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.

Movie review – What makes ‘Newton’ exceptional

There’s a conversation in the beginning of the movie between a senior election instructor (Sanjay Misra) and a government officer kept in reserve for conducting elections (Rao) where in the later asks the former about the way in which he can bring a difference to the world. The former, though amused, tells him that he is too arrogant about his honestly and should instead just do his job right. You take care of your work and the rest of the things will fall in place. Yes that’s how simple it is. In the last quarter of this year, here comes a movie that makes one sit up and be aware of our surroundings in a way that most of the urban population don’t even know about.

Cast –

Rajkummar Rao (Nutan Kumar aka Newton Kumar)
Pankaj Tripathi (Aatma Singh)
Rajpal Yadav (Loknath)
Anjali Patil (Malko)
Mukesh Prajapati (Shambu)

Director – Amit Masurkar

Duration – 1hr 44 minutes

Genre – Black comedy

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Movie review – Tumhari Sulu (Hindi)

Been quite a while that I stepped out of the house to catch a new Bollywood release. The rain in Kolkata has been acting childish with torrential downpours on and off. Being an ardent fan of Vidya Balan, it was a impulsive decision to venture out of the house to catch the second show of her latest release Tumhari Sulu at Bioscope, Axis Mall,Kolkata. Here goes my detailed analysis of the movie.

Cast –

Vidya Balan (Sulochona aka Sulu)
Manav Kaul (Ashok)
Neha Dhupia (Maria)
RJ Mallishka (Albeli Anjali)
Vijay Maurya (Pankaj)
Abhishek Sharma (Pranav)

Direction – Suresh Triveni

Duration – 123 minutes

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Restaurant review – Santa’s Fantasea, Salt Lake, Kolkata

Ever since I moved back to Kolkata,I have been hearing about the popularity of this place. A visit in the month of February this year clearly justified their popularity. Till date, we have visited this restaurant quite a few times and they have never let us down in making it a delightful experience always. Located quite near to the Salt Lake swimming pool, this place stands out in terms of the uniqueness of their decor and food. While it is recommended to reserve a table before visiting, specially on weekends, I must also mention that we managed to get tables without prior booking as well.

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Never too old for children’s day

Two years back, the significance of fourteenth November reappeared in my life in the form of my two month old baby. The date had lost its significance during my growing years, more so in the corporate world. But that year, I actually made an effort to make the day special with some balloons and a soft toy for my munchkin who way too small to understand the happenings. Last year, we got him some more balloons, toys and taught him to swing to happy children’s day just as he would dance to anyone singing happy birthday. For me, November is the month that I would rather delete from my calendar. Every celebration in November needs an additional effort because November for me is when I lost Ma.

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Restaurant review – Annapurna Sweets, New Town, Kolkata

Located within half a km from my house, this used to be the only sweet shop for the entire stretch of the DLF1 IT premises locality until few months ago. They stock an enviable range of delicious sweets, misti doi (sweet curd or yogurt), milk products like chena and cottage cheese. The namkeen range, however is restricted to radhaballabi-dum aloo, nimki and singara(samosa) .

Restaurant review – The French Loaf, New Town, Kolkata

Located just a km away from my apartment, I had been thinking of visiting this outlet for quite a while. Last week when my husband brought their brown bread and apple pie back home, the taste was good enough for me to plan the visit at the earliest.That is how we ended up being there last evening.

This is a small joint sandwiched between Reliance Fresh and Vijaya Bank ATM,quite near to the New Town Bus stand. The place can barely accommodate fifteen people at one go. Yet they have managed to keep a tiny seating arrangement within premises even though take away is the preferred mode here.

Restaurant review – Lake Lite, Kolkata

A chance visit to the Swasthya Bhawan (the administrative building of health department) got us delayed in some paper work yesterday. Following the age old proverb ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, our famished selves discovered this restaurant within half a km of this building.

Lake Lite is a restaurant quite popular among the office goers of Salt lake and New Town. The location makes it accessible for working professionals to have a quick lunch. They have an open bar and the alcohol is quite cheap, making this place a favorite hang out joint for after office parties. The restaurant was nearly full on a Friday afternoon. Since we were in a hurry, we decided to have just the soft drinks in the restaurant and get the food packed instead.
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Restaurant review – Momore,Kolkata

Last Saturday,I had been craving for momos. So we went to the nearby Axis mall to savor out the momos at Momore counter. While I have been to this place couple of times before, there was essentially no aspect that stood out during each visit. The counter is situated between Axis mall and Lifestyle store. The counter is quite visible due to location advantage and its bright yellow color. It is more like a take away counter with no available seating arrangements.

Restaurant review – 6,Ballygunge Place, Salt Lake, Kolkata

6,Ballygunge Place or 6,BP as it is popularly known as was the first ever Bengali restaurant that I had dined at in Bangalore. But that was more than a decade ago. Ever since, I have been wanting to try out their outlets in Kolkata. Having eaten at both their Ballygunge and Salt Lake, Sector 1 outlets, I narrow down my choice to the later as a personal favorite.

Last Friday, we decided to lunch at their Salt Lake outlet. While they had an ongoing elaborate buffet on the first floor, we decided to go the Ala Carta way. Due to an unavoidable situation back home, we had to parcel the dishes and managed to savor the desserts only at the restaurant.

Red reaches mountains

Red was always your color. Anything red in the vicinity and there you would pick it up instantly irrespective of the fact that most of the times you really didn’t need it. You always said that red is royal and majestic and I know that in reality you tried making up for your shyness and introvert nature by wearing red.

Remember, how irritated I would feel on unlocking our almirah. Fond of lighter shades and soft colors, I always thought that red was loud and embarrassing. I disapproved of any color that was bright and red topped the list. You would never leave an opportunity to pull my leg saying that you were sure that I would never develop any sense of color.
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