This is my third post in the Mind Blowing Monday series. Its Christmas season, and many of you, staying away from home, are missing mom-made Christmas goodies. Try this recipe by the Bong Cook, whose blog is a treasure house of recipes for mouth-watering food, an overwhelming part of which is Bengali cuisine 
No doubt, I am so partial to this particular food blog!
If after reading it, you feel Christmas arrived early, what would you say when you have actually tried and tasted that awesome looking stuff? Happy cooking
Found it here and loved it.. Hence, my first tag post:
I am: Debosmita Nandy, a.k.a. Misha; still on the right side of 20s, female, Kolkata (just remembered a-s-l of Yahoo chat rooms)
I think: too much at times; and end up ruining a lot of things.
I know: every dark cloud has a silver lining; and firmly believe in it.
I want: a life with all desires fulfilled; but I guess, life is worth living as long there is still one desire left.
I have: a strong sense of independence and self-reliance.
I wish: to do all that I wish to do; but its a long list and I don’t know where to start 
I hate: dishonesty, show off, disrespect for women, corruption.
I miss: college days.
I fear: losing my loved ones.
I feel: conflicting emotions at times, especially when I am trying to sort them out.
I hear: my mind’s voice along with my heart’s voice, and choose the former when the two are contradictory.
I smell: new books, as soon as I buy them.
I crave: for a rewind button in life, just to enjoy some moments once again.
I search: for that one person, after finding whom I shall never search again.
I wonder: if I will ever carry out my motto of fulfilling all my wishes in one life.
I regret: taking some wrong decisions in life.
I love: taking the off-beaten track, always.
I ache: for lost friendship.
I care: about my parents, above everything else.
I always: manage to make a person smile when he/she is blue.
I am not: predictable; just when you think I am going to be happy, I might just shock you by being upset 
I believe: that bad things happen to you because you did something bad to some one else.
I dance: to get a high.
I sing: almost never! I know my limitations.
I cry: while watching emotional movies, especially when the hero is getting bashed up or the heroine is dying
I don’t always: speak the truth, if its an unpleasant one; but this usually lands me in trouble.
I fight: verbally with girls and physically with boys
I write: in my diary – since 1998 and in my blog since 2006.
I win: friendship easily; I can start talking to anyone anywhere and any time.
I lose: out on a lot just because I take extra time to make up my mind; Indecisiveness is my biggest weakness.
I never: pretend to be some one else; I am happiest just being myself.
I confuse: other people when I am faced with similar confusions
I listen: to what close friends have to say, even when I am busy.
I can usually be found: crouched over my laptop in office or lazing on my bed with a book at home.
I am scared: of any kind of physical or emotional pain; the latter more than the former.
I need: a lot of prodding at times, to do a simple, small task.
I am happy about: my life at present.
I am tagging Avada Kedavra, Karthik, Manavi, Swayambhu, Solilo, Bella, Psych Babbler, Shruti, Debleena, Guria, Preeti, and Ronojoy; Please copy paste the questions and write your own answers. Remember no plagiarism! Anybody else interested in wasting his/her time is most welcome Do leave a comment here, looking forward to reading your versions. Cheers to all!
P.S. Its a Saturday and I am, as usual, in office
It started sometime when I was in 4th year of law school. A lot of wedding ceremonies were taking place in my family at that point of time. A number of my cousins suddenly decided to tie the knot that year and there were some 3 weddings in the family in one season. I was looking forward to lots of dressing up, having fun with cousins, eating good food and checking out cute boys (if at all there were any) during those days. Little did I know what awaited me.
My extended family is H-U-G-E. My dad’s innumerable cousins and their wives plus their kids can constitute a battalion of people. In any family gathering or wedding ceremony, the aunts of the family are always grouped in one place, all heavily decked up in gold jewellery and heavy silk sarees and gossip about everything under the sun! I usually get along very well with them and ever since half my cousins have left the city for higher studies/ job, I take part in aunty-gossip sessions with equal gusto.
In one such gathering, suddenly all the attention of the aunty brigade was focussed on me.
Aunty 1(to my mom): I really like Misha. She has turned out to be a fine young lady.
