Author: Sonia Chatterjee

An alumnus of Presidency College (Kolkata), Delhi University, and XIME (Bangalore), Sonia Chatterjee holds two post-graduate degrees in Chemistry and Management and an MFA in creative writing from Writer's Village University. With eight years of experience in the banking sector as a Branch Head, she took a sabbatical from the corporate world to start her blog soniasmusings.com. Her blog consistently featured in the Top Indian Blogs list from 2019 to 2024. Her articles have been published on various digital platforms such as Women's Web, Youth Ki Awaaz, Tuck's Magazine, and Period Magazine. She was invited as a speaker at the Breaking Barriers, Kolkata 2018 event by the Women's Web, at the Women Writer’s Fest, Kolkata, 2020, and the Crime Writers Festival, Kolkata,2025. Sonia has written two detective thrillers titled ‘Deal of Death – Introducing Raya Ray’ (2019) and ‘Diary, Deceit, and Death – A Raya Ray Adventure’ (Vishwakarma Publications, 2024) and a non-fiction book on true crime titled ‘The Sanyasi Who Became a King’ (Sristhi Publishers, 2025). Her book ‘Diary, Deceit, and Death’ was shortlisted for the PVLF Awards 2024-25 in the Best Fiction Category. Sonia lives in Kolkata with her doctor husband and nine-and-a-half-year-old son.

Theme Reveal A2Z challenge with Blogchatter

The A2Z blogging challenge with Blogchatter is all about blogging on every single day through April except on Sundays. So essentially there’s an alphabet associated with every single day. A on the first day, B on the second and so on until it’s Z on the twenty-sixth day. When I took up this challenge, I had already been posting two to four blog posts every week. However it looked like a Herculean task to post every single day and that too on the basis an alphabet. I felt challenged and there’s no best way to overcome the fear than to face it. So, here I go with my theme reveal of my first ever A2Z challenge.

A dollop of Bengal.jpg — *Theme reveal of A2Z Blogchatter Challenge – A DOLLOP OF BENGAL*

Through a series of twenty-six posts, I am going to help the readers enjoy a journey down my state West Bengal through ‘A dollop of Bengal’. My blog belongs to a multi-niche category and through this theme, I intend to cover cities, places, food, restaurants, personalities, characters, festivals and a lot more that define this state. So that looks like a huge list right?

Wait, there’s a twist! Among the multiple options in various categories starting with any particular alphabet, I am going to choose and write only about the one that has a connection to my life. Stay tuned to know who makes it to the list and what is their significance in my journey.

I am waiting to make this my biggest project till date. Can’t wait for you to come sooner, April to get this started.

Movie review – Raid

“Main kisise darta nahi hu. Kisike bhi darwaja khatkhatane ki himmat rakhta hu.” – says IT officer Amay Patnaik in this weeks Bollywood release Raid capturing courage as the underlying essence of his character.

Cast –

Ajay Devgn (Amay Patnaik)
Ileana D’Cruz– (Mailini Patnaik)
Saurabh Shukla – (Rameshwar Singh/Tauji)
Pushpa Singh – (Amma of Rameshwar)

Director – Rajkumar Gupta

Genre – Thriller

Duration – 2hr 08 mins

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The preschool hunt saga – the top six check points for a parent

Last week, my husband and I decided to check out the feasible and available options for preschools in our locality. Our son turns 2.5 yrs this March end, so we had been contemplating to send him to a preschool April onwards. I had the list of schools ready and called on their registered numbers to seek an appointment. Before taking a decision, we were keen on meeting the centre in charge and also check the available facilities. What was supposed to be a two to three hours activity for the shortlisted four preschools ended up being a five hour exhausting interaction for us. The results of visit varied from were amusing to shocking barring one which had the most practical and balanced view on what preschool should be. Let me state an example of each.

Amused /Wonder- struck –

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Tuesday Photo Challenge – Force of Almighty

The topic for Tuesday Photo Challenge this week is Forces. This can have multiple interpretation right from force of nature to force of love. I decided to choose a little unconventional theme that I consciously choose not to think or write about – Force of Almighty.

I grew up in a Bengali household in India where praying and worshipping of God was not restricted to just rituals and celebration. My parents believed in the power of Almighty and I had no reason to question their belief. Until that fateful night of Nov 2011 when I lost my mother to an undiagnosed and sudden sickness. My system of faith had been shattered. I stopped praying.

