#513 Oh! Little kids

 Oh! Little kids

Design Credit: Canva

Oh! Little kids,

I wish I could be like you,

Thousand miles away from those curveballs,

That life throws inevitably.

 

When I look at you playing merrily,

Through my window,

All I could do was sigh,

Sigh at my childhood that passed by.

 

I admire your carefree and innocence,

Being unaware is a blessing in disguise,

As you, no longer have to think, on

Any matters that your mind hasn’t explored.

 

How captivated I become

With your infectious smile,

That comes from a flawless manifestation

Of your soul’s innocence and purity.

 

You played in all seasons,

Whether it snowed or rained,

Without caring about any consequences,

By losing yourself in moment; present.

 

I was in awe of your discipline,

When you followed your teacher, in line,

You walked patiently by

Observing everything around you.

 

I wish I could be like you,

Lost in the world of curiosity, dreams,

Selfless friendship and infinte exploration,

Of the world where I live.

 

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Swati Sarangi

18.04.2024

 

P.S: I dedicate this poem to those little kids whom I watch from my window in Matinkylä. There’s a school, a primary school, just in front of my apartment and I love watching kids playing in front of the school. There’s a small playground in front of the school where there are a variety of swings. I have seen them playing in all seasons; in winter or summer. I admire seeing them walking in a queue, following their teacher, when on a visit to a nearby area.

This poem has been composed for the prompt of NaPoWriMo 2024 Day-18: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem in which the speaker expresses the desire to be someone or something else, and explains why. 

  P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘O’

#512 Love for the stage

 Love for the stage

Design Credit: Canva

It’s story time now as I never miss any chance to walk down memory lane to bring out incidences of my life as stories. That’s because I am so fondly attached to the glorious memories of my childhood days. Through this post, I will once again try to recall all the beautiful memories of those bygone days.

I loved being on stage as it always gave me the kind of energy and confidence that I longed for. I can vaguely remember the first time I went to the stage; I was in grade nursery, and it was Krishna Janmashthami. Our school organized a fancy dress competition. My mother dressed me and my twin sister as Krishna and trained us to recite “Yada Yada Hi Dharmasya..”. She sent us to school with my father. I remember when my teacher put us on the stage, the sight of the crowd made me nervous and I could hardly remember anything. When the musicians in the school band got excited seeing us and started playing instruments to encourage us, my eyes welled up because of being nervous and I could barely last on the stage for more than a minute.

Did that incident develop a fear of stage in me? A hell, NO! Thanks to my parents who always encouraged us to be on the stage. I was very interested in music and my parents provided me with all facility to pursue music along with academics. I was a part of the morning assembly group till the end of my school life. I derived immense pleasure and confidence from facing around 1500 students every morning on stage, being a KVian. There was another benefit of being on stage; it helped me to escape from the scorching heat during the summer. I got various opportunities to conduct morning assemblies, participate in solo and group songs, and do poetry recitations. My performance was not limited to school, but I also explored other events at societies and devotional nights at temples. There were times during my primary school days when I performed a couple of times in group dance.  

When I joined college, I missed that stage of my morning assembly where I had been a part for many years. I lost that encouraging audience and being a part of the audience when I had the talent to perform didn’t cheer me up at all. That was the darkest period of my life when I didn’t get enough opportunity to be on the stage, which affected my confidence drastically.  I again got the stage in my 3^rd year, and it was a bliss to connect with the audience. I felt like living my life again.

Appreciation is like food for any performer or artist without which an artist lives a dormant life. I have always felt music to be a blessing in my life and want to cherish this blessing throughout my life. I try to grab every opportunity to perform on stage as it boosts my confidence. I have a concert of the Ukulele at an old age home tomorrow, whose description will form a part of another blogpost.

 

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Swati Sarangi

17.04.2024

  P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘L’

You can follow me on Instagram – swar_symphony, YouTube – Swati Sarangi & Smule – Swati Sarangi. 

#511 Ram Navami 2024

 Ram Navami 2024

Design Credit: Canva

It was Ram Navami of 2024 and a special day for those who celebrate it as the birthday of Lord Rama. He’s regarded as a symbol of victory over unrighteousness in Ramayana and a Maryada Purushottama – a perfect man. As the 7^th incarnation of Vishnu, he descended on Earth and taught us a lot of good values like obedience, righteousness, truthfulness, etc.

