The theme for Tuesday Photo Challenge this week is New. The idea is to bring about a fresh (new) look at things.
This picture was clicked on 22nd September -2015, few hours after my son was born. After an extremely complicated pregnancy and equally difficult c-section, the feeling of seeing your own flesh and blood in the form of a new life is beyond expression. With him, began a new journey of motherhood for me. Gradually my husband and I realized how this new member of the family has brought in a new perspective to our lives, new priorities for us and many other new aspects that were non-existent until then.
This is the last week of the Weekly Photo Challenge and there couldn’t have been a better signing off than through the theme of an all time favorite photo. On the personal front, last two months had been extremely hectic with the A2Z challenge in April and the launch of my first e-book ‘Deal of Death’ in May. However the topic for WPC was enough to evoke the feeling of homecoming in me. Here’s a personal favorite capture of the city I call home now – Kolkata, India.
I wasn’t born here. In fact I barely stayed here for three years during the course of my graduation before hopping onto other places for higher studies and professional commitments. Except an apartment, nothing in the city felt close to my heart until my son was born here in 2015. Over the last few years, I have learnt to embrace the city as my own as my preschooler goes around creating memories in it. While Kolkata is usually represented in the pictures through its old world charm, here’s a snap taken from the terrace of our high-rise building capturing its new essence of life.
Bengal or West Bengal as it is popularly known is one of the states in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. While selecting the theme ‘A dollop of Bengal’, I hadn’t thought of the unbelievably wide range of categories that define the state. So when I started jotting down the words that started with the first alphabet A, I realized the list was only getting bigger. Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen, award-winning actor and director Aparna Sen, scientist Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose, novelist Ashapurna Devi , singer Arijit Singh and the heritage monument Adina Mosque in Malda amidst a list of never-ending names. So I chose two subjects that define the quintessential Bengali essence.
“Adda” –
The Oxford dictionary defines it as a place where people gather for conversations. In Bengal what this stands for is a place where people meet for passionate arguments (sometimes heated as well) related to anything under the sky favorites being politics and the downward spiralling of the state. These addas can be spotted at a range of places varying from the tiniest tea shop to a quiet corner of the road to the pavement of someone’s house. Intellectuals have termed this as brainstorming sessions of many a plot and movement alike like the famous addas at Calcutta Coffee House.
The topic for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week is Alone. What this basically means is capturing objects that appear to be alone or lonely. Through a set of three pictures, this is an attempt to capture the diversity in emotions associated with being alone.
The first picture is that of a lone monkey on the terrace of a neighbourhood house in Berhampore, India. With severe deforestation caused by high-rise buildings, the species have no option but to come to human habitation in search of food. The despair on its face owing to such a helpless and hopeless condition is heartbreaking.
The topic for Weekly Photo Challenge this week is Favorite Place. The idea is to share an image of our happy place, a secret spot we love, or a faraway location we return to again and again.
The first picture is that of the area covering a bookshelf in my bedroom. Having lived out of my suitcase for almost sixteen years owing to education and then job assignments, the only constant companion that I had throughout were books. Whether I stayed in a hostel or as a paying guest or in rented apartments, there was always a bookshelf stacked with books that I loved reading. Whenever I moved cities, I always had the movers & packers pick them up and deliver them back home in Bengal, India.
Two years back when I moved back to Kolkata for good, I was pleasantly surprised to see that my father safeguarded my entire collection in various cabinets and bookshelves in our apartment. With a barely few month old baby then, the distance from the bedroom to any of the rooms felt like kilometres together. Thus this bookshelf was built-in a corner of my bedroom. The books are handpicked by me and each of the shelves has an assigned genre like new collection, regional books (Bengali in my case), humor, classics, crime and thrillers and so on. This space is extremely personal and close to my heart. Irrespective of my emotional state, this corner has never failed to give me happiness and comfort.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Theme reveal of A2Z Blogchatter Challenge – A DOLLOP OF BENGAL
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