My city, a spirit of relentlessness

                  Chug chug, the noise of steel dragging on asphalt,

The rickshaw puller pulls his burden!

Chugging against, against all odds, life goes on.

O my city, you tread on.

Ting ting, the queen's era's trams tread leisurely along the lines, 

Choking busy lines, in their majestic gait.

Hustle bustle, all busy lives, 

As people go about their daily ways, 

Forgetting, overlooking  the throbbing live,
That pulsates through them, and connects!

A busy nook, a forgotten corner, 

All equally nurtured.
O my city, you take care of them all.

Glancing out a rickety window of a bus,

At a busy intersection, in the fading twilight,

I fell in love with you once more. 

O my city, you resuscitated me!

You, regal in Victorian era beauty,

Old world charm infused with vigour and vitality,
Of the hopes, new beginnings.

A quivering damsel awaiting an unforeseen future with her lover!

The tantalizing aroma, of a by-gone era! 

A forever waging battle,

Between the past and the future,

The present dims in the grim!

Of what was once, and what might be!

Between wanting to forget and the memory!

The rambling ruins of the Raj, to modern concrete,
Carefully cultivated prejudices, mocks perjury!

From tinkering laughter at Park Street,

to the hushed strolls against tiled walls,

Pre-set mentality against modernity,

Evolving ethics!

Alas you have been waging a long lost war,

O my city, yet you never fail to give.

Through the lights of Diwali,

And aplomb of the deity annihilating evil,

On the eve of Christmas, and that of Eid!

In your spirit we celebrate, it is you we love.

O my city, wearing against the seams, 

Yet the apparel gleams anew,

Washed and decked in cheerful mockery!

O my city, in you we beseech,
For our salvation!

My Go-to books

These are a few of the books I go back to reading from time to time. I call them my 'go-to books'. they have been companions in my times of joy and sorrow, guiding me, teaching me, enlightening me. These books, and i ant to add more on to the collection, have taken away my pain and given me joy. They have been a gateway to another world, another culture, another civilization when I needed to get away, or just wanted to plain have a good time. MY valued companions.

Among the collection, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude has always mesmerised me, it is like being transported to another portal while reading the book. Wuthering Heights, since when I had read it back in the school days, have remained a favourite. Things Fall Apart is so rich and engaging, I keep going back to it time and again. The rich culture and social ethics of the tribes fascinated. Life of Pie, well even before the movie was made, had emerged a good read.Pi Patel's epic journey, somehow came about to me my own- a spiritual awakening, an adventure never had.

Other favourites beside these lot include Little Women and Thomas Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd. Both were a part of school curriculum. Both left profound impact on me. And I have been a dedicated reader of Hardy's work. His exemplary imagery creates such graphic images in the mind. And hs books are in love with nature, as I am!

Missing here, but a big big favourite is the.Harry Potter series. I read n re-read n re-read some more over and over again. Just can't get enough of the Boy Who Lived and JK Rowling's spell weaving magical world.

Well here is my list. How about you? What are the books you keep going back to from time to time?

The Aam story...! My version of a D-I-Y mango tan removal face pack

It is the season of Aam (mango) and Ilish Maachh (Hilsa fish).. so, true to my roots, its hard for me to avoid either or both..And I am, by a;; means, a dedicated Aam aadmi (or aurat in this case)..that implies, I am a mango lover..the succulent fruit, oozing all its gooey goodness is hard for me to resist..

Therefore, when I heard it is as good a tan removing agent, I was at a loss. When I have mango in hand, it is hard to put it in anywhere else than the mouth..but sigh, the tan! The scorching Kolkata sun blesses us all with a hard to ignore tan..So well, let sum it up, the tan won this round. And like every year, my dad made sure that we had out fill of mangoes, accompanied with almost every meal of the day. So, mango is an abundantly available item in my house, similar to most other Indian homes, at least Bengali homes, at this time of the year.

For my maiden venture, the mango on its part, was chopped up and landed in the mixer (to turn into a gooey paste) rater than making its way into the tummy. This is a D-I-Y of the Mango Tan Removal face pack that I made at home and well, to some extent, succeeded in removing a little of the tan! Follow the steps to know more.

My version of a home- made D-I-Y Mango Tan Removing Face Pack
1. Take zee mango (well, that's the first step, isn't it!) and square into smaller pieces. This will make for easier grinding.



2. Place it in the mixer and give it one quick swish. The resulting paste should not be too runny, semi-coagulated is just about the right consistency.



3. Now, add to this 1- 2 tbsp (or as per requirement) yogurt. I used home- made yogurt for my face pack. 

4. And the final products that went into this awesome pack are besan (gram-flour) and honey. Both easily and abundantly available.



5. Mix all the ingredients together to form a smooth paste.
6. Apply this on clean face and leave on till dry, which should take about 20 mins.