I grew up watching Ramayana and admiring his qualities. My association with Rama as a deity began during my college days when my father advised me to recite Aditya Hridaya Stotram, to get a direction and purpose of life, which was composed by sage Agastya. This Stotram has a place in Ramayana, and it is believed that Lord Rama recited this Stotram to appease the Sun God, seeking his blessings to get victory over Ravana. The benefits of reciting this Stotram in my life were seen in the form of better grades, peace of mind, and attracting good company. Later, as an enthusiast of Sanskrit shlokas, I came across Rama Raksha Stotram in The Sanskrit Channel on Youtube and I got hooked on it. This Stotram was composed by the sage Budhha Koushik, and I was in love with the clear pronunciation of the person who recited it. I listened to this Stotram for almost a year while commuting to the office daily and it proved to be a protection for me as per the circumstances of that time. I felt that all the pains of my body were healed by it.

I celebrated Ram Navami today, in a foreign land, by preparing Satvik meal and sweet dish like Gulab Jamun. I recited Ram Raksha Stotram and chanted 108 names of Lord Rama. I prayed to my Guru, Shri Nirmala Devi, to invoke the qualities of Lord Rama within me. The peace, that came as a result of chanting and meditation is just inexplicable. I wish that Lord Rama be the saviour for all of us and protect your family always.

 

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Swati Sarangi

17.04.2024

    P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘R’

P.S: Here are a few songs, I recorded for Ram Navami

1. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C51QpnMNb-B/?igsh=N2QydmYxaTZ5OHU%3D

2. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C52NzXSvg7y/?igsh=MXF5dDUzaGw4dHdmcA%3D%3D

 

#510 Instagram Journey of mine

 Instagram Journey of mine

Design Credit: Canva

I am going to share one wish of mine that got converted into a reality. During the lockdown in the second quarter of 2020, I started giving more time to singing to regain what I had lost over the years due to other commitments like studies and jobs. I’ve been trained in Indian Classical Vocals from Akhil Bharatiya Gandhav Mahavidyalaya (ABGMV), Mumbai up to 3^rd year when I was in 9^th standard and my music teacher moved to another city. After that, I never got the chance to complete my degree in Vocals till Visharad which I had always wanted to. I even considered preparing for 4^th year vocals exam and followed some of the YouTube channels for guidance, later to realize that I needed a Guru to teach me the nuances of classical music which can’t be learned through YouTube only. I created an Instagram account – MeLockDy (representing melody during Lockdown) to save all my recordings in one place, which I couldn’t, unfortunately.

 

Fast forward to Sept 2023, when I came to know about Ukulele classes for beginners at Lippulaiva Library, Espoo, I could think of nothing else but joining that. As a beginner, I sincerely attended all the classes and practiced at home. We were taught both English and Finnish songs by a Finnish instructor. Thankfully the medium of instruction was in English and I didn’t face any issue in following the instructions. I am someone who believes in experimenting with stuff, on my own, after getting acquainted with the basics. So, I started finding the chords for Bollywood or devotional songs, recording them, and uploading them to my YouTube Channel and Instagram account. With consistency, I have uploaded 71 recordings in the last 5 months and I couldn’t be more happy.

 

As a believer in the law of attraction, my Instagram journey has made me realize that no wish or goal is a small one for the universe, if you wish it, the Universe will help you achieve that. Right now, I am not aiming for any particular subscriber count or monetization, all I am focused on is to enjoy this process and improve my skills so that when I look back at this journey, I can do nothing but marvel at what this journey has given me and be proud of myself.

All Rights Reserved!

Swati Sarangi

15.04.2024

   P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘I’

#509 Book Review - House of cards

  

Book Review - House of Cards

Design Credit : Canva

This novel is a work of fiction divided into different chapters, making it easy to read and finish. This is the last book I finished before this year ends which I picked up at the beginning of this year! When Sudha Murthy writes it, there will be a description of the story with every possible detail. As I've already read many books by Sudha Murthy, I already anticipated that various scenes of the novel would have been taken from day-to-day life, thus making it very convenient for readers to connect.

This novel revolves around the life of Sanjay and Mridula, from Sanjay getting mesmerized by Mridula from their first meeting at a wedding ceremony to marrying her and starting a family in Bangalore. This novel very well depicts all the nuances of life after marriage in India from describing the pain of a woman leaving her maiden home behind and happily accepting the norms of the home of her in-laws to being deceived by her husband in a family matter. Every stage of a growing relationship between a husband and wife has been aptly portrayed through intelligently designed circumstances that are generally observed in real life. This shows the immaculate observation of the life and surroundings of Sudha Murthy. The story ends on a note that Sanjay goes to meet Mridula at Alldahli, where she went after she felt cheated by Sanjay on a family matter. The scenes that follow are left for the interpretation of the readers. As an optimistic person, I would interpret it as a realization of Sanjay about his mistakes and an emotional reunion that follows the aftermath.

I loved the main character Mridula, an intelligent lady with a strong sense of integrity, who knows how to stay happy in life without the need for any external factor. Initially, I struggled to relate to many characters who were introduced one after the other, but I eventually, found a way to create a family tree to help me relate to the characters. In my opinion, I would suggest it to other readers.