Durga Puja_2017.jpg — *Durga Puja – 2017*

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Restaurant review – Tamara – Pipal Tree Hotel

Last Friday, we had been checking out pre-schools for our toddler who turns two and a half-year old this March end. Some of the appointments were disappointing, few shocking and a handful were worth trashing but that’s for another time to write. The result of those three hours left us with an exhausted body and disturbing mind. It was almost 2:40pm. So the next thing we decided was to book a cab and head towards the Pipal Tree hotel. On the way I called their in-house restaurant Tamara to make a reservation. While the timings on Zomato clearly said 3:30pm, the staff on the phone kept repeating that the buffet will be over soon and if we would be fine with A-la-Carta. I kept wondering why until I reached the restaurant.

Right at the entrance the guard denied us an entry on the pretext of a company’s ongoing conference that day. Only after we mentioned a prior reservation, we were allowed to get in. The moment we entered, the lady who escorted us to our table was quite curtly informed us that we had the option of A-la-Carta only. After I argued about the buffet timing being till 3:30 did they let us avail the option reluctantly. They had a condition though – we had to finish our meal by 3:30. It was 3:10 pm.

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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Trees or leaves

The topic for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is Trees or Leaves this week. The pictures could be that of any tree or leaf – alive or man made.

This photo is taken from the sideway pavement of Victoria Memorial, Kolkata on a late December evening last year. We had been walking down to the entry gate with our toddler when I caught a sight of this gorgeous tree. Adjacent to the lake, it made a perfect frame for my click of a setting sun against the monument. The tree has spread its branches on all sides but it looks bent on one side because of the weight and age. While there were umpteen number of trees surrounding the monument, none could create such a strong impact as this.

Fiction – Muse of the month February Shortlisted story on Women’s Web

Ever since I started blogging, I also started nurturing the desire to become a published author. As part of my pursuit of dreams, I have started writing Fiction. I had begun contributing articles to quite a few websites since December last year. Women’s Web happens to a personal favourite for lending voice to hundreds of women across the country. Every month the site runs a contest called Muse of the Month(MOTM) wherein a prompt is given for the authors to write a short story within 2000 words and submit it within 12th of the month.

My maiden attempt at MOTM for the month of February titled “But The Truth Is That She Is In Charge Of Her Life”had been shortlisted among of thousands of entries. While it didn’t make it to the coveted top 5, the fact that it came close enough to get into this list is a big booster and encouragement for a new author like me. Sharing snippets from the story here –

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Liebstar Award

I had been nominated by Ashvini Naik for this award in the first week of February and it so happened that my friend The Average aspirant nominated me for this award again in the middle of the same month. So I have decided to put a post together for both the nominees, answering each of their questions.

Ashvini has an amazing blog on fitness, health, lifestyle and parenting. If one is looking at developing a healthy lifestyle with the correct proportion of diet and exercise, Ashvini’s blog is the best place to get ideas. Thank you for the nomination.

For me, this is the third award nomination from The Average Aspirant. I truly feel honoured and humbled for such encouragement. Do check out her blog. She has awesome content on related to her university life along with write-ups on motivation and aspiration.

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Tuesday Photo Challenge – Hills

The Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography. The theme for this week’s TPC is Hills.

This first picture was taken in Munnar, India in 2011. I have grown up loving mountains while my husband has always been fascinated by beaches. It took us months before reaching a destination for our first trip together post wedding. Finally we fell in love with the beautiful Munnar. The picturesque hills surrounding the gorgeous tea gardens literally took our breath away.

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Wishes for a Happy and Colourful Holi

As a child, Holi was the festival that I would eagerly wait for every year. The colours had to be dissolved in water, the buckets filled with coloured water had to be taken outside and then began the crazy session of applying colour on each other using pichkari(spray or water gun). We had to be literally dragged back home somewhere in the late afternoon after countless requests fell flat on the deaf ears. By then we had so many layers of colours that our faces would have gone beyond recognition. The bigger challenge was for the parents to scrub those colours off the skin. Normally it took a couple of days or more to get back to our natural skin colour. But that enthusiasm filled childhood made us run out with abir/gulal(coloured powder) in the evening again. Yet we had been carefully taught not to apply colour on anyone who refused to be a part of the festival. The concept of consent had been cautiously inculcated within us.

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