Just pranked your pal on #AprilFoolsDay and feeling really cool about it? Do you remember how popsicle sticks were inevitably made of drain’er jol and there were a gazillion species of ghosts ready to jump on you if you did not study? Do you also recall how soon after adulting happened and life has been one BIG joke ever since?
Hah! So, it seems, OG pranks began way before April Fool’s Day entered our lives, and this day only symbolises newer pranks that life pulls on us, like how veggies in the home freezer shrink as fast as our morale..
This April Fools’ Day, our prank of choice is to trick ourselves into thinking we can take a day off from adulting, and indulge in the good ol’ nostalgia of those outrageous lies we were told from back in the day. And if you’ve grown up in a Bengali household, there are plenty of these parent-endorsed pranks to go around. Here’s a quick rundown of a few:
Popsicle, anyone?
On April Fool’s Day, cheers to all those childhood popsicles made up of ‘drain’er jol’. They were our first love and while we’re not saying we (sneakily) bought them anyway, we do believe in pursuing the things we love ’coz KJo taught us so.
Phuchka is for elders; Luchi is the cure for pet kharap
Even Chrisopher Nolan’s Inception was less confusing than some of the arbitrary things we were tricked into as kids. For instance, let us point out here that phuchka is basically nothing but a mini luchi (and you already know what we’re inferring from this, don’t you?)
‘Study this year and next year will be a cake-walk’
Petition to please let us know which exact year this refers to because so far, no year has turned out to be the cake-walk we were promised.
‘Class X boards is your first public examination’
Did anyone keep a log of all those performances each time we learnt a new poem, song or dance? If those do not qualify as being “public” enough, what does?
How to tame a dragon errrr… child
If you were a mischievous kid who insisted on not sticking with your parents when you stepped out, chances are, you have been told an elaborate web of lies to keep you from straying too far. For instance, did you know every banyan tree is home to a bramhadaitya who only has one job – to leap on you as soon as you set foot beneath it?
Parents can control ghosts; there we said it
Summer vacation meant sneaking out for a quick game of kumir danga with para pals. The plan may have been as ripe as those mangoes you were eyeing post khela but afternoons were no free elf (like Dobby). They had two masters - heat waves and those numerous bhoots at the disposal of our parents. These ghosts were religiously summoned every dupur, strategically before game-time, in order to persuade us to stay inside (with little consideration of the fact that even bhoots would also like to take a siesta!)
Wanna have ‘kaaker dim’ for lunch?
Feeding a child can be time consuming, and while the elaborate gimmicks behind it seem to be really adorable, they can also be painstakingly time-consuming. We really were fed dollops of rice, while being told that they were kaaker, kokiler and boker dim, instead. Come to think of it now, why did we ever think kaaker dim was appetising?
And finally, the greatest prank of them all
“Grow up and everything will be okay.” Yeah sure.
We all know how that worked out.
Happy April Fool’s Day, folks!