Source : Google Images

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

  P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘H’

#508 Just let it flow

 Just let it flow

Design Credit: Canva

Just let your thoughts flow,

Through your pen on a piece of paper,

Or just let your fingers touch,

And move ceaselessly over the keyboard,

May whatever be the medium,

Just let your emotions form,

Something beautiful like a piece of poem,

Let there be no constraint, no boundary

No prompt, nor any feeling of sorry

For feelings know where to go,

All you should do is to

Just let them go,

Free your heart from the secrets,

That you’ve been hiding for ages,

Or the confession that you wanted to make,

Just let them all flow,

Flow effortlessly like a stream of water,

Or the burble of a river,

For it cares not about its job,

All it knows to let its energy flow,

Let there be no tomorrow,

For your suppressed emotions to flow,

Let it should turn into sorrow.

 

So, just let your thoughts flow,

The golden luster that it throws,

All you can do is to observe

And get absorbed deeply into

Its divine glow.

 

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

11.04.2024

   P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘J’

#507 Give up, will you?

 Give up, Will you?

Design Credit : Canva

Will you give up,

When things don’t go right

Or you will fight with your

Negative thoughts with all your might?

 

No one knows how the end is gonna be,

The point appearing to be a dead end,

Might turn into something rewarding.

You never know when your  

Life-clock ceases to tick,

And you’ve to end the game

With a lot of despair and regrets.

 

You’re the storehouse of potential; infinite

Then why do you fail to realize?

That giving up is never an option,

For someone magnificent like you

It’s time for your resurrection,

From that weakly-conditioned self

That lived with imposter syndrome.

 

Now decide, if you want to give up

When things don’t go right,

Or you’ll try once more to

Show up with your all might.

 

All Rights Reserved!

Swati Sarangi

10.04.2024

  P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘G’.  

 

#506 Finland - The happiest country

 Finland – The happiest Country

Design : Canva

From the title of this blog post, you would have already come to know that Finland is the happiest country in the world as announced a few days ago. According to The Wellbeing Research Center at the University of Oxford, which publishes this report, this report considers variables such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, freedom from corruption, etc. Finland was not declared the happiest country for this year, but it has been receiving this title for the last 6 years in a row. As an immigrant to Finland for the past 22 months, I want to share my experience of living and working in this happiest country.

            When I arrived in Finland in June 2022 from densely populated countries like Hong Kong and India, all I witnessed was peace, space, and lonely streets. Little did I know that I would feel like being at home until our next move. Even in June, the temperature was somewhere around 10 degrees, and the sun was always there in the sky. Once I remembered staying up late to check the time of the sunset and I found it to be around 2 am, and the next morning sun was in the sky around 4:15 am. It was my first experience of staying in any European country let alone any Nordic country. I was then living in Helsinki, just 2 tram stops away from the Helsinki Central Station. In my 22 months of stay, I got the chance to live in 3 apartments in 3 different places like Ruusulankatu(Helsinki), Niittykumpu(Espoo), and Appelinkatu(Espoo). There is something or the other appreciable for these locations where I stayed and that added to my experience.

I’ve experienced many firsts of my life in Finland. For example, I took my first international flight with my husband. I experienced the first snowfall and made my first snowman. I spent uncountable mornings looking at the winter wonderland from my window and feeling grateful to God for letting me witness such a beautiful view. Traveling to other nearby/EU countries like Sweden, Estonia, and Italy became easy. I traveled on a cruise and sang “My heart will go on” on a Karaoke for the first time. I attended a lot of events/job fairs, learned to play Ukulele, played Ukulele at a live concert with a group, and explored libraries and museums.

            From my experience, I would enlist the following reasons that make Finland, the happiest country;

1)     Honesty: Finnish people are truthful, honest, and straightforward. They don’t beat around the bush. I have been able to recover all my lost stuff.

2)     Punctuality: All public transport runs at the scheduled time unless there’s any technical issue.

3)     Peaceful: I have never found someone causing any noise by playing any music loudly in a residential area. Honking due to public transport is rare as people drive in the designated lanes.

4)     Nature Loving: Finnish people like to spend time with nature. They are not just interested in summer sports/activities but also enjoy winter sports like skiing, ice skating, etc.

5)     Corruption-free: There’s no corruption in Finland as people are very honest and try to do tasks assigned to them with utmost honesty and integrity.

6)     Pollution Free: The AQI index of Finland is 21 which places it among the cleanliest countries in the world. The current PM2.5 concentration in Finland is below the recommended limit given by WHO 24hr air quality guidelines values.

7)     Work-life balance: People value spending quality time with their family. So, their working hours are flexible and moderate to maintain a perfect work-life balance.

