#548 October Wishes

 October Wishes

Image Source : Blogchatter

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop.

October is the antepenultimate month of the year. Every year, it comes with a handful of festivals to celebrate in an Indian household. Similarly, this year too festive season has begun with the commencement of October. To worship the divine power of Goddess Durga, Navratri will be celebrated from 03^rd October to 12^th October. There are several changes in the atmosphere too apart from the festive vibes. With leaves turning red and yellow from green before falling from the trees, this month announces the arrival of autumn before the harsh winter.

I was too disturbed by the horrific incident that took place at R.G. Kar Medical College in August 2024. Even after that unfortunate incident, the cases of violence against women are still on rise. No strict action has been taken against the culprits. I wish for the safety and security of women in India. I wish justice would be served to the victim by ensuring the enforcement of law and order in the right way. It is shameful to state that women are unsafe and discriminated in a country where Goddess Durga is worshipped. What kind of hypocrisy is it?

I am also disturbed by the war situations and geo-political instability taking place in the affected parts of the world. War has never been beneficial for any party. It has always caused a huge loss of resources and lives. It’s moving to come across the news of those affected by war. I wish there is world peace and harmony.   

On the personal front, I wish to complete all pending tasks before the end of this year. I wish to be a better version of myself by consistently working towards my goals. Completing tasks from the to-do list requires proper planning, determination, and timely implementation of strategies. I’m trying to follow a routine that will not only improve my productivity but also keep me motivated in the long run. I’ve started implementing some strategies to remove distractions and keep me more focused. For example – working with at the most 3-4 tabs in one window of my laptop, closing the tabs as soon as the task gets done etc.

We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment. The difference is the discipline weighs ounce while the regrets weigh tons – Jim Rohn. I don’t want to end this year with regrets of not doing what could’ve been done so easily. So, in these last 3 months, I am wrapping up unfinished tasks by not taking more tasks on the plate. Hopefully, I will be able to accomplish everything that I wish for! Finger crossed!

Image generated by GROK2.0

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Swati Sarangi

06.10.2024

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#547 Celebrating festivals abroad

 Celebrating festivals abroad

Image source : Blogchatter

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop.

This post is a part of ‘Feeling Festive Blog Hop’ hosted by Manali Desai and Sukaina Majeed under #EveryConversationMatters

Festivals provide a way to escape from the mundanity of life and celebrate it. In every Indian household, they hold immense importance and bring countless moments to be treasured as memories. Festivals bring a variety of mouth-watering food, magnetically divine vibes, some rituals to perform, and get-together with family and friends.

Every year, there comes a handful of festivals that all of us look forward to. As a child, I used to surf through festivals on the calendar, not because I hated going to school but because I enjoyed everything about it; be it helping my mother with preparation, serving guests when they arrived home, cleaning or decorating home. All of us, my sister, father and I worked together like a team during the festive season to execute every plan that we had made.

Out of all the festivals, my favorite one is Dusshera. I don’t know why I remember almost all memories of it, right from my school days. Is it because we were given 2 weeks of Autumn holidays then or the extravaganza associated with it? I can’t figure out the right reason. Every year, it falls during October and the feeling of nostalgia engulfs me. The image of stage, competitions, aromas of delicacies, and other performances. Having spent my school days in Kanpur, I witnessed how grand Sarvojanin Kali Puja Samiti used to organize Kali Puja for a week. There used to be competitions for different age groups. We participated in it and won some prizes. The entire celebration would end with fireworks, a prize distribution ceremony, and a concert. I have been missing this festival ever since I was away from Kanpur.

 

Image Source : Generated by GROK2

 

It has been 3.5 years since I have lived abroad. I try to recreate events from my festival memories because it is always not practically possible for me to visit India during festivals. The first that I do as a part of preparing for festival is to rush to an Indian Store to get the groceries or related items for the festival. We celebrate at home with decorations, and delicious dishes or additionally look for communities where it is celebrated. No matter how much I try to recreate those feelings of excitement of celebrating festivals at home back in India, something remains missing.

Such is the power of home; festivals that we celebrate with family and friends! The nostalgia associated with festivals hits me every year and makes me miss home a little more.

