Blogger Recognition Award

I was nominated by Brittany at Perfectly Tolerable. Thank you so much for the appreciation Brittany. This is my first ever bloggers award 🙂 Everyone do check her blog, she is awesome 😊

This is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers as a recognition of their hard work.  I am amazed at how interactive and supportive so many bloggers have been!  When I first started my blog I really only thought my grandma would read it, but there is a whole community of book bloggers who support one another and it’s awesome!

Rules:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Write a post to show your award.
• Give a brief story of how your blog started.
• Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
• Select 15 other bloggers you’d like to give this award to.
• Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them, providing a link to the post you’ve created. (Please make sure you do this step! Otherwise they won’t know you’ve tagged them.)

1.How I started writing the blog:

From my school days, I used to maintain a diary because I love to write about everyday life, wierd experiences and everything. But saying that, I won’t say that writing a blog was a conscious decision. Few weeks back, I was going through some interesting blog. They were all about daily life and day to day experiences. That’s when I thought that why not start writing a blog, since I can then connect with the global arenas. That’s how my writing started.

2.Advice for fresh bloggers:

This part will be pretty hard for me, because I myself is a newbie! Still few things that I have learned, I can share:

• Don’t think so much and start writing. Because I think that’s where we all lack, that we plan a lot of things and end up doing nothing. Taking the initiative and actually start writing the blog is very important.
• Write whatever you feel like. Remember this is your blog and you can present your blog in your own style. Not because someone else has this style and that, you also have to follow their path, no. Just be expressive and innovative in your own way!!

BLOGGERS I WOULD LIKE TO NOMINATE:

• THE WANDERLUSTCHEF
• WANDERING MEG
• Stuffed Shelves
• betwixt-the-pages
• Reading with Jessica
• A Book. A Thought
• The Book Date
• Book Journey
• Rachel E. Moss
• My Dee Dee’s Diary
• Anna Knight
• Behind These Hazel Eyes
• Second Wind Leisure Perspective
• Pitch Black Poetry
• The Pensive Dreamer

Share your link in the comments if you participate! I would love to see your answers.  Even if you don’t participate, make sure to check out all the awesome blogs! Happy writing 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

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Dare to Fly!!

Flying with my imagination, I often wonder about the birds! Amidst all the chaos, they can fly to the peaceful sky. The winds touching their body, the chills running through them. I wonder what it feels like, being a bird and flying away!!!!

My favourite childhood memory

I am the older sibling of the two of us in my family and so, I was the first one to be a part of the family. But strangely I have clear memories only after my baby sister was born, though the age gap is around 7 years. I remember clearly when she was brought home from the hospital and I haven’t seen any smaller babies before her. I was really excited and as well as nervous about how she will accept me. The day she was coming home I remember, I literally bathed early in the morning, wore my favourite pink dress and got ready to welcome her home. Little did I know then that she would be too small to play with me on that time. When I first saw her, my immediate reaction was, cummon she can’t be a human being, she is just a doll! Then I realised no she was moving and crying and making faces! Now I really wanted to hold her in my arms, but I was also really young and no one was allowing me to hold her. My mom understood that and she told me to sit beside her and she will give my sister on my lap. I was extremely excited and as well as nervous because that was the first time I ever held a small baby. I took her on my tender lap and she instantly looked at me, and I swear she was happy! That was the first ever connection I felt with my sister and never ever realised the feeling! But sadly that lasted for a short time because I had to let her go and I felt angry at my relatives who got to hold her for long and not me!!

Me and my sister

But that was the sweetest childhood memory that I will always cherish in my life. I still feel so happy that I have a sibling and truely great full to my parents for gifting me the best gift ever!!

Exploring Kolkata- Day 1

I have a 1-month long summer vacation (perks of being a school teacher!) and this year I decided to explore my city rather than sitting on a couch all day watching Netflix! Now, why Kolkata? First of all, I don’t have the money for an outstation trip, and secondly, I wanted to know more about my city only. People from different parts of the world come to Kolkata to explore the famous heritage and cultures. So, why not roam around and learn more about this beautiful place?

My first destination was Indian Museum. Indian Museum also referred formerly as Imperial Museum at Calcutta, is the largest and oldest museum in India and 9th oldest museum in the world. This was established in the year 1814 by Asiatic Society of Bengal under the curator Nathaniel Wallich, a Danish botanist.

The Museum is situated in Chowringhee and well connected by Kolkata metro from Esplanade or Park Street stations (Park street is nearer!). Anyway, you can get those details from Google!

Now I am not a professional travel blogger but I am still trying to write about my experience! So the Museum precisely has six sections- Art, Archeology, Anthropology, Geology, Zoology and Economic Botany. The first floor consists of mainly archeological and geological sections starting from the Siwaliks to the Buddhist stupas and all. The Siwaliks gallery consisted of the fossil remains from over 15million years ago!!! (isn’t it crazy?)