Aunty 2: Yes, I agree. I can say this without doubt that she is the most well-brought up kid in the family. (to my beaming mom) Its all because of you.
Aunty 3(to me): And you look very nice in a saree. These days, girls don’t want to wear traditional stuff any more.
All this while, I am grinning ear-to-ear. And then the bomb dropped.
Aunty 1 (to my mom): So when do you plan to start the process?
I am confused. My mom seems to have understood. “We are not even thinking now, she is still in college”.
Thus began the torture. In every gathering, whenever I met the aunty brigade, I used to be bombarded with questions like “So what kind of a guy are you looking for?” “Do you have any preferences of profession?” “Do you have salary issues?” and so on and so forth.
Initially I tried to deal with it jokingly. “I want a handsome guy – you know, the tall, dark, rich and handsome types”. “Yes, I shall marry only a Indian Foreign Service Officer, so that I can stay all over the globe.” “If the guy is fine, I have no salary issues” blah blah
But sadly, they were never joking! “You should not go by looks only, try to see the human being in him.” “There are no Bengali IFS Officers!” “But beware, the man may not be comfortable about your salary, so its safe to always go for a guy who earns more than you”.
Seeing my reluctance to be dragged into such conversations, one day, an aunt of mine cornered me “Do you have a boyfriend?” I give her a look which suggested as if she asked me whether I watch porn or not. “You look the kind who has a boyfriend, ” she concluded. “No, no, I don’t have one”. I assure her. “Seriously!” I add, seeing her disbelieving look. I later came to know that she also tried to trick my mom into revealing any such hidden fact about me, but the truth won
After establishing the fact that I am single (meaning eligible) and especially after I finished college and started working, it was turn of my mom to get tortured. “You should start looking from now, before its too late” “I know some, you want me to talk to them?” “I know she won’t, but what if she brings home some wrong guy tomorrow”? To each such questions, my mom used to say “My daughter has just returned after staying in hostel for five years. Let her stay at home for sometime.” And then my aunty brigade would start “Arre, if you wait now, all the good ones will be taken. And your daughter is a lawyer and dark, ok ok wheatish (when my mom throws her a look) so it will be difficult to find a good match for her!”
So the best way I adopt these days is to avoid my aunty brigade all together. I rarely attend family parties now, more so because of work pressure. Recently, when I heard two of them were dropping by at my place, I went out of my house with some work excuse and came back only for dinner.
Things worsened for me when my cousin (who is three months younger to me) got married. I was in my final year of college and I frequently had to fend off such questions. They made it look like I was getting late and I should catch the first available guy out there! Even the groom’s side was a little surprised to know that the bride has an unmarried older first cousin. I spent the whole ceremony telling people that I, despite being older than my cousin, was still in college and hence in no mood to marry!
Strangely, its not just the relatives, I have faced such questions from interviewers too. Just when I have tackled a particularly difficult technical question, followed by an equally difficult HR one, I am hit by the ultimate one –
“So when do you plan to settle?” My shock is visible on my face. “Let me rephrase it, when do your parents plan to marry you off?”
I feel like saying “If I could have my way, never!” but I give a more practical answer “Not before 3-4 years”. Now its turn for the interviewer to gasp “So late?”
I smile sweetly, “I am the only child of my parents, hence.. ” He looks pacified
I endure this much-dreaded “M” word only because of my supporting and understanding parents. The day they will start chasing me, I will have to run away from home
An awesome and similar marriage post here.
XYZ: Hey, How are you?
Me: Hi, am fine.. What about you?
XYZ: Okies… chal raha hain… aur batao… wassup?
Me: Nothing much; work pressure
ABC: Hiiiiiiiiiii, ki khobor? (what news?)
Me: The same… too much work pressure
Nowadays, I am trying to figure out better ways to say the same old thing… may be a better way to start the same old conversation…
1. My life sucks, instead of “am fine”
2. I guess, tomorrow I am going to commit suicide!
3. Don’t ask such silly questions (to ki khobor)
4. I am up to something big… will let you know later (and hope that the person dies of curiosity)
5. Can’t disclose.. state top secret (in answer to wassup)
I can’t think of more… Any help?