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Swati Sarangi

04.10.2024

#BlogchatterBlogHop

Edit : This post received TOP POST on Blogchatter

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#535 Joys of July

 Joys of July

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop.

Finally, it’s that time of the year for me, a month that has always witnessed a lot of transformations. As I sit with a bottle of water to hydrate myself, unaware of how long this post is going to be, it’s time to spill the beans now. Every year, I eagerly wait for July as this month brings a lot of shifts/changes in my life, such as moving places, visiting family, or changing jobs. So, this year too, we moved to a relatively stable apartment in July, from a temporary sublet where we stayed throughout June. I’m in the middle of this month and this year too. This feeling is both exciting about what is about to come and nervous about how to make the rest of the year more productive.

I received this badge for completing #blogchatterfoodfest 

It's night, 11:33 PM, to be precise, and exactly the time when I write my diary entry as if the view of the dark sky from my window channels all chaos of my mind into words. Not to forget the soothing wind of a Summer night that finds its way through my window, to relax my mind.  So, I’ve picked up this time to reflect on what half of this month has brought to me. The initial days of this month were very hectic as those were spent on moving to a new apartment, setting things up, and getting groceries and other equipment. Living in proximity to Delft Station has proved to be very advantageous to me as many shopping areas are quite accessible. For example, there’s a small shopping complex just 200 meters away from my apartment, and within 2 kilometers I can find almost everything including Indian/Asian grocery stores. My love for books helped me discover a public library just 150 meters away from my apartment and to my surprise, there’s a Movie theatre just in front of it. Imagine going to the movie theatre at the end of the day with a sense of satisfaction after finishing a productive day at the library! I never knew that it was not just getting the keys to the apartment but also access to many facilities right close to me.

Swarnali quoted this line from my entry for #thewritepathbloghop

With the arrival of the monsoon in India, July witnesses a change in the season when our mother earth gets relieved from the intolerable heat of the Summer. I can very well recall the fire-like burning summer days from abroad. This year, we’ve been fortunate to witness two mega events that never happened even in centuries, the 2-day Rath Yatra at Puri and Anant Ambani’s Wedding. I feel these two events are something that we can narrate to our grandchildren in the future.

As I’ve lived the first half of July,so, I am going to share the joys that the first half of July 2024 has brought to me. I received two badges for successfully participating in two writing challenges; #blogchatterfoodfest and #thewritepathbloghop. I was so amused to receive the title "Master of Munches" for it. Through blogchatterfoodfest, I could write about some of the healthy salads that I have been including in our lunch lately. It made me realize the congruence between preparing a colourful meal and completing a painting. Both of these tasks require a lot of creativity and patience for the outcome. We can trick our minds into going with visually appealing healthy dishes.

Swarnali's comment for my participation in #thewritepathbloghop

My blogger friend, Swarnali’s bloghop, #thewritepathbloghop helped me to walk through my writing journey and relive those golden memories. I also read and connected with my fellow writers who participated in that bloghop. I was so surprised to find one of the participants, who lives just an hour away from where I live now and it’s an absolute delight to get connected with Indians living abroad. I plan to visit her soon.

Certificate of participation for #thewritepathbloghop

My father always says, “We get maximum or favorable output when we align our actions with nature.” For example, getting up early as the sun rises, going to bed as the sun sets, eating sufficiently as per the needs of the body, and working out regularly. So, to maximize the joy of July, some of which days, are still left to be enjoyed, I pledge to live more mindfully!

 

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Swati Sarangi

18.06.2024

 P.S: All the words in black and bold have been taken from the word cloud as the prompt given for #blogchatterbloghop.

#486 What a lazy day looks like to me

 What a lazy day looks like to me

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop. 

Before I start writing anything, I would first like to thank the team of BlogChatter for coming up with a lot of innovative prompts with the help of which I can conquer my writing block. From this week’s #BlogChatterBlogHop, I have selected the prompt “A blogger on a lazy day” for mainly two reasons; First, I qualify to consider myself a blogger after blogging for a decade. Second, I’ve been idling around for some time recently, just being cozied up in my cocoon during these snowy Nordic winter days. I want to slow down a bit and enjoy this process of my existence and evolution as my life turned extremely hectic a few months ago.   