 

Remains of Mammoth skull excavated! It’s literally a huge structure.

 

Moving on to the Archeological gallery that showcases a panorama of sculptures starting from the Kushana Period and passing all through the Gupta’s, later Gupta’s, Palasenas and other rich collection of very fine Buddhist, Brahmanical and Jain sculptures from different provinces of India.

 

This is a part of the remains of a south Indian Temple depicting a scene from the Gupta Period.

 

There’s a also a section of coin collection inside this gallery which has a wide range of coins collected from 5th-4th century to present date. The earliest of this collection includes the timeline of Karshapana where copper punch-marked or copper cast coins were made.

Opposite to this gallery is a bit smaller section showcasing the remains of the magnificent railings and gateways of the Buddhist stupa discovered in 1873 from Barhut near Satna in Madhya Pradesh in India. These are stupas profusely carved in red sandstones depicting different lifelong scenes of Lord Buddha. Trust me they are absolutely stunning and I was truly overwhelmed by the neatness of work even from as early as the 19th century.

 

Remains of Temple Doors carved in heavy stones.

 

Now coming to the first floor, there were mainly zoological, botanical and a big gallery of textiles sections. Now I have been to Museum earlier when I was really small, but this time I saw quite a lot of renovations and additional galleries. The first one was the gallery of all the possible invertebrates found in this world (one of the newly added galleries). I quite liked the conceptualization of this gallery showing methodically all the 8 phyla of invertebrates found in the living world.

 

This a tree of invertebrates having different phyla on different branches

 

Now my favorite gallery is the Zoology section where all the remains of different animals are kept and preserved including certain embryos. Also, this gallery consists of large skeletons of early mammoth and huge whales which were all absolutely amazing to see.

 

This elephant skeleton was more than 12 feet tall!

 

Then came the anthropological gallery where the evolution of man is depicted beautifully in a chronological order. What I liked the most about this gallery is huge rotating DNA which is installed here recently. There are many pieces of information written in a very precise manner and obviously, the earliest skulls of human ( Homo neanderthalensis ) excavated from different parts of India are all kept in this gallery.

This was the huge rotating DNA

 

Also on the first floor, there’s one section where all the replenished mansions and an Egyptian mummy is kept. The area was prohibited from clicking any pictures, so I don’t have one! But the mummy is one of the star attraction of this museum!

Overall this trip was an educational and motivating trip for me because I felt proud that in India the largest museum is at Kolkata only and all the rich cultures really inspired me writing this blog so that I can share with the world.

A few more snaps from the day-

 

Ivory Idol of Mahisasurmardini (Ma Durga)

This is a very pretty stone carved door from Rajasthan.

Pangolin!!!!!

That’s me, the explorer!

Also, me, looking at the beautiful sandstone Imambara!

 

Feel free to share your thoughts with me!! Till then keep reading ✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼

A fresh new start

It’s been forever since I wrote a blog! I was facing a lot of issues and wasn’t in a good mood to sit down and write something. But as they say, life is always a roller coaster and of course, it’s an amalgamation of both good and bad. Right now things are a lot settled down and I am ready for a fresh start.

The past few months have made me realize a lot of valuable life lessons. I have learned to be patient and have certainly realized that peace is the key! Yes, I was also running after something that isn’t under my control. And those experiences helped me to remain calm and wait for the right opportunities and most importantly to be patient. Sometimes hasty choices can lead us to bigger problems. As Lord Buddha said, “freedom comes when you stop caring about what others think of you .” I realized that these words are so true, we all run for something that our society appreciates and not what we want for ourselves. We are always running to impress others and forget what our mind needs.

So yes with this fresh start, I want to rebuild my life with better choices and preferences. On that note, I am grateful to all my loved ones who have supported me selflessly. But most importantly my students have taught me the most valuable lessons. If the world can be seen through their innocent eyes, life would really seem simpler and way less complicated!

 

Look through my eyes, the world is so beautiful 🙂

 

It’s travel time!

Hello everyone,

Sorry I wasn’t able to post anything lately because yeah, you guessed it right, was on a vacation after so many days. Obviously, I will do a blog post on the whole trip and my experiences, but before that, I would love to talk about packing. Yes, that’s a big part of any vacation and at least I really freak out every time when I have to pack before each and every trip. But I thoroughly enjoyed the whole journey and this would be one of the most memorable trip ever in my life!

Okay, now moving on to the packing list. I wanted to post this earlier, but as usual, I had to stick with the last minute packing because as I mentioned earlier I started a new job , and it was difficult to get an off day for packing and last minute shopping!

