Tid Bit from My Diary

Ron was happy to be back in his city during the season of festivities. As he navigated through the now infamous Traffic Jam , old memories started to show up at every turns. It was not too long ago that he was that angry young man who at times felt like a rebel without a cause. He was going through a difficult time trying to keep up with the whims and fancies of the rebel within him and that upset him even more. Usually fellow students avoid such characters, more due to stern instructions from doting parents than by choice of their own. But Ron had a different shade too, he had the capability to bring comic relief to serious situations. In addition to being annoying, he could recite, sing and pull out a fast one on almost anyone. The folks knew he would flip a sad moment into a celebration even before the tallest hand could make a trip around the face of the clock . Path leading to a career of choice was not one adorned with rose . On the contrary it was a challenge. Once at ...

We form a cusp generation, as we started treading the cyber path after we graduated from a teenager. Not too late, but it was not too early either. Long distance calls were exorbitantly expensive and the known way of communication was through letters. Phones were meant to be used in case of emergency or to deliver short messages like … “I reached hostel safely.” Message was not the only interesting aspect of letters, it was the entire Jing bang. The pen pals, the paper, ink color, handwriting and not to forget the precious little things on the cover… the coveted postage stamps. I enjoyed every aspect of this process and it’s not only stamps I collected, I also treasured many a letter. An artist friend managed to remain untouched by computers creating an opportunity to communicate through lengthy personal letters. Not frequent, but immensely satisfactory feeling, nevertheless. An email announcing the receipt of my letter last year brought down the last bastion of letter writing...

A painting sold for a stupendous price of $72.84 million at an auction at the Sotheby, New York on May 16, 2007. I was introduced to this bit of information while watching an old Documentary.  We generally accept that art can be very expensive but this work by Rothko baffled me completely. Name of the Artwork: White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) Dimensions: 6’- 9” X 4’ – 8” Painted in: 1950 Style: Color field – Abstract Expressionism Name of Artist: Mark Rothko (Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz) An American painter of Russian Jewish descent. 25 September 1903 to 25 February 1970. I gathered these information but miserably failed to equate the product with its price tag and decided to dig deeper. Expressionism was an artistic movement of the mid-twentieth century where the artists were at the liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually non representation means (Merriam Webster). Tate org further elaborates t...

It was 11th May 2015 and I was sitting on an airplane traveling to Kolkata to meet Somenath’s family. Memories of the past 20 years came rushing to my mind like a giant waterfall the realization that life is a one way traffic got me thinking. Somenath was one of my closest friends and has now left us forever on the 9th. Kolkata, I knew will never be the same place again. I argued with myself “wouldn’t it be a great way to remember a friend by sharing some of those golden moments with rest of the world.”  The opportunity to re-live those moments once again got me tempted to this narration. I knew the word processor would help me bring back incidents from deep inside my memory lanes. Our college experience would have been half as interesting had it not for Somenath. With him around there were hardly a dull moment and fortunately for us, he was always around. No matter how grave the situation was, it was never serious enough to be serious. For those who do not know, he was pe...

“Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe....We shall overcome, someday” Generations of Indians sang this song every morning in their school assemblies or while cheering teams later in the life. We are able to derive greater inner strength from this anthem.  We successfully overcome numerous obstacles “day in and day out” as we navigate through the challenges of life. Unfortunately, we do not consider this mantra while chasing dreams close to the heart. Leaving the few entrepreneurs, we conveniently shy off from grabbing the bull by its horns when it comes to setting up our own businesses or self-employment. This is particularly true for trained professionals like engineers in-spite being better equipped for it. They remain within the comfort zone of remunerations, oblivious of the fact that the same effort could generate more satisfaction, appreciation and higher revenue. A myth we heard during our younger days was that money flew in Kolkata streets. It could be mistaken f...

During the August of 2015, Varshika participated for  #ColgateMagicalStories   competition hosted by  indiblogger . Buoyed by the encouragement received from that effort, she continued to face the camera unscripted and is introducing her world to the outer world.   As part of constructive parenting I am supporting her with post production and with the camera. She have completed quite a few videos for her YouTube channel. Its called  I Channel  and she invites all to find some time and visit her channel.

20 May 2017 Each child coming to this world is A wesome, U nique, T alented, I mpressive, S pecial and definitely they are all M arvelous creations of God. Some of them are categorized under….. AUTISM. Autism or “ autism spectrum disorder ” represents a wide range of mental conditions that develops in early childhood and the term “spectrum” reflects its variety. Different combinations of genetic and environmental influences as we know, causes autism while creating unique strengths and differences in the affected individuals. I would argue there are more than one ways of doing things correctly in our world and if a child cannot learn the way most others does then we need to learn new techniques.  We therefore need to accept the fact that when it comes to a child, there cannot be normal or abnormal because each of them are unique. I was introduced to a personality albeit a feature article in the local newspaper and his name is Stephen Wiltshire. His website ...