A Proud Mother

By Akanksha

At times, I love to pamper myself by spending a few moments as I wish. That day too, I was doing the same. Engrossed reading a book minus the thought what my daughter was doing in the other room. 

But abruptly, my solitary moment was broken by the voice of my daughter. She came running to me and said, "Maa look!". She was having a painting in her hand. My eyes could not believe. She had actually tried to paint a painting of an eminent painter Shakti Sinha, her dad brought the other day.

by Shakti Sinha

She came to know from her dad  that the whole painting was done by merely using the fingers. No brush was being used. This, I suppose inspired her and she also did it by her fingers. She told me that Shakti Sinha is indeed a great artist, since he could even paint the eyes of the girl in the painting without using a paint brush. 

I was astonished at her deed as well as her words and realized that my little girl has grown up. She very craftily made me understand that she had used the brush to paint the eyes. 

But I was very pleased and proud seeing her painting like any other mother would have been.  

The Victoria Memorial

A perfect example of beauty and grace, The Victoria Memorial stands tall at the heart of the city of Kolkata.

Rabindra Sarobar

Today morning the weather seemed tempting for a calm morning walk by the lake. Since my man is not home, felt a bit hesitant but later made up my mind and set out for the venture. The weather was wetty because of the heavy downpour yesterday and also it looked as if it was drizzling the whole night. There was less traffic- may be because of the early hour/ may be people were enjoying the weekend sleeping late/ may be feeling lazy to get out in such a wetty weather. But I enjoyed the solitary walk to the fullest.

The lake is at a distance of 15 mins walk from our home. It is called the Rabindra Sarobar. It only takes one to have the courage to take the brave decision of crossing the gate of the lake. Once it is done he/she is bound to get boosted with the conscience of physical wellness. I entered the gate huffing and puffing and as I entered I felt I made the big mistake of not carrying the camera with me. Still I had my mobile. So thought that something is better than nothing and clicked a few pictures to share with you all.

This is a view from the gate inside the lake area. It has two roads by the side of the lake. One is this and the other one is made of brick on the left side. Inside this lake premise no vehicles are allowed. So, a stretch of not less than five kilometers honk free area amidst greenery welcomes everyone.

This one is the bricked lane by the lake on the left side..

These photographs were taken from the eastern side of the lake. Had it been taken from the other side of the lake which is more beautiful than this I had to walk another 20 mins which I was not in a position to, as I had to return home, that too walking. Will come up with more pics from the western bank some other time. 

 

The above two are the pictures of an island on the lake where lots of migratory birds come.

 

Moving a few meters forward I saw a few local boys engrossed in a game of football in the muddy field. There are three more such fields here.

There are two rowing clubs on the bank of the lake - The Bengal Rowing Club and the Calcutta Rowing Club.

Rowers busy rowing.

Rowers listening to their coach on the bank.

A tree that has dried up completely stood as the odd one out of all the otherwise green trees.

This is the bridge that flies over the lake and the adjacent railway track and moves towards my home.

Me almost taking pictures standing on the middle of the road minus traffic which on usual time takes more than 10 mins to cross it.

Returned home after the walk, fully content of the mind and the soul and completely drenched with sweat which helps control my sugar level and my blood pressure.  Concluding on a happy note that all days are not the same. Thank God!

An Utterly Unpleasant Day

Photo source here

Yesterday morning I awoke at the scream of my daughter. I looked at the watch first and it was like bloody hell. It was 8.30 A.M., I awoke exactly one hour after my daughter's school starts. Than I looked at my daughter, she was all teary. It was the day of her second round of selections of her Spell Bee Inter school competition. I had no words to console her. I was just thinking 'how could I do this', 'why did I not put the alarm on'. I re-collected myself since I had to face her. I apologized her and asked her not to  cry, since her tears were drowning Mama with guilt and said that God might have some surprise in store for us in it. Hearing these she tried very hard to control her sobs but somehow the tears showed on her face. 

To make her a bit happy I prepared her favorite egg noodles for breakfast and let her enjoy it watching her favorite TV program and myself set down with the newspaper. The headline literally made me sick- diesel prices hiked by Rs.5/- and only six cooking gas cylinders in a year. That mean again there will be price hike in everything - food items, taxi fare, bus fare and above all how to cope with only one cylinder per two months. I lost my appetite of further lingering over the newspaper and engrossed myself with household chores. 