         

          Picking up a day from one of my recent lazy days, I usually get up between 7:30 am and 8 am as it’s winter here in Finland and the sun rises around 8:40 am and before that, it’s pitch-dark black all around. So, I can proudly say that I wake up before sunrise or can I call it a Finnish Brahma Muhurta? Jokes apart! So, for me, a lazy day essentially doesn’t exclude any work, but it includes moments to relax mentally by not worrying much about my career or future or giving time to activities that I enjoy doing. Note: A married woman’s life can’t be devoid of any work, there’s always a schedule of household chores to perform. After performing some usual household chores like cleaning, setting up the rooms, and cooking, I sit on the armchair in my favorite spot in the drawing room with a cup of hot chocolate and a book. I also watch some movies or videos on YouTube for entertainment. I enjoy reading eBooks on my iPad where I also take notes. These days, I’ve been learning to play the Ukulele, so I’m trying my hand at Ukulele. I experiment with this stringed instrument which I have yearned to play for a long time. I try to get the chords for some Bollywood songs by hit and trials and note them down in a notebook which I refer to while recording the songs. I upload these recordings in my quite-recently-created-Instagram-Account; swar_symphony. I also collaborate with singers all over the world on Smule app. I feel that anything that one creates makes her happy and confident. I would sometimes surf for different contents or invitations for writing on different prompts to keep my blog alive.

 

          I wonder what life without any work would look like. After crossing the carefree stage of life that of a student, I am into the next phase of life; that’s married life which comes with some T&C and some responsibilities. I can never think of getting rid of the repetitive household chores as it has taught me to be more disciplined and gain control over the mind which always gives me numerous excuses not to do it. At the end of the day, I feel content to reflect on my day and feel grateful for my family and friends.

 

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Swati Sarangi

30.11.2023

#485 On the bus ride home

 On the bus ride home

Source: Google Images
This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop 

On the bus ride home, I met an old woman. Even though she was a stranger to me, that brief meeting invoked a lot of familiar emotions within me.  

If I try to recall that incident more vividly, it was exactly a month ago, to be precise. Since the arrival of autumn, the days in Finland have shrunk to a few hours and the darkness engulfs the rest of the day quite early, as early as 4 pm. After shopping at a nearby mall, I boarded the bus to my home. After a few stops, I found an elderly lady boarding the bus. When she came closer to where I sat, I could observe her face more intensely, for a moment I felt that I met my grandmother whom I lost 2 years ago to COVID; same smile, complexion, and blue bulging-out nerves over her pale, speckled hands. Myriads of memories with her flashed in front of my eyes and my mind started an age-old conversation with her about the tales that were untold or left to be told after our last meeting.  I wanted to draw her attention towards me, but alas language was the barrier. Yes, I reminded myself that I was living in a foreign land.

I wouldn’t have let her go, simply like that, it was what my mind compelled me but then it countered with logic explaining the reality that I neither have time nor knowledge of the language to explain my emotions. Suddenly, an idea crossed my mind. I quickly took out my mobile and sought the help of the Google translator. I initiated the conversation by writing the sentences in English and letting the software translate them into Finnish. To understand her reply, the voice translator option came to my rescue. After an exchange of some 4-5 Finnish-English sentences, she prepared to leave as her destination arrived. I wondered if she would ever look back to bid me bye, but she didn’t! She just moved forward with the luggage she had by providing a subtle hint to me to move forward in my life too with whatever responsibilities I have right now in my life.

For her, I was just another stranger/foreigner she met randomly, or she might probably never recall me but for me, she was like a bridge between my past and present. I felt as if the bus was the time machine that dragged me to wonderful and fond memories of my past. I wished she had looked back once to wave me the last goodbye!

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Swati Sarangi

26.11.2023

P.S.: I dedicate this article to my late paternal grandmother with whom I had a wonderful connection. She left for heavenly abode in 2021 due to COVID and none of our family members [as almost all of them tested COVID+ve] could bid her goodbye. I can never repay the debt that I owe to her. I pray that wherever her soul is, may she be at divine peace and merge into the ultimate spiritual consciousness! Om Shanti!

Edit: This post is a TOP BLOG at BlogChatter.

