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COVID Caught Up With Us – Two Survivors’ Tale
It has now been a month and a half since my first symptom. I remember the day before vividly. It was a regular working day. I had wrapped up work by 9 pm or so, dinner by 11, watched a little TV and then went to sleep by 12:00 am. Everything was fine till then. The next thing I know was waking up at around 7:00 am next morning with body ache and a throat irritation. I sprung up on bed with a déjà vu of my dengue experience last November. As my sleepy self tried to find its bearings, a number of things started running through my foggy brain.…
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The Story of My Love Affair With Darjeeling
Sometimes I feel like going to the mountains. Spending cold afternoons under the sun. Watching people. It’s like a restoration pill for the mind. Sometimes I wish I could take my laptop there and write something. Maybe someday I will. Even today, I thought of Darjeeling. It’s the only mountain getaway I’ve been to and I’ve fallen in love. My heart belongs to the sea, but Darjeeling probably has the rest of me. A year without travel had the best of us coming up for air. So, as soon as the coronavirus cases attained a stable graph and was showing a declining trend by the end of last year, we…
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A Family Picnic by the River
Sorry I’ve been AWOL here for some time now. There has been a lot going on the last couple of weeks. Pending bank work, family medical troubles, delayed appointments and so on. You know the drill. Outstanding responsibilities, anyone? I’ve been feeling all sorts of burnouts from that. Mental exhaustion is a bugger, guys. While that’s no excuse for my absence here, I decided to temporarily switch off my low priority engagements to keep my sanity intact. Now that things are beginning to fall into place, I found this short pocket of time to write a long-pending blog post. Many of you who follow me on Instagram or Facebook know…
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The Great Shopping Detox – I Went a Year Without Buying Clothes | Takeaways
I have been a legit shopaholic since the beginning of my career. I remember burning up my entire salary on clothes, shoes, bags and what not. I went full-on Rebecca Bloomwood on my wardrobe. Who else can relate to – “My heart never beats as fast as it does when it sees a ‘reduced by 50 percent’ sign”? Every piece of clothing on the rack or on my mobile screen looked like something I needed. I never seemed to have enough. You know how it is. Those sales Emails and Facebook ads made me weak in the knees. Hitting the ‘Buy Now’ button felt like a sugar rush. A new…
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Durga Pujo 2020 – In Pictures
Have you all had a chance to breathe lately? Between sanitizing hands and disinfecting food, the leaves turned yellow. The coronavirus has claimed 2020 as its own. The lucky ones have been confined to our homes since what seems like forever, watching the roaring virus wreak havoc in the lives of our less lucky counterparts. Since when did staying home and doing nothing become heroic? And where did the last seven months go? But thankfully, amidst the pandemic pandemonium and swelling COVID cases, October came in like a breath of fresh air and brought with it the autumnal festival that we, Bengalis live for – Durga pujo! The life of…
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Birthday Gift Ideas for Your Gooner Friend/Spouse/Sibling/Parent/Child
Who is a Gooner? A Gooner is someone who supports the Arsenal football club. And more. A Gooner is someone who has dedicated his/her being to the club and its principles. So a true Gooner is for life. A Gooner’s loyalty lies more in the club’s defeats than in its wins. It takes an admirable amount of faith to be an Arsenal fan. But a Gooner shows up no matter what. In a match. And in life. I read a line somewhere that sums up a true football club supporter best – You can change your wife but you can never change your football club. It’s not a joke. They…
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Post-Wedding Depression – My Experiences of Leaving Home & How I’m Coping
It was well after midnight when our wedding ceremony was finally complete. Most of the guests had left by then. The wedding venue was silent and almost empty. That’s when it hit me. I’m never going to have all the people I love in one room like this ever again. I felt heartbroken. I was a bit surprised to be honest because I didn’t expect to feel that way. Especially not on my wedding day. It’s supposed to be all excitement and happiness, right? But there I was, in the middle of two contradictory feelings. Happiness. And heartbreak. I felt it again the next day when I was leaving for…
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Setting Up a Home Office for Two | Sources + Process + Total Cost
2020 has turned out to be a roller-coaster ride. Without the safety belts. The air brakes. And the safety chain. We’ve been flying off our seats at every news update with no guarantee of a safe landing. Now five months into the lockdown we’re still wondering “How on Earth did we get here?” But life goes on. We’ve shaped our day-to-days around a virus that threatens to kill us every second. We’ve raced to define and adjust to a new normal out of fear and then out of hope. And in this delirium, we did the one thing that we’ve always avoided doing. Bringing work home. Now don’t get me…
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Lessons Learned in the Time of Pandemic | Collaboration Post
The pandemic has turned the world upside down. It has been more than four months since the day I bade goodbye to my colleagues at work and haven’t left the house since except for emergencies. While I am thankful to have a home where I can live and work out of without disrupting my health, financial status, the food that is put on my table and luckily, some regulated luxuries as well, many cannot say the same. So many people are out of work, uncertain of what the next day will bring. So many people have contracted the virus and have died on the streets without medical care for lack…
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Online Family Cultural Event – The Exclusive BTS | Lockdown Sanity Booster
I married into a really large family where it feels like a party every time we get together. In all the gatherings I have attended since my wedding, there has always been at least one evening reserved for performances. Song, Dance, Recitation. Impromptu jigs. Everyone eagerly waits for this performance night. Probably a tad more than the occasion. Sometimes the occasion is extended to accommodate this night. Sometimes there is no occasion at all. Only the night. See how important it is? There is an eager scuttle on the morning of the performance night. A soft energy wave. People quietly try to select the songs that will be played, arrange…
