A Writing Quill

I, Poonu, was born after Naima within a short span of 1 year and 3 months. Both of us grew up together holding each other's hands. Although we were brought up together, we had different behavioral attributes. And also we completely looked different, thus challenging our sisterhood of belonging to the exact same lineage often by  friends and strangers and regarded us friends rather than siblings. And much later when our youngest sister was born, we were prejudiced of growing up ladies looking divergent. Naima was very naughty and thinner to a much greater extent, often blaming her constricted growth on me whose sudden birth took away Naima's birth rights of getting feeded by our mother after a few months of her birth. Ofcourse, then she would not understand my mother's reason of not feeding her properly during pregnancy but much later when she would understand science, in her teenage, she would frustatingly blame our mother upon her not gaining the required weight and womanl...

In Bengali tradition, the ' dak nam ' is not an uncommon phenomenon. People have two names: dak nam vs bhalo nam. Dak nam can be anything and everything like- Puchko, Buro, Buria, Roltu, Goltu, Chuti, Bubai, Tubai, Tompa, Titli, Tisha, many more, whatever one feels.  These are    basically the embarrassing ones which is popular among the closed family members and few childhood friends. This name may be conferred immediately at the child's birth or may be later after few days when calling 'baby' again and again  might juxtapose with someone elses's baby.  The ' bhalo nam'  on the other hand, is conveyed to the society in a very hubbub ceremony, ' Namkaran' , of laughters and pride, where everyone suggests a name and finally after performing some rituals, an appropriate, meaningful name is given to the child. This name is the identity of the child in the society as well as when he would present himself officially later in his life. The 'dak na...

Sitting on the Lotus, cladded in a white saree and lots of jewelleries, holding the Veena on one hand, she blesses the ardent knowledge seekers who are very religiously bowing down their head- almost touching the floor. Many are seen with both their hands full of books; few belonging to school and some story books with the intention to enhance the writing as well as the reading capacity.  The little toddler, oblivious of his steps are directed to her, by the mother of the child. He is apprehensive of giving away the crayons for a day considering it to be gone forever; only reluctantly agreeing when the priest assures the child to take it back the next day.  The girl carrying a 'tanpura', hastily strides towards her and sits on the floor in a position, the strings of her instrument gets touched to the 'Hamsavahini's feet . She joined both her palms in a namaste and prayed intensely for more than five minutes. Quietly she picked up her musical instrument and vacated her p...

After much anticipation and planning, me and my husband chose to visit Bangladesh. We had the excitement within us which is seen among people who recently are able to obtain their passports for the first time. We had been telling each and every relative and friend of ours about this recently procurred legal instrument.  Many suggested Thailand, Malaysia and some even suggested Srilanka who had been there recently and were sharing their expedition to  the Raavan's land. But something had always been bothering me since childhood to see the places where my origin existed; my ancestors thrived. And I declared Bangladesh as the place of our first foreign visit. We contacted a tourist guide who made arrangements for our stay as well as the entire tour of seven days while my husband himself took the onus of making the tickets for the both ways.  Everything happened as we had planned. We landed at Dhaka after which we were received by the travel agency. One of my special demand w...

It was a lazy Sunday morning. I got up with an intention of doing nothing the entire day. As soon as I freshened up, I grabbed the newspaper along with the cup of milk and ginger tea prepared by my mother and a biscuit; all loaded on my both palms. My mother enquired if I had any plans for the day as she was needed to prepare the lunch following which she would go out to meet some of her friends. I pitied myself with the rumination of not setting any kind of objective of the day whilst my mother, who is more than 60 years old, already had one. It isn’t that if it is a Sunday, one has to have a fun plan, but me, a young lad, who has been at home for last one month on leave, was expected to go around to places with friends whom I hardly meet these days. But the inner me, does not reciprocate the same feelings for my school buddies as it used to, many years back. The obvious reason being the huge time gap and the distance that has been created in our thought process. In fact, I remember, ...

Parmanand, a plumber by profession, visits every house especially to those where the retired people resides and whose son or daughter are busy in either fulfilling their ambitions or in earning their means of sustenance. He would be the support for them in everything these old couples would search in their children. "Why do you worry kaka? I am there for you. All your problems will be taken care of." Parmanand's habitual parlance. And these would comfort the  old generation. Mr. Parmanand never turns away from his promises or duties. He would arrive instantly over a phone call. Beside being a plumber, he would also take charge of several other issues like buying medicines, groceries, visiting to doctor's chamber with the aged junta. Once when he visited a doctor with the septuagenarian lady, Sunita, whose husband had died few years back and her only daughter was married long back, he was the one who had paid the doctor's fee online. The lady blessed him and very p...

Little did I know, as a child, the sweet and white pudding would be one of my favourite dessert as a grown up. I always preferred the semi thick consistency of it and would throw tantrums if it did not match my expectations.  The 'payasam' or 'kheer' is one of the most common dessert prepared in every household of India. And we siblings always had fetish about it. We would wait for the special occasions when this cuisine was made sometimes to satiate the Gods or sometimes to sate the paunch of the potbellied guests.  It would take almost an hour to prepare it at the low flame when all its ingredients are being poured one after the other surely maintaining some interval. Ma would boil the milk in a huge tumbler shaped utensil made of brass. This utensil was specifically intended for the purpose of 'kheer' making only. She would keep it isolated along with a spatula made of the same metal, so that nobody uses this combo for cooking the non-vegetarian food.  I had ...