#449 Living in a Winter Wonderland

 Living in a Winter Wonderland

View from my balcony ; image taken by my camera

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop and link it to www.theblogchatter.com

How incredible it is to

Live in a winter wonderland

Where white snowflakes fall down

To land, on divine command.

 

Snowflakes as light as feathers,

Floating and swaying in the air,

Some cover the ground as they descend

While others adorning trees with care.

View from my balcony ; image taken by my camera

 

The air is cool and the snow is white

Cloaking everything in a frosty light,

The trees are bare after shedding their leaves

Who wouldn’t like to give a visit?

 

Sky is a canvas of pale blue

The sun, if it shines, lends a golden hue

But its rays not intense enough to melt

The sheat of snow covering the ground.

View from my balcony ; image taken by my camera

 

The world is quiet, the snow snuffles around

Making peace and tranquility very profound,

It’s fun to skate and sled hours away

Through natural icy playground.

With few hours of daylight, the darkness

Might seem to prolong

What a luxury to enjoy the sight of snow

Through my balcony for long.

 

Image taken by mobile

 Warm clothes, sweaters , scarfs,winter jackets

Whether to go out or get cozy under blankets,

Enjoy watching movies or reading books with

A cup of hot Coffee or serving of hot dishes.

 

When winter seems long or enduring,

Then sun comes out to cheer,

By taking the shelter of music and art,

I try to paint this gift of nature.

This is me posing with the snowman

 

I write this poem trying to bring the

Imagery of Winter Wonderland alive,

By reflecting on the days I lived for

Readers who may want read this piece.

 

#BlogchatterBlogHop

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Swati Sarangi

26.03.2022

Image taken by my mobile

#447 Movie Review: Sita Ramam

Movie Review: Sita Ramam

This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop and link it to www.theblogchatter.com

Image Source: Google Images

This movie revolves around the love story of a princess, Noor Jahan with a lieutenant in the Indian army, Ram working in the Madras Regiment in the year 1965. The movie opens up with the operation of Gibraltar with the revelation of  annexing Kashmir. Major Tariq Mohammad, Brigadier from Pakistan Army, gets the news that the Terrorist group Mujahidin wants to accomplish this mission of taking charge of Kashmir with the help of the Indian Army which he simply dismisses then he gets the confirmation from a senior officer. Mujahideen group trains 5 boys of under 18 years of age to go to Kashmir and live with locals.

Pakistan’s youth President in London, Afreen is shown discussing the matter on a News Channel when a riot took place between Indian and Pakistani students. She, out of anger, burns the car of  Anand Mehta, who has sponsored the education of many students at the University of London. She is then asked to apologize to Anand Mehta by the Dean which she firmly denies. She’s left with one option, to pay 1 million as an amount of compensation for the car (or else she will be rusticated from the university), in a month’s time and she agrees to accept this option. She decided to fly to her home Karachi, to take help from his grandfather Brigadier Tariq.

On reaching Karachi, she founds that her grandfather is no more. When she was contacted many times before, she ignored the calls and she was angry about being sent to London for studies, which was against her wish. She meets with the lawyer and asks him the compensation of 10Lakh. The lawyer hands her the letter from her grandfather. While reading that letter, she gets to know that her grandfather regrets not fulfilling the last wish of Lieutenant Ram for the last 20 years, to send the letter of Ram addressed to Sita Mahalaxmi. So, now the responsibility lies on Afreen to send the letter to Sita Mahalaxmi to get the compensation amount 10Lakh from the lawyer.

Afreen leaves for India in search of Sita Mahalaxmi and directly heads to Noor Jahan Palace where the address was written, but couldn’t find Sita Mahalaxmi. She is accompanied by a senior Balaji who promises to help her in her mission. Surprisingly, the letter was written 20-years-ago which made it even more difficult to rely on the address. They first meet Subramaniam, working in the library of the Palace-turned-college, who denies knowing anyone named Sita. Then the idea strikes Afreen to start searching for Ram as she believes that with 3 information – his position(lieutenant), service year(1965), and regiment(Madras), she would be able to reach him. When Balaji and Afreen go to meet Balaji’s uncle working at Indian Army, he guides them to collect information about Ram from the library which allows the entry of civilians on Mondays. Afreen finds a picture of Ram in one of the magazines and shows it to the army officer, who checks other pages of the magazine. On finding a picture of Ram’s colleague, Vikas gives his address.

