প্রেমের কারণ আর অন্ধকার ঘরের বেড়াল

What does “অন্ধকার ঘরে কালো বেড়াল” mean in Bengali?

Bengali reaches for অন্ধকার ঘরে কালো বেড়াল — “a black cat in a dark room” — when someone hunts for a reason that does not exist. The image does double duty: the room is dark and the cat is black, so even a cat that was there would stay invisible. Here it lands on love, where asking why is the futile search.

The saying travels widely — English, Russian and Chinese all have versions, usually with a punchline about there being no cat in the room at all. The speaker uses it to close the question down rather than answer it: তুমি খুঁজে বেড়াচ্ছ, যেটা ওই ঘরে নাই — “you’re searching for what isn’t in that room.”