But every time I have the same situation (literally no excuses 😑) and I stick to my preplanned packing list which I am going to share:

• Always make a list: Yes this is pretty much what I do every time. I always pre-plan and write down all the things I will be packing and what I have to buy and even if also I need to borrow something from friends! This always makes my work easier and also even if I am doing the last minute packing, I don’t miss out anything.

• Make categorized listing: Not only I make a list, I also categorize them. First of all, I can prioritize the list and also if I have to reduce some luggage, I can follow my priority list. I can show the example below, although the categories depend on each and every trip.

1. Essential (usually include my wallet, phone, chargers, ID cards, and all essentials)

2. Clothing (all kinds starting from everyday clothes to nightwears)

3. Health (yes, while traveling I always carry medicines, first aid kits and also few daily skin care products)

4. Miscellaneous ( includes other extra stuff and obviously my list of books. This time I carried pride and prejudice which I bought at the Book Fair)

• Organized packaging: Obviously taking all the stuffs and also carrying the huge bag is a big problem. So I always take my products in small containers, just the amount I need. Either I buy small drugstore products or reuse small containers for taking products. Also properly organisation of stuffs inside my bag makes a lot of space and keep my bag lighter as I can eliminate unwanted stuffs.

That’s pretty much my packing routine. Do share your thoughts with me, I would love to know. Stay tuned for the whole travel blog, I can’t wait to share with you all! Till then, keep reading ✌️✌️😊😊

International Day of Happiness

A day recognized for celebrating happiness! This is somewhat new and weird for me, and I accept that this year only I got to know about this day. And felt little weird because happiness is not something that has to be celebrated, happiness is a state of mind, a fundamental right and a practice that should be an inevitable part of our life. And in my defense, my mind answered that, if there’s a day for celebrating love or womanhood, then why not happiness also.

Yes, I admit, all these fundamental feelings are gradually being lost in this world every day and that’s why these days make us remember the importance!

I won’t say that I am a perfect person, I also have my issues and somehow I also miss the simplicity of being just “happy”. Yet at the end of the day, I always try to make myself remember that how can I make my mind happy and in turn also make others feel the happiness.

Everyone has their own way that makes them happy. I always follow some simple steps:

• Find happiness in simple things: Finding happiness in daily activities like writing a blog post or maybe reading a book or just drinking a hot cup of coffee after a tiring day can really make our life simple. As long as we can find happiness in the simplest form, we all can be away from the complexities of life as much as possible.

• Keeping all the negativity away: This is very important to say no to all negative vibes, negative comments and also negative judgments that can make us unhappy. Instead, we should appreciate the positivity and encourage smiling and laughing more often. I always think about the happy memories while I am on my bed so that even I have happy dreams.

• Try to spread more and more happiness: My mother always told me that we should spread happiness as much as possible to get back more. Yes, all human beings are selfish, that’s an inherent character of mankind. But if we can use this in a positive way, like helping people, making a person smile a day. And in turn, we can get back the happiness also. That’s a pretty good deal right?

“Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have.”

This quote is very important because if we can be happy with whatever we have and not go on complaining about what we don’t have, then our life can be pretty simple. And of course, smiling will be much easier!!!

Till then, keep reading 😊😊✌️✌️

Eyes!

Sitting around the corner, I looked into her eyes.The emptiness was formidable, I couldn’t take off my gaze. Her eyes told me the entire story. The tortures that made her blind, mentally! The sadness that no longer affected her, the whole world was a lie! She looked at me, her eyes begging. I don’t know what she was begging for, or maybe she wanted just to be saved. I was numb, her eyes made me feel helpless among the crowd. Am I a coward? I felt like just another person, unable to help her, unable to save her from the pain. She smiled at me and her eyes were laughing. Her eyes told me, you are just another stranger sympathizing me yet so coward to come forward. Slowly she faded into the darkness of the crowd, leaving me all alone, wondering! Was she just a mirror showing my true self?

P.s. The beautiful sketch is done by my sister! 🙂 🙂

New job started!

I am pretty excited to share with you all that I started a new job as a teacher and that too in my own school where I started my journey as a student! Yes, that’s really an added excitement. I always loved teaching children and wanted to be a teacher. And here I am teaching a bunch of kids having curious eyes and lot’s of enthusiasm to learn new things.

Today I completed one week and I want to share with you about my experience in a nutshell.

First of all, as I said earlier, I was a student of this school only. So, the experience of being on the other side of the table is pretty enchanting. I still cannot believe that now I am the teacher of the future generation of our school. Yes, it’s a big responsibility also, yet enjoyable journey!

Secondly, the moment I entered the class for the first time, I was daunted by all the nostalgia related to my class. Incidentally, the classroom where I am teaching right now, was my classroom also back when I was a student. For a few moments, I was clouded by the beautiful memories of my childhood and I am happy to be back here!

