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.

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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Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge – February 25, 2018

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge – Feb 25, 2018 is about those photographs that don’t fall into any common category. This picture was taken in front of Nizamat Imambara in Murshidabad, Bengal while working on my travel diaries to the district. The red cycle had been blocking the magnificent panoramic view of the Imambara. It formed quite a sight while a lot of photographers including me waited patiently for the owner to come out and wheel it away.

Nizamat Imambara_Murshidabad.jpg — *That cycle infront of Nizamat Imambara,Murshidabad*

Weekly photo challenge – A Face in the Crowd

This weeks prompt for Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge is A Face in the Crowd. The idea is to create an image that represents being “a face in the crowd” through exploration of silhouettes, shadows, orientation and other ways to mask the subject.

Pic 1 – This was taken at Shankarpur Beach in Bengal, India. A man facing the sea was on the stone pavement while another was walking towards it to get a closer view.

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The Survivor (Nanotale)

My first attempt at a nanotale:

The Survivor

Feminist by the day today, abused by her husband night after night,
But she wasn’t ready to succumb her fate to such plight.
People saw her grit to save victims, no one saw the scars running buried within,
To the world she was a messiah, no one knew the story of her fight for surviving.
Truth be told, there never existed a mirror in her house,
Lest she accidentally comes face to face with that turbulence hidden in her mind.