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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Sridevi, Syria and Semen – the shocking existential scenarios

Last ten days have been crazy for me. Moving back to Kolkata with an unwell toddler was not only physically exhausting but it drained me out of all the energy and enthusiasm. While he’s still riding on a sinusoidal wave of recovery and sickness again, I feel amazed at my late mother’s ability to maintain calmness and sanity while dealing with similar situations during my childhood. But amidst such turbulence in personal life, I couldn’t help but notice the incidents that have created a havoc in the world for the past few days.

Sridevi –

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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.

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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.

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge – February 18, 2018

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge- February 18,2018 is about those photographs that don’t fall into any common category. This picture was taken in one of the Kolkata fairs held in the month of December. The young lad is walking with his feet tied to long bamboo sticks. These artificial legs are known as ‘ronpa’ in Bengali (one of the languages in India). People visiting the fair, specially little kids were amused by this unusually tall man while he was enjoying all the attention.

 

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Man on ronpa

 

Weekly Photo Challenge – Sweet

The theme for the Weekly Photo Challenge is Sweet for the current week. As per the rules, the photo can either be of something or someone sweet. So, I thought of featuring one of the sweetest relationships in my family – the bond shared between a grandfather and his grandson.

This picture was taken in Dec 2017, when we took off for a family vacation in Mandarmoni, India. The toddler loves swings but he was scared of hurting himself due to a fall. His paternal grandpa (on the left) and maternal granddad (on the right) held his hand from both the sides while he enjoyed his ride. Their presence was enough for him to rise up and high.

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Weekly Photo Challenge – Sweet