bikes and aviator sunglasses.  Of all the reasons a girl would reject a guy, being 'kebla' is the most common. Now I cite no government statistical data, the government is busy allocating 2G spectrum, Coal Mines and monitoring some radia than to brainstorm over silly girls dumping dumb guys with less self respect and even lesser ambition. I write from my experience of traversing those woods in younger days.