All the senior teachers are now my colleagues, which is yet another exciting part. Although, they will remain my teacher always, yet it’s exciting to be a part of the same group of people who inspired us so much.

Overall I am loving the experience and yes, I would say that spending time with all the beautiful children is an altogether different kind of feeling. There is such an innocence in their eyes which makes me really happy at the end of the day. Also, the responsibility I bear for them is helping me to evolve as a whole. I know I can become a better person and that too more compassionate one, all because of my students only! Keep reading 🙂

Colorful memories ❤

Happy Holi everyone!!!! Yes, it’s festival time in India and Holi is one my favorite festival because it’s the festival of lots and lots of colors. I absolutely love all the vibrant colors of ‘Abir’ (aromatic colorful powder)!!! This is mainly a Hindu spring festival celebrated with lots of love and fun welcoming the spring season. But I am not going to say about what Holi is, coz that you can google and know. Today I am going to share some of my fun childhood memories of Holi.

A day before Holi, we used to celebrate an event called ‘Holika Dahan’, where a pile of dry leaves, twigs and other combustible materials were burnt. This event is again a symbol of the victory of good over evil and has an interesting backstory (again you can google it if you want to know about Hindu mythology. Trust me there’s loads!). Anyway moving on, all the children of our neighborhood used to collect as many dry leaves (basically specks of dirt 😋) as possible and the event was really fun to watch. And I belonged to the most notorious group of our locality where we literally waited for the ashes to cool down and collect them (the purpose I will tell you later 😉).

Every year my father used to bring colors, abir and also some nasty dyes that couldn’t be taken off so easily. Those nasty dyes were our precious collections and we used to save them for later. Also, water guns, balloons, and different gadgets were bought basically to be totally drenched in colors!! First, we started off playing with abir, then shifted to dyes and ultimately ashes(which we collected last day), tomatoes and anything and everything that came on our hand!!! You can now imagine how notorious I was back then! 🤣

One year I remember, an invisible dye color came as a hot selling product during Holi. The dye used to vanish within minutes after application. But it was a costly one and my father denied to buy that for me. So, immediately, an emergency meeting was held among our group, and we decided to combine all our pocket money and buy one packet of that dye. On the day, we all gathered on, and sneakingly spread the dye on every passing uncle or aunt and laugh at them until the dye faded away!

All these are really happy memories that I will always cherish throughout my life. Because as we grow up, our life becomes so complicated and we tend to lose all the innocent laughs and mischevious activities. I wish all my readers a very HAPPY HOLI and till then keep reading ✌️✌️

I hate summer!!

Yes, I am from a tropical country (India) and I hate summer. And as the winter months are retiring, with each passing day, I am becoming more gloomy than ever! I really don’t want the winter months to go back. God, I have to wait for another year! And in India, especially in Kolkata, we get winter for hardly 2-3 months, and practically all the other months are either too hot or too humid or too much of everything that I hate. I really wish the cool breezes come back…

I, obviously, have some reasons why I love winter-

1. You don’t sweat at all. I hate sweating and the humidity! Damn turn off for me!

2. The energy that is lost due to the scorching heat really makes me lazy to do any work. So basically for more than half of the year, I am unproductive! Meh!!!

3. The cozy blankets…oh I love to cuddle inside my warm blanket and have a nice cup of coffee and read my favorite book!

4. The morning walks… Yes gone are the most active days of my life. I will become basically a potato doing nothing (or will be forced to do my daily work).

5. I can wear long jackets and my favorite overcoats with a boot! I love winter clothes and hate that I can only wear them for few months only!

And there are tons of other reasons… A note to my favorite season-

Please come back soon my dear! I miss you 😞

Share with me if you also like winters as much as I do. I would love to know. Till then, keep reading ✌️✌️✌️

Be a soulful tune amongst the noise!

After the usual greetings, with warm hugs, the lady asked me, ” Aren’t you a little fat for this dress?” At first, I was stunned by the stark difference in attitude. At one point she was smiling and hugging me, the next moment she conveyed such a judgemental comment and that too so spontaneously. It took me a few seconds to recover, and then I answered, “No aunty, I bought this perfectly fitted for my size. I am overwhelmed by your concern.” I am sure she wasn’t happy with my answer, but I didn’t even bother to stay!

These are a few types of judgments that we have to face every day, and eventually, a part of us tend to just ignore. But sometimes I wonder, is this the right thing to do? I mean I am not judging anyone on the basis of their body size, skin tone, height, etc., then why should I ignore their comments?

There are tons of people who will judge you every day, whether on your looks or for the things that’s not on our hand. But remember that, the problem is with them only. If you are not judging someone, there’s absolutely no need to accept what others say or think. Trim those people from your circle, just like putting off the noise in a busy street and listening to your own music.