3 May
2015
2 May
2015
From the bartender’s corner – April Violet
2 May
2015
Managed to finish without stopping..
2 May
2015
Now I have to figure out how to survive!
2 May
2015
When my footfalls will be no more in this world.
Growing up in a family immersed in music in Bengal, Rabindrasangeet (songs by Tagore) was as much a staple diet for me as was rice and potatoes. And yet, unlike most Bengalis, I never took to Rabindrasangeet. (I liked more classical based songs like Nazrulgeeti). If you are not from Bengal, you probably have very little idea how blasphemous that statement is in Bengal. That is like saying I don’t like “rosogollas” (a local sweet). Which, I don’t by the way.
If you ask my dad what are his biggest disappointments about me he would cite – not necessarily in that order (i) I live in a rural setting (he thinks I have regressed in the financial progress he made when he moved from a village to a town in Bengal) (ii) I run (he thinks if I ever prosper, I will have people running around for me – I do not have to run) and (iii) I don’t like Rabindrasangeet (he thinks Rabindranath was the greatest poet ever in the world – although when I asked him to name a few more poets of the world that he had read the poems of, he admitted – “none”).
Many years later, a close friend of mine, who is also a singer, had once told me that as I grew older, she thought I would start liking Rabindrasangeet more and more. I have indeed grown to realize that she was right. I still don’t listen to Rabindrasangeet much, but when I do, I do spend the whole evening enjoying them. Today was such an evening.
The song of the evening was –
“Jokhon porbe na mor paayer chinho ei batey,
Ami baibo na – ami baibo na mor kheya-tori ei ghaatey, go.
Jokhon porbe na mor paayer chinho ei batey…
Chukiye debo becha-kena,
Mitiye debo go, mitiye debo lena-dena,
Bondho hobey anagona ei hatey –
Tokhon amay naiba money raakhley,
Taarar paane chheye-chheye naiba aamay daakley.
Jokhon porbe na mor paayer chinho ei batey”
This is my mother tongue but translating is more difficult for me. (Perhaps I can understand the deeper meaning even better or perhaps because I am simply not that good in English. Perhaps both.)
But here is an attempt:
When there will be no more signs of my footfalls on this ground
When I will not be mooring my boat anymore into this dock
When there will be no more signs of my footfalls on this ground
(When) I would have concluded all my business here
(When) I would have wrapped up all my trades here
(When) All my treks to this marketplace would come to a finish
(Then) What is the harm if I did not come to your mind any more
(Then) What is the harm if you did not long at the stars at night and whispered out my name softly
When there will be no more signs of my footfalls on this ground
1 May
2015
From the bartender’s corner – San Sebastian
30 April
2015
In all fairness…
… I am not the one who can claim to be an inspirational or influential leader. But boy, have I found out how to get a large segment of my FB friends to do what they would not have done otherwise?
All I need to do is write a post and mention “you can hold back all those blah blah blah…”
And everybody seems to want to make a beeline for expressing those blah blahs 😉
All the same, thank you all!
29 April
2015
How can I forget, if you do not give me some time? :-)
In the recent past, we had our anniversary day. Okay, since I did not post any cute pictures of Sharmila and myself from our wedding day or something, you can hold back all those Congratulatory messages 🙂 I am trying to tell you something very funny that happened on that day.
First, you have to realize that in our house, unlike every other house, I am the one who remembers dates and Sharmila is the one who forgets them. You might recollect how she gave me our 20th anniversary gift … on our 19th anniversary day. Or how she picked up a fight with her own brother about his birthday (which, I might add with great self-satisfaction, I had correctly remembered) 🙂 I think there was a time she started writing down dates in a journal but she kept losing the journal 🙂
My usual practice after she forgets about a day is to wait for the day to get over and then just to rub it in, next morning I would remind her that she forgot the important date. And then she would berate me for not reminding her the previous day and accuse me of doing it purposely (which is absolutely true, by the way).
Against that backdrop, this anniversary day, as always, I got up early in the morning and before going for a run, went down to the kitchen and started making a cup of coffee for myself and one for her. It is then that I realized that she had woken up too and was coming down the stairs.
I was thinking to myself that I might have to rearrange my running time by half an hour so both of us could have some quiet coffee time early in the morning before the kids woke up. You can only imagine my surprise therefore with what happened in the next few seconds. She came down straight to me, gave me a kiss and straightaway accused me “You forgot today is our anniversary day, didn’t you?”
I was like WWWHHHHHHATT????? We just woke up! The day has just begun!!! And in any case, last twenty one years you did not remember!! What are you talking about? I had no idea what hit me!
Evidently, she was so excited that she remembered this time after waking up, she was hoping against hopes that I would not and then she would turns the tables on me!! And in all that excitement, that was the first thing that came out of her mouth!! It is like wishing each other on our anniversary day has become something like calling dibs !!!
I simply went out for a run!!! 🙂
26 April
2015
From the bartender’s corner – Redneck Blitzkrieg
26 April
2015