The management of the office chartered bus, by which my father has been travelling to office for the past 7 years and which I also joined, organised its annual picnic at Raipur, near Kolkata last Sunday. I have been attending this picnic almost every year as family for quite sometime, but this time I attended it as a member myself! I guess, we were the only father-daughter duo members of the Bus
A quaint house with green lawns located just beside the river Ganges hosted some 60 of us for a day full of activities and fun. After our fill of kachori, alu dam, chicken pakora and coffee, we went exploring the neighbourhood. The collage above depicts the treasures that we discovered – a temple, burning ghat (and a white human bone just beside it!), pottery factory, an auto announcing the staging of a drama, brick kiln factory, ladies making papad, riverside activities and much more. Lunch comprised of all my favourite dishes – rice, yellow daal, finger chips, mixed vegetable with fish head, bhetki fish curry with cauliflower, mutton curry, chutney and rasogolla! And after the end of lunch, my mother observed for the first time, that I have gained weight since I left college! and kept on nagging me on this point throughout the day
Despite warnings of my parents, who sometimes tend to forget that I am well past age of minor hood, I joined some others on a river cruise in a boat. The boatmen were happy to let some of us row and I rowed the boat for the first time, for full five minutes, after which my arms began to hurt. Wonderful experience!
A day, which cannot be described enough in words and best left to be experienced through pictures
To Whom It May Concern
1. You are a very hard-working/ studious person.
2. You belong to the “Oh Gawd! its Monday again” club.
3. Every Sunday, rather than enjoying the weekend, you end up worrying about all the pending work that you left piled up on your desk on Saturday evening and ran home, waiting to be tackled first thing on Monday. Or, you have not finished your assignments/projects scheduled to be submitted on Monday, because you thought shaking a leg in the city disc was a better way to spend the weekend rather than doing research.
4. You keep wishing Monday mornings were less blue and more red, green, yellow (or whichever that is your favourite colour)
5. You want to read something more interesting than the fat office file/ text books.
Here, I come with my second Mind Blowing Monday Post, after the first one. If my first post was about generalizing South India men, this one by Great Bong is about Bengali women. Read it if you are interested to find just how hot Bong women are! And yes, remember to read the comments – they are as colourful as the post itself
How many times I wondered,
And in darkness I pondered-
Will it ever happen to me?
Will I ever knowingly see?
How you feel to be touched
From nearness to be watched
How you lovingly smile;
And speak in a silent while
Or just walk together
With a silent laughter
How I waited for years
And counted those hours
With just a hope of promise
Of your love and my bliss
© Debosmita Nandy 2009
This is my attempt at poetry after a long long time. A lot of factors in life resulted in a writer’s block for quite some time; which I am consciously trying to overcome now. Poetry is my first passion and it certainly deserves my love and a second chance.
What happens when the Partner of the law firm, who chose you during campus recruitment at the time of recession generously offers to take the juniors of the firm out for lunch, and while ordering for drinks, you end up ordering some non-alcoholic mocktail, without looking at the menu card and only at the recommendation of the waiter?
The drink turns out to be shocking pink in colour, with a small pink umbrella and a red cherry on top of it.
The name of the drink turns out to be “Strawberry Seduction”, which is revealed when the Partner asks the waiter its name; and the waiter announces the same loudly, some 5-6 times because the Partner fails to grasp the name in the first go.
All I manage to do at that time is giggle uncontrollably, along with all the other juniors at the table; leaving the Partner to wonder about the potency of the joke, or stupidity of the juniors or my ability to choose a drink.
Well, this is a stupid, small post; but tomorrow I am travelling to Burdwan and the day after, to Kharagpur- both for work. After that I have a two-day weekend, after a long long time, due to Id-Uz-Zoha on Saturday. So, I will be off internet for four days and it didn’t feel nice not to feed my blog; especially after its makeover.
