Viva la Jalligampala

There are prominent families in India the Gandhis, the Ambanis, the Bacchans and then there are the Jalligampalas.

I would like to introduce you to the head of family who lived his life king size. He was a typical Jalligampala, greatly known for his weakness for the fairer sex in Eastern India.  He kept them all under the carpet like a typical old timer. Flaunting was just not done those days.

Moving over to  the first generation Jalligampalas. The elder is the Hugh Hefner of the family…the Vijay Mallya of Forest Park.  You could say that he was a pioneer in the Art of Wooing…  AoW.  As a matter of fact, there may be more takers for the Art of Wooing than the Art of living considering India has more young population.  He has more girlfriends who are less than half his age in his Face book account, that FB has decided to make an age range mandatory for accepting friends.  And yes, the affinity for the Eastern sector continues with this Jalligampala with nine out of the ten girlfriends being from Kolkotta and one from Calcutta.

The younger one is not so flamboyant and is more demure in his approach. He is not a black sheep though and he has both his hands full.   Lastly there is the one lone second generation Jalligampala just stepping out of his teens to become a fully grown one. We are hoping that he breaks the prototype and looks beyond East.

Not to forget, we have the self professed Jalligampala who happens to be their cousin and whom we endearingly call an ‘extra fitting’ . He is as quiet as a jobless pastor in an English countryside church during the day and boy … during the night after a couple of drinks he looks more like a drunken chipmunk doing weird dance moves at a Kolkatta Soho nighclub.  He does have some special skills however. He once performed  magic by making half a bottle of Smirnoff disappear within 15 minutes.

Talking about extra fittings, I have to mention there is this Not-a Jalligampala Aunt who appoints herself as the Mistress of ceremonies for all Jalligampala events, births, deaths, marriages, affairs  etc.  She just has to hear that some event is going to happen and then she is there lock, stock and barrel for a couple of weeks.  It probably would be more easy to shift the affinity of  the Jalligampalas from the Eastern States than getting her out of the Jalligampala house.  

East or West... Jalligampalas are the best. 


FYU ( For your understanding) - In Andhra Pradesh the surname actually refers to their ancestral family name. Jalligampala is my husband's family name.