Wash off with normal or lukewarm water and voila, you have gifted yourself a smooth, glowing skin. Well, in my case, the tan is quite persistent and have eroded just about but I am quite happy with the result.So, I think I am going to go with another few applications to get rid of this stubborn tan. Till then I have to bear with sharing the beloved mango with my skin apart from the gastronomical senses.

What I love about this pack is that all the items are so easily and abundantly available in the kitchen that I don't have to run around collecting the ingredients. Next is, of course, it is made up of mango (the small itself tantalizes). And well, it leaves the skin a lot more moisturized after a hard day at work, as well as lightens the tan to some extent.

I sure loved my experience. Hope you try it at home too. 

An ode to teenage!

Tell them not to tell us what to do,

Actions speak much louder than words!

We learn from what we see.

Tell them not to dictate us what clothes to choose,

For we are so much more than

What we wear!

That torn jeans, those high heels,

That flurry skirt, or taffeta, and lying there,

Yes, my dirty mud-soaked canvas shoes!

The hemlines, ragged jeans,

All these do not define me, or what I do!

I have in me the fire to burn the whole galleon down.

A raging sea, a silent storm! A zephyr in its quest!

That solitary reaper in the field; Wordsworth’s daffodil,

Dante’s Inferno, Joyce’s Ulysses, 

I am Yeats, Byron, Keats and Shelly,

An ode to a summer song!

I am all that and more.

I am a Grecian Urn.

I am a rebellion, a cause for an uprising,

A threat to social stigmata,

A hoax to what is called civilian; a smokescreen!

A wired dream, chaffed against the shackles of societal norms,

Waiting, struggling,

Trying to break free,

From their Doll’s House.

Oh my imagination take me with thee.

In my search for utopia, I will cross the tumultuous seven seas,

Climb the mighty Olympus, duel Ajax, fight off the Kraken,

I will travel to the Arctic,

Plummet to the deep depths of Verne’s centre of the earth!

Unless these sojourns take me where I want to be!

At the tribunals of humanity, I will be tried and tested,

Akin to those who have left before me,

Or are yet to come,

Yet, I will emerge a winner every time;

And keep this rebellion aflame!

Cravings..sigh

It is that part of the day when idle flicking through Facebook feeds tickles the senses, arousing much gastronomical cravings...sigh! Food pornography,thou art a alluring wanton...

The moth fell in love with the flame

(This was written by me quite sometime ago..m just re-posting!!)

The moth fell in love with the flame;
It could not take its eyes off the sparkly gem
Like a hot, tumultuous seductress the flame’s aura spread,
And engulfed the moth, its heart ached!
It danced in the eyes of the lovelorn solitary soul;
Luring and engulfing the thirsty wretched lover.
The moth was rendered lustful altogether.
It danced around the mystic force
Singing out songs of love to its silent, blazing lover
With each flap of its wings, the desire to see the divine grew larger,
It could not heed the warning tones,
That rung out against such sinful love.
So crazed with passion, burning with desire akin to its burning lover,
The moth leaped to kiss its death
And found solace in the fiery arms of its lover,
Thus ended a beautiful tale,
When the moth fell in love with the flame!

!

Gift from ma gurl

So this is a gift from my girl Mads for my birthday...I really like what she put together..the thoughts that went into it...there is a little of something in there representing me..n quite a lot of her..making it a unique amalgamation 

Just err..., starting off...

So here I am, finally starting off with my very own blog after much deliberation. the point of consternation? Well, I could not exactly begin to think on what specifically to write on. True there are a lot of stuffs that interest me. But, being an avid blog reader/follower I know for fact that popular blogs choose a core theme to focus on. Herein lies my nemesis!

I am a dedicated bookworm, movie buff, music lover, take interest in painting, cooking, collecting recipes...blah blah!! But, again, what do I start writing on?! After much deliberation I have zeroed in on the fact that I am way too lazy to religiously dedicate myself to the maintenance of routine blog entry. Therefore, I shall share whatever I feel like, at the spur of the moment, Like, at this precise moment, I am generally pacing myself to launch my blog with a post that actually gives out no valuable information neither makes for a great read. I think honesty strikes a cord. So basically, while I am not posting anything useful to anyone at all, my meaningless gibberish might find resonance with those who are in my kind of (read fuzzeled) state!Well, I am honest about that.

So while I am at, this spontaneous post is coming out of a serious session of boredom and monotony at work (or the lack of it!!). The next post will be the result of more careful research and, well, (ahem) efforts!! This is only spurred by the encouragement from reading several successful bloggers wh have made a mark for themselves. I believe, I can replicate their styles in some (albeit minuscule) measure.

Well, hope to continue in the future with things that might find resonance with others and create for a forum of interchange of ideas and thought. So more on this and that later. Adios for now.