“When you are young you just believe there will be many people with whom you will connect…Later in life you realise it happens only a few times”
I don’t remember where I came across this quote, but it stuck a chord with me. Isn’t it so true? There was a time when I never thought twice before fighting with a friend, not caring what will happen if we fall apart; mainly because I thought that I will meet many more such friends in my life later on. But after 24 springs, I can hardly say that I still think the same. On the other hand, I believe in the absolute opposite – that good friends are very few and hard to find and hence, its advisable to hold on to the ones we have in life.
When I was in junior classes in school, whoever happened to sit beside me the first day of the session became my best friend, unless of course, something bitter broke us apart. I remember a nice, quiet girl sat beside me in class III, because her roll number was just before mine. I was pretty disappointed since the talkative me was thinking how to spend one whole year with a quiet girl as my desk mate. She went on to become a really good friend, who used to take care of my things as I had a bad habit of losing stuff easily and also alerted me in class whenever the teacher started to look my side, while I was engrossed in idle chit chats with the one sitting on my other side. She had a wonderful calming influence on me, always reminding me at the end of school hours about important tasks to be completed the next day. The next year, we were in different sections and after that we spoke seldom. I wish now I had made more efforts in continuing our friendship.
I forged very few close friendship in my senior years in school. They were not really people who sat beside me in class, but people with whom I connected. One such friend in my class was one who had supported me in a most crucial hour of need and we became close ever since. We had kept in touch even after I changed school in plus-two and when I joined law school. During my first few days in law school hostel, when I used to feel horribly lonely, she had once paid me a visit, gifted me chocolates and music CDs and we had spent three hours chatting nonstop – old-school-days-girlie-gossip style. But for some strange reason, later that year we fell apart. We just stopped talking and that was the end. After two years, in one moment of extreme pain and hurt, caused by another friend, I had sent her a message in her mobile phone, without revealing who it was. At that point of time, I somehow felt that she was the only one I could turn to. She immediately replied saying “Is it Debosmita”? I was stupefied to know that despite the time gap, she instinctively knew who had sent her that message, just because she knew me and and my reactions so well. She did support me in that moment and we promised to meet up and catch up on lost time; but it never happened. We are now on Facebook terms; interacting only in the virtual medium.
Another close friend of mine in school was my friend, philosopher and guide plus my pseudo-mom. She was two years my senior, and my guide in practically everything that I did. The day we broke up was one of the most painful memories. Too much bitterness and unhappiness made the whole issue very painful. Later, every time I had something special to share with friends, I used to miss her. When I made it to NUJS, I badly wanted her to know, since she was the one who had introduced me to it. I used to wonder how I would react if I suddenly meet her some day. Well, that day did finally come. After six years of silence, she one day managed to find my number and called me. And I responded as if we had last spoken just the day before. I am still in touch with her and meet her regularly. Some friendships, after all, do not break even with a six year time gap.
I regret deeply another breakup in friendship. We shared a wonderful friendship for the last 6 years, which finally crumbled under too much disappointments and misunderstandings around this time last year. Even though I like to believe that I have moved on, there are moments of solitude when I crave for that particular friend, who have been my constant guide in all my hours of need.
I sometimes wonder if I miss some of those friends with whom I have broken up, then why did the break-up with them happen in the first place?
To Whom It May Concern
1. You are a very hard-working person.
2. You belong to the “Oh Gawd! its Monday again” club.
3. Every Sunday, rather than enjoying the weekend, you end up worrying about all the pending work that you left piled up on your desk on Saturday evening and ran home, waiting to be tackled first thing on Monday.
4. You keep wishing Monday mornings were less blue and more red, green, yellow (or whichever that is your favourite colour)
5. You want to read something more interesting than the fat office file.
Here’s granting your wish and presenting you the very first Mind Blowing Monday post – the link to one mind blowing post from the blogosphere, carefully hand-picked by me. It can be a very famous post from a famous blogger, or a really nice one from a not-so-known blogger. It can be written in 2000 or 2008. It can make you laugh, cry or just smile within. But I can guarantee that you will find it – mind “wait for it” blowing
Sidin Vadukut is a well-known blogger and this post of his catapulted him to stardom. Check it out, if you haven’t already. Happy Reading! Let me know whether your Monday became more cheerful or not after the mind blowing experience.
Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read.