Evening at 4 o'clock me and Akanksha set out for her Art School(class starts at 4 o'clock) and usually after that we go to her dance class but yesterday I agreed to her idea of going to watch a dance drama of her bestie, Meghna at Gyan Manch Auditorium. Though I am not in favor of missing classes but she was taking full advantage of my situation. To our surprise we struggled to get a taxi and we had to walk quite a distance to get one and by the time we reached for the class we were quite late but the teacher was very sweet and he allowed her to get into the class; though it was a different thing that if I would been at the teacher's place I wouldn't have allowed. :D

After the class was over I asked the teacher if he knew the address of Gyan Manch auditorium. He very nicely explained me the address and told if required he would draw it for me in a piece of paper. I very kindly thanked him and told that he was loud and clear to me and came out and called my hubby who was out of town for the address. He gave the direction and we reached the auditorium and made ourselves comfortable. I did not call Meghna's Mom since she would be busy and I did not want to disturb her. 

By the time we reached the hosts were felicitating the chief guest and the guest of honour and than the program started with a welcome dance by the children, which was not too impressive. Than a few little boys played the guitar and I told Akanksha that if she missed her dance class because of this than I was very disappointed. I could see the tautness in her face. After a while she asked me if we were in the right place. To that I opened the invitation card and saw that her doubt was right. I asked her to follow me quietly and coming out read the invitation card properly and found that it was scheduled for next Friday. I was so mad and felt stupid of not even going through the card properly and was just thinking what more surprise was in store for me. It was pouring heavily and we did not have an umbrella because the weather was quite pleasant when we left home. 

So started walking in the rain searching a cab but there was none. We walked for nearly two kilometers unknown of the roads since I was never in that area before. Still we kept on walking till we saw a known landmark, the Planetarium. Akanksha was very tired but I was in a hurry to reach home so asked her not to stop and keep following me and we walked till Rabindra Sadan, another five hundred meters walk and still there was no sign of a cab. Than I saw a bus and asked if by any chance it goes towards our place and the conductor nodded. I hurriedly asked Akanksha to board the bus knowing that she feels sick in buses. After we got down she was feeling sick and was not able to walk but still I was thankful that we reached home safe. 

Reaching home Akanksha asked me, "Maa what was the surprise that God had in store for us today". I did not know what to tell but replied, "We got to know where Gyan Manch is and we were able to find the way back home from an unknown place and it was no less than an adventure to go and sit in somebody else's program, after watching for full one hour suddenly realizing that we were in the wrong place", and we both laughed. I was trying to sound positive but I knew that it was no less than a nightmare to me.

All these things happened to me for the first time. For the first time I forgot to put the alarm on, for the first time I started late for any class, agreed to Akanksha's idea of missing the class for watching a program, for the first time I thought of not calling someone that I am going to their function and for the first time I did not read an invitation card properly and the outcome, everything turned out to be a nightmare.

Did you ever have such an aweful day?

I apologize to all my blogger friends for not being able to visit them regularly from last few days due to some unavoidable important engagements in my personal life and from now onwards will surely be regular.  

Sunset Painting

Tomorrow morning Akanksha is going to sit for a drawing competition. In the competition, the children of her age are allotted four topics : Pollution, Picnic, Road safety and Sunset, from which they have to choose any one.

Sitting over my idea of practicing the same from the last week, today morning, she suddenly became over conscious and started preparing for it. She said that she would be choosing 'Sunset' as her topic.

She started googling for sunset photographs. Than she asked if I have any photograph of sunset over the mighty Brahmaputra(the river at my native place, Guwahati).  I said I don't have, but than I remembered my blogger friend Rupam sarma from Guwahati, who have some stunning clicks of Guwahati. From his blog we searched the photograph below :

courtesy Rupam Sarma

Akanksha was very pleased after finding it. I told her that it would be quite tough, to which she too agreed but she wanted to give it a try. And the poor little soul tried really hard. She downloaded a tutorial from you tube to blend the colour of the sky and with the help of the tutorial and the picture above, the whole day she sat practicing the same, sacrificing all her cartoon shows and play. She tried really hard to bring the colour of the sky. She did more than 10 pages. The below two are the ones she first experimented with the color mixing.

