baggout Blogging Contest

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The rising sun in human form

The rising sun in human form


It was around February -March 1980 when I was going through a very bad
Patch in life. My husband was unhappy with his work place and started drinking so much so that it seemed he was going the 'alcoholic' way. He became so thin that my heart came to my mouth whenever I looked at him.

One day he vomited blood and the doctor said “either quit alcohol or ....you know what"

I was at my wits end , there being no one that I could turn to. I was an orphan from my childhood and my grandpa reared me up , gave love , affection and educated me. I was very good at studies and finished my Masters in Philosophy and was preparing for my Doctors ( PhD) when Grandpa fell ill and decided to marry me off.

My dream for a PhD in Philosophy was washed away with my tears as my in - laws were against it. My grandpa died a few years after my marriage.

None-the-less my married life was a happy one with a loving husband and lovely cute daughter.

My husband developed the drinking habit later and due to excessive drinking, his health, career and friends started dwindling. My in laws started blaming me though I saw no reason for it. We were running short of money and every month ours dues at the local grocery shop increased to my utter embarrassment.

At last I started to look for a job but none came in my way as I was already thirty and I had neither qualified to be a school teacher nor a college as both posts needed specific degrees after finishing Masters, so I learned typing and got a typists job and felt like committing suicide.

In the meantime our daughter was blooming into a beautiful flower and we Managed to put in a well know English medium school.

I , myself was an avid reader, both English and Bangla literature ; but to my dismay my daughter never showed any interest for reading Bangla books so I had been presenting her with a children's Bangla monthly magazine 'Kishore Bharati' for years together.

One day I found she had not even touched the pages of any of the magazines and they were dumped at one corner of her room.

My husband had become an alcoholic, I was drudging as a typist, my in-laws were angry with me for no fault of mine, we were constantly in debt, so much so that friends started avoiding us. My grandpa was no more there to console me.

It was my daughter's birth day. I told her pick up all the copies of the Bangla magazines, put them in a bag; every year you get gifts on this day , today you will gift these to children who have nothing , no parents, no proper food, no proper dress and no proper place to live.

I heard of Mother Teresa and her Home for destitute children but was not sure about its location but vaguely remember somebody saying it was near the Kalighat area near the crematorium.

After some- search we located a non-descriptive room on the side of footpath on the door of which there was a plate with inscription "Nirmal Hriday" (sacred heart)

We stepped in and inside it was cool and dark.  A man was sitting on a chair and he greeted us with a smile.

We told him about our mission and he said home for children was in Hazra Road and pointed to us old and sickly skeleton like bodies lying on the floor , there were about twelve men like that. On one side of the room there were concrete bath tubs.  He explained mother picked them up from various parts of the street of Calcutta(it was not Kolkata then) all most on the verge of death, hungry and with all kind of illness left by the society to die on the street.

Mother had made arrangement for them to sleep on rugs on clean concert floors, they were bathed and fed by the helps who were once picked up and saved by Mother. They were offered food, medicine, a place to sleep and loving care of Mother. The home runs with money received as doles for the cause.

The doorman said I was picked up by mother once when I was lying and dying with tuberculosis on the streets. Mother took me and cured me , fed me and touched me with compassion and I started feeling like a human being once again. I have pledged my life to Mother and her cause.

As per his advise we left the books to be taken to the children home by the Sisters who visit Nirmal Hriday twice every day.

We came back with a feeling of witnessing God's handiwork and were overwhelmed with gratitude for being alive,  healthy with a roof on our head and food in our mouth.

I realized how lucky we were and also how selfish. I do not know how but soon after the visit my husband decided to quit drinking and I took him to my doctor uncle who helped him in his effort. Now he is a teetotaller, my daughter an engineer and I retired from the same organization as an Assistant Secretary;all because on the darkest hour of my life I had witnessed a rising sun in a human form.



