West Bengal is a state in India and other than that I do have a Bengal connection that runs decades back. My mother gave birth to my brothers in then Calcutta, now Kolkota. My dad visited her when she was with her mother and brothers, there. I am not sure of the location but know my uncle worked with Shalimar Paints before moving to Zambia, a country in Africa but that is another story.
When my dad visited my mom, my elder brother who was called Babu, lovingly by the apartment inmates, in turn, called my dad - Babuji and we followed suit and I remember even his grand-niece calling him Babuji.
My dad used to love hearing both Hindi songs and Rabindra sangit. We used to have a small radio and in my childhood days, we ate early and climbed up the staircase to the upper floor and listen to Radio Ceylon and other stations.
Years have passed and life has moved on but after meeting my BD friends here and listening to them speak Bengali during every Friday meeting, I had a longing to study the language. The similarity surprised me and I am finding it easy to try and start learning but the process is slow as I am also busy with day-to-day life and sl playing too.
Those who have studied Hindi will find it easier to learn Bengali/Bangla than other people but nothing is impossible.
Bangla is also having a lot of words that I picked up while chatting that is similar to our Malayalam language.
For example - Apamanam means insult in Malayalam and in Bengali, it is Opoman.
https://www.languageshome.com/Bengali-Malayalam.htm - This page has an easy translation and even I could read the Bengali language easily because of the translation provided. So, if you want to try learning Malayalam, it will be easier.
Interesting fact - Indian languages are derived from the Sanskrit language. That accounts for the similarity, of course. Although a lot of foreign languages have influenced the native languages, these languages have not lost much of the originality even if there are a huge number of dialects.
source - Please read this when you have time.
Although there are many theories about the origin of languages, it is claimed by many that Sanskrit is the origin and some others say that Tamil is the oldest language of the humans on Earth.
Whatever the case may be, every language is beautiful and you should take upon the challenge of learning a new language.
I also wish to learn the Spanish language.