Source : https://www.aqi.in/dashboard/finland

In my opinion, happiness is a state of mind which is not associated with any place or person. While some people find these 9 months-long dark and dull winter days depressing, others appreciate the shining aura that the white snow spreads. After the harsh winter, comes the beautiful spring which brightens up the surroundings and reminds me of a famous saying by P.B.Shelly , “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”

 

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

08.04.2024

  P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘F’.  

#505 Easy Choices or Easy Life

 Easy Choices or Easy Life

Source : Canva

If given a chance, what would you prefer in life – easy choices or an easy life? There’s no one who, I think, will ever go for a life full of troubles or roadblocks but to be able to live that life, will the choices made for that be easy? Let me share my views on this topic.

Easy choices are easy dopamine boosters as they provide entertainment instantly without putting much effort like watching reels, playing video games, or watching your favorite series which doesn’t receive any friction from your mind because you enjoy doing it, but have you ever wondered how these choices help you in the long run? Other examples could be eating junk or those foods that just satisfy our tongues but are not healthy or beneficial for our bodies, relaxing on the couch and watching TV over exercising, just consuming content for hours over creating content on social media, socializing on weekends over practicing or giving time to your bobbies over, wasting time on random stuff over preparing for exams or working on your skills. Easy choices are so alluring that you would not even think twice before falling into their traps. Our lives are full of such easy choices and every time we have to make wise decisions provided we want to improve our lives. I am very happy about the choices that I made during my college days like focusing on my hobbies and working on my skills in my solitude rather than gossiping or chatting with a group of girls in the hostel to ward off boredom. It was, of course, difficult to confront your solitude than to be with a group but I realized that all my creativity was born out of solitude. The art of being comfortable with your own company never let me sit idle and helped me immensely throughout the later years of my life. 

An easy life is the one, that I feel, is peaceful and less troublesome, and that easy life is attainable only when you can make the right choices than easy choices. One can make the right choices amidst the sea of alluring easy choices only when one is aware of the consequences of it or one’s actions are governed by a sense of complete consciousness. It’s an art to lead a life with conscious choices, not many can do it. In this world full of distractions that any gadget or social media has produced, a sense of conscious awareness can be achieved through meditation or questioning oneself frequently if he’s doing things correctly or pondering upon whether the action that he’s doing is taking a step closer to his goals.  

Nothing worth achieving comes easy. So, one has to decide if he wants to choose between the pain of regret or the pain of discipline.

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

07.04.2024

    P.S: This post is a part of #BlogChatterA2Z 2024Challenge for Alphabet ‘E’.     

#504 Culinary list

 

Culinary list

Marriage is an auspicious institution where two souls get united. It’s a responsibility for lifetime. For some it’s a bed of roses and others, it’s like training periods of some IT companies. I remember that day very well, when I entered into a house of my husband with a grand welcome. From the next day onwards, I was on probation period. I was told to cook the delicacies that I knew at that time. I was not very fond of cooking. But youtube taught me everything from basics. I thank youtube for being my savior. Here is a list of menu prepared by me in the first and half of month of my marriage.

 

Breakfast

1.Poha

3.Vermicelli Upma

3.Sprout Salad

4.Dosa and Sambhar

5.Idli and chutney

6.Sandwich

7.Upma

8. Besan Chilla

 

Lunch

Veg

1. Rice and Dal daily

2.Salad compulsory

3. Dalma

4. Potala curry

5.Potala Kasa

6.Saga

7.Gobhi curry

8. Cabbage Fry

9.Nadia Bara curry

10. Paneer curry

11.Chilli Paneer

13. Bhindi curry

14.Bhindi bhaja

15.Janhi Besar

16.Janhni Posto

17.Dahi Bhindi

18.Dahi kobi

19.Dahi baigan

20.Paneer Bharta

21.Aloo bhaja

22.Baigan Bharta

23.Paneer Manchurian(Kofta)

 

Non-Veg

1.Egg curry

2.Egg omlette

3.Chicken curry

4.Chicken Kasa

5.Fish curry

 

Rice Item

1.Veg fried rice

2.Biriyani

3. Bengali Khichdi

4.Carrot Rice

5.Lemon Rice

 

Snacks

1.Atta momos, chutney

2.Pasta

3.Veg Chowmin

 

Dinner

1.Roti

2.Paratha

3.Aloo Paratha

4.Gobhi Paratha

 

1.Besan Laddu

2.Nadia Kora laddu(Coconut)

 

My in-laws were not satisfied with my list of prepared items. I just want to know from readers, what else a daughter-in-law would have prepared in a short span of time.

 P.S: This post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z Challenge for alphabet ‘C’

The Blogchatter

SWETA SARANGI
6-4-2024