Monday, February 2, 2015

WHERE DO WRITERS LIKE ME STAND






I wanted to self publish my favourite poems for children and contacted a relatively new publisher 24by7 publishing.com

To test waters I first let them publish a black and white book of adult poems "Nari tumi k" and I was satisfied

Next I contacted them and with the proposal of publishing my children poem book with sketches that were made by Sri Tapomitra Bandyopadhyay

They requested me to make it a colored book for which I would have to pay INR 23440/-
And they would provide me

(a) option of choosing my colored cover page created by their inhouse artist from three samples
(b) they would make the sketches provided in mono colors
(c) I was entitled to three to four illustrations proved by their inhouse artist
(d) I would get 10 free copies
(e) 10 colored posters to be displayed by them at the coming book fair
(e) 96 colored personal card for advertisement
(f) they promised to provide two drawings with each poem one by Topomitra and other my colored drawing with computer

And by no means they would take a single step without getting my written consent

What they did

They sent me a printed book without taking my consent about the cover page

Only the sketches were printed while they called for the entire file of computer drawing from me

Apart from the title page and dedication page the whole book was black and white only the first letter of each poem was Red (?)

The title of poems were highlighted with odd colors

One of the poem was incomplete and the next two were totally omitted

This thin book of 92 pages are priced at INR 699/-

After consultation they made some changes like

The pages of the whole book were replaced with lightly colored pages

My colored computer drawings were taken into consideration

All the poems were included

Ten free copies , 96 cards and 10 colored posters provided but unfortunately
 they remain unused as they have not booked any stall at the bookfair

In the reprinted book a poem has been unnecessarily edited so that it has become meaningless and a jargon of unrelated words

The book is still priced INR 699/-

By the way this is my seventh selfpublished book

Where do writers like me stand

Friday, January 16, 2015

HAPPY ENDING WITH LOVE

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A BAGGOUT CONTEST ON VALENTINE DAY


February 14 is considered as Lovers Day all over the world but I do not know why this day should be linked to Romantic boy- girl love.  Love to me is next to God and the best example of Love is that between a mother and child. I am sure saint Valentine , if alive, would happily agree with me in this regard.

So today , I would beg of Him to give  unending power to make the last day happy and painless for my niece  Mantu  , who is in tremendous pain both physical and mental, with fourth stage cancer, suffering terribly , knowing her days are only numbered.

Whenever I talk to her and her mother over iphone and see each other in "face time" my heart breaks into thousand pieces and feel like crying out loud but I remain quiet and show I am cheerful and know she would survive , with some miracle drug.

Mantu asks " Mashi  please pray for me" yes dear of course I say.
Mashi I want to see you- and I smile and say of course dear we are going to meet soon.
She stays with her mother in New Jersey and when she says "Mashi I would like to come to India and meet all my cousins" I almost gulp down  my tears.

Now that I am supposed to get every power to make some one I know to have the greatest ball on this Valentine day, I would chose Mantu and like the fairy God Mother make her look as beautiful as I have seen her before cancer, make her wear beautiful dress like Cinderella, and make her enter the most gorgeous ball at New Jersey City.

People will look at her and wonder who the fair lady is, eligible bachelors will fight with one another to have a dance with her and the best of the young men will get a chance to look at her eyes and Whisper "I Love You" , a word she has not so far heard and will never hear again. The evening will pass  like a dream and Mantu will forget everything about her illness and look into the young man's eyes and say I Love You too.

At the stroke of midnight God would make her sleep forever with the belief firm in her that she is cured and in Love and her charming Love is taking her to Heaven for ever.

 If and only if I could have the power to change one day in the girl's last days , this is it.


"This post has been written For Baggout's Blogging Contest for Valentines Day. Baggout Provides awesome deal on flipkart, Myntra, Jabong, Snapdeal, Amazon and 100+ Online Stores" 
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Sent from my iPhone

Thursday, August 7, 2014

wedding planner for Raima from BAGGOUT

Proud to be a wedding planner for a few aspects of Raima Sen’ marriage (entirely imaginary)


Proud to be a wedding planner for a few aspects of Raima Sen’ marriage

After Band Baja Barat my interest in arranging marriage became an obsession and I got quite a few opportunities at home meaning our extended family of uncles aunties nephews and nieces and their wedding arrangements were gladly handed over to me and I managed them with aplomb ofcourse with the help of others

But I never expected anything like this when my girlhood friend Ragini called me up with a proposal to manage the wedding of her cousin  sister Raima Sen. Yes you have rightly guessed the Tollywood screen queen Raima sen .