Vikas takes them to the year 1965, Madras Regiment working in Sri Nagar. The scene opens in LOC where Ram fires indirectly (not with an intention of killing the locals whom they suspect to be terrorists) on the order of Vishnu(his senior). Vishnu asks for a written explanation for missing the shots to Ram.  Ram feels that it is okay for him to take the punishment instead of a lifetime regret of killing innocents.

After success in Kashmir’s mission, when a reporter from All-India-Radio comes to the headquarters of the Indian Army and asks them to send messages to their families, Ram says that he is an orphan. The reporter is moved by this sentence of Ram and requests all citizens to write letters to Ram as family members. Then comes a flood of letters for Ram and he also takes time out to answer each letter. Out of the pile of letters, he finds the letter of Sita Mahalaxmi who writes him as his wife, waiting for his return. Slowly the story progresses to bring Ram and Sita together. Sita Mahalaxmi is the pen name of princess Noor Jahan, through which she has been writing all those letters to Ram.

To improve the political relation between Hyderabad and Oman, his brother brings the marriage proposal of the son of Oman's King which she refuses, saying she loves a commoner and the news of their affairs is true. She leaves the palace to live with Ram as his wife. The day when she decides to tell Ram about her identity, Ram goes out on a mission. In that mission, Ram along with his senior Vishnu is caught by Pakistan Army when Ram goes inside a burning cottage to save child Afreen, granddaughter of Tareeq. They are sentenced to imprisonment and an order comes to release one of them. Vishnu reveals the coordinates of the Indian army camp to the Pakistan Army in lieu of being released and puts the blame of the traitor on Ram. In this way, the media starts to regard Ram as a traitor. This story is narrated to Afreen by Vishnu.

The story ends with Afreen seeking an apology from Sita while handing over the letter and a valedictory march for Ram.  

My Opinion

This movie has an interesting plot, the major outline of the movie, a rich girl falling in love with an army man when he rescues her during a tough time reminds me of Veer Zara with an angle of inter-religion love. I didn’t feel like wasting my time after watching this movie and I can watch it later. So, I won’t put this movie into the category of a one-time watch. The movie beautifully unfolds while keeping all the suspense intact and everything becomes clear in the end. So, this movie can be better understood from the end to the beginning, in a reverse way. The actors have done a brilliant job. I have already watched a movie by Dulqeer Salman, Banglore Days, but it was my first movie starring Mrunal Thakur. I was mesmerized by the beauty of Mrinal and the style of acting to match such a fabulous actor like Dulqueer. I would prefer dubbed version to the one with subtitles and I am glad that the Hindi dubbed version was available. There was little humor here and there to make the plot a little less stressful. This movie has a happy ending. I wished it could have united Ram with Sita in the end! Overall, it is a must-watch movie and I would rate it 4.5/5.

 

For the prompt of [7thFeb-13thFeb] #BlogchatterBlogHop, along with this movie I would recommend, Before Trilogy Series  - Before Sunrise(1995), Before Sunset(2004), and Before Midnight(2013). I have not been a very big fan of the genre romance but somehow started to explore this genre in 2020. What I like most about this series is the way the movie progresses so naturally through pure conversation between two strangers, who met on the train during the journey. Their conversation is funny, playful, deep, and interesting. How can you know more about  a person without ever interacting or asking some deep and relevant questions? They depart each other without any commitment and leave their next meeting to fate and luckily their paths cross in the later sequels. Out of these movies in the trilogy, I liked the first one the most because that shows how they met, and other parts act as extensions of the first one in a more mature and profound way.

Image Source : Google Images

My third recommendation for the genre romance would be the series Love Is Blind – Japan. It is one of the most popular shows of 2022. I preferred the Japanese version over other versions because I thought I could connect well to the Asian culture. I have already written an article based on it which can be read here. So, in brief, it’s a dating show, where men and women would get to know each other by conversing with each other from their respective pods thereby completely removing the physical traits governing the choice of partner. Not every engaged couple in the show made it to the day of their marriages and I won’t spill the beans now. You must watch it to know the result in case you want to go with this recommendation.

 

Image Sources: Google Images

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Swati Sarangi

12.02.2023