Common question asked to bengalis: Where are you really from?

Being a Desi, ur prone to be mistaken as the followign:  Latin American, , Middle Eastern, Etheopean, Oriental, European.   The first 2 hits the top of the list, Latin American, and Middle Eastern.  I've experienced  it myself.

In the US, the question for me was, "habla espanol?"  In Sweden, the most frequently thought of remark is, "You look like someone form my country, Iran."  I get every single guess EXCEPT bengali. 

So where exactly did our roots come from that we can easily get away with so many different nationalities around the world?  Lets go a bit deeper shall we?

Lets start with my home country, Bangladesh.  One of the first kinds of people were island inhabitors near present day Sri Lanka.  Then came poeple from the Medditeranean which might be the reason there are many of us who look of Arab or persian descent.   They moved around the 13th century to be civilized in the place which is now Bangladesh.  This is the reason why the majority of bangalis are Muslims.  We have some bengalis that look totally of oriental descent.  This is because later on, many smaller minority groups settled around certain areas of Bangladesh, such as the Chakmas, and poeple from Burma, and Mizu.  They live in the area of Chittagong in Bangladesh.  Lastly there were the people from Assam (northeast india), Khasi, and Santhal all living around the northwest and northeast of bangladesh.  Places like present day Sylhet in Bangladesh.

I come from indeed a very small country, but it is amazing to know how much diversity it consists when you look back into the roots.   There is a variation of looks, different dialacts which almost change the entire bengali language, different traditions. 

If you compare one bengali to another, there is a huge possiblity to find no common characteristic. 

So when a person from Spain starts speaking Spanish to me, I simply smile and apologize for being so clueless.  But it makes me smile.  Makes me feel good to fit into more nationalities.  

I love it when the person keeps guessing and never gets it right.  The list of countries keep increasing as i wait for them to say "Bangladesh" but they never do.  Thats when i represent this diverse little country of mine. 

I sure am proud to be a Bengali!