First thing first and so I jotted out the ‘to do’ list first:
I have to make arrangement of the wedding place and the places where the guests might stay and cars and air tickets to be booked for the guests,

The wedding was scheduled on 24  Number. The climate being perfect we decided to book Echo park at Rajarhat New Town. Those of you who have not yet heard of Echo park must come at Kolkata and enjoy a few days at this part pf the mega city  absolutely green calm and beautiful with water bodies gardens and small attractive cottages to put up. Also the Vedic village at the same area.

After the selection of the place we applied to the West Bengal Govt for the purpose with an undertaking that we would by no means disturb the ecological balance and beauty of the place.
Vedic Village Resort
Rajarhat

We contacted http://www.tripadvisor.com to do the necessary booking.

Then straight away I went and visited the facebook page of baggout.com. Although the bride will have some of her ornaments and sarees from Kolkata’s own Anjali Jewellers and Dhakeswari Bastralaya,
there were plenty of buying to do for fancy dresses, lehenga , salwars, bags, shoes  trendy and gorgeous jewellery, and also gifts for the guest and where else to go than baggout.com.
I give below links of some retails shops at baggout that were offering best deals and I picked up some ravishing dresses for the  wedding

http://baggout.com/retailer/flipkart-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/jabong-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/myntra-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/flipkart-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/rediff-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/shopping-indiatimes-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/shopclues-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/rediff-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/Craftsvilla-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/floweraura-discount-coupon-codes
http://baggout.com/retailer/Crazy-Florist-discount-coupon-codes


And here are links of particular products from the shops:

http://baggout.com/product/Hypnotizing-Black-Georgette-Embroidered-Saree/3375774
http://baggout.com/product/Awesome-Designer-Long-Anarkali-Suit/3382087
http://baggout.com/product/Palatial-Mustard-Cotton-Embroidered-Anarkali-Suit/3382210
http://baggout.com/product/Yellow-Fancy-Saree-with-Blue-Pallu-Designer-SareePartywear-Saree/3363133
http://baggout.com/product/Craftsvilla-Parrot-Pallu-Designer-Saree/1497202

Now I give you links + images of some more  beautiful dresses:

 I visited Jabong at baggout and here are some examples of exquisite  dresses that would look fabulous on Raima.first I picked some dresses like
from shop clues.com   I chose beautiful



Raima wanted some fancy  American diamond sets and I visited bagggout and found what I wanted from Shopclues.com where there is Upto 3.0% Cashback on all purchases, here is one or two photos for the interested

I selected two to three shopper from baggout for flower decorations at the different occasions at the wedding , here are a few name for
reference which I verified offer much less rate from other shops at
floweraura.com , Crazy Florist, Crafts villa, and on most purchase there was heavy discount

Raima is a very kind person and she wanted dresses and sarees for all her staffets and I to baggout and picked up quite a few at reasonable price. Readers may visit baggout.cpm and search for Platinum Saree-Traditional Stone Gren Art Silk Saree, PSC030A INR 1230/- as an example. I am sure you will be awed to find so much variety at the same place without going out at all.:D

Then I came to the most important purchases to be made, sherwanis, shirts, casuals and a lot for men. In baggout I went to craftsville and chose some cufflinks, eg for casuals, formals, shoes etc I selected items from ENSEMBLAME Van Husain

There was an ongoing deal at baggout for grooming (http://baggout.com/category.html#category/men/grooming/-) and I selected all that were needed for the groom at a low cost.


Sarees, dresses, shoes, jewelleries and florist taken care of I had to think of the most important aspect and that is lighting and food and so I had to visit baggout once again.

I was so tired by then, I thought I must take a nap for, FOOD for breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner for the whole ceremony was too big a task to handle and I dozed off and in my dream  I called up Grand Hotel to make all the arrangement, for though, I could arrange from baggout,pizzahat.com, and a few other places, but I wanted to be safe and sure in this respect.

Forgive me BAGGOUT,in this count