I am, what I am

Life is always changing. So how can “About Me” remain constant?

I am a newlywed, trying to settle in a new city while juggling work and home.

My ancestors are from Bangladesh, who settled down in Silchar, Assam after partition. But I call myself a true Calcutta Bong, having lived in the City of Joy since I was 4. I love all things Calcutta – its people – warm, friendly and always with an opinion, food – both from roadside stalls and fine dining restaurants, weather – hot, humid summer with mildly cold winter interspersed with a ‘kada pyach pyeche’ monsoon, shops on the footpaths clogging busy roads, fairs, literary festivals, film festivals, single-screen movie halls, soon-to-be-extinct tramways, vintage metro with fare starting from Rs. 5 and going upto Rs. 25, office-para aka Dalhousie Square, vast expanse of greenery in Maidan, glitter of Park Street, galis of North Calcutta, 100-year old bakeries and sweet shops, latest Malls with global brands, the route to Airport through Rajarhat where highrises and cows still co-exist, the ability to travel to any corner of the city via public transport and everything else that is associated with the city.

Then I got married and shifted to Gurgaon on December 2013. The Millennium City is a concrete jungle to me. I see buildings – residential, office, commercial, glitzy, shiny, tall skyscrapers, jazzy bungalows all around me. I see dark lanes with no street light, aggressive auto drivers, bad roads, roaming pigs, water and power problems. I also see a growing city – constantly changing and improving upon itself. But I am cherishing living in a new city for the first time, on my own terms and trying to set up our home in my own style.

I am a lawyer and have been working as an in-house counsel for the last 2 years after a 3-year stint at a law firm. I have co-authored two books on law – Environment and Wildlife Laws in India and Forest Laws and Policies in India. 

I have also published a short story in Chicken Soup for Indian Soul on Friendship and another in An Atlas of Love (Rupa Romance Anthology). My story in the latter book was selected for the 2nd prize by the author-judge, Anuja Chauhan in a nation-wide contest for love stories by Rupa Publications.

I am (always) in the middle of writing a novel.         

I love reading, swimming and yoga. I also love gossip sessions with friends, watching countless TV series, travelling and trotting my camera, surfing the net and blogging. I have always been a foodie and have recently discovered my passion for cooking.

There are a lot of things that I want to try out in life. I have made a list here. A bit more about me can be found in this post. A lot about me can be found in these posts.

I discovered blogging in 2006 and set up a creative writing blog here. After a long hiatus, I restarted blogging  here in 2009.

You can contact me at debosmita[dot]nandy[at]gmail.com.