Than she tried a few more.....

I told her that the painting below looks better than the others but according to her it does not look like the painting of a sunset. It rather looks like a full moon sky. :)..After a close look I too felt the same..

So, she kept on practicing more and this was the final one after which she surrendered and agreed that it is not possible to master the art in a single day..

She told me before going to bed that she would see tomorrow what she can do (as if some miracle is going to happen tomorrow) and apologized for not listening to my idea of practicing it. I did not, for a change, counter attack her and rather asked her to go to sleep and relax so that she would feel fresh tomorrow morning. She was quite surprised to find me not scolding her and so, very happily she gave me a tight hug and went to sleep. 

I too did not scold her because I do not want her to sit there to win. I just wanted her to understand the meaning of competition and also am very happy to see her sitting in the same place, patiently  practicing for hours. Though it meant providing her with her favorite chocolates and snacks in between and loads of promises of ice-creams, chocolates and visit to the amusement parks. 

Lets see what she does tomorrow. I feel, if she manages to do as she has done at home, my mission will be accomplished. 

Dalia Kheer

courtesy Anubha Sinha

One of my cousins once posted a recipe of Dalia Kheer in Face Book. It was so tempting that the very next day I prepared it and it turned out to be very tasty. As I always prefer easy to prepare recipes it was the one meant for me. 

Yesterday being a holiday for both my husband and daughter I thought of preparing something to munch in the evening. But since there was nothing except milk left in the refrigerator, the idea of dalia kheer came to my mind. As usual it turned out quite yummy! and hence I thought of sharing it here..

Ingredients needed  :

dalia            250gms

milk             11/2 liters

sugar            1 cup

jaggery         50 gms(optional)

butter/ghee   1 tea spoon

cardamom     3 or 4 (roughly grounded)

bay leaf         2

dry fruits       as per required

Boil the milk with bay leaf and grounded cardamom till it is thick. Than add dalia and simmer the flame and cook. After sometime put the sugar, jagery and dry fruits and cook till the dalia is tender. When the dalia is cooked put butter/ghee and turn off the flame. Your dalia kheer is ready. Serve hot or cold as preferred.

Chilka Lake

Serenity at its optimum..

My Angel turns Ten Today

I look back a decade ago..

The day you entered our lives..

And brewed us blessed..

We started breathing life only for you..

Enjoying every motion made..

Your grin made us blest and your sob worried..

You taught us to be obliged..

And to be calm..

Molding us to be better humans..

We try to protect you..

And fulfill your desire..

But always with hidden wish that..

You be ever blessed by the almighty..

On this very day, to My Lord!

I bow down my head in gratitude..

To be blessed with an angel like you..

Happy Birthday Nanaii(Akanksha)!!

May Almighty bestow all his blessings on you..

Krishna Katha

After struggling a lot and with constant support from my husband, right from buying a TV tuner card only for recording this particular video to editing and processing, I am able to share the video with you all. 

Today I am in love with all the gadgets and wires used by my tech savvy husband, which always messed my house and used to get to my nerves. It is because of his madness that today I am able to come up with the video. Hope not to complain any more in the near future.  

The actual duration of the video was 26.45 mins, but since it was too lengthy and YouTube did not support, it was cut short to 14.55 mins and finally I managed to upload it. Since, I have to limit the duration many things have to be omitted. Still hope you all will like it. Thanks for all your support, blessings and best wishes. 

Video source : DD Bangla

Program Telecast Timing

This is in reference to my earlier post Shooting At Doordarshan Kendra where many of my blogger friends asked me to inform them about the date of my daughter's performance to be telecast on Doordarshan. The program Krishna Katha will be telecast today at DD Bangla at 9.30am (IST) and the repeat telecast will be again on 9.30 am(IST) on 12th August 2012. 

Since my set top box does not have the facility to record any program, I will try my best to record it with my handy cam. Though I am doubtful of getting any positive result. In case it comes in a positive way I will surely upload the video here as requested by the ones who stay out of India.

Wish you all will watch the program and bless the children.

Happy Raksha Bandhan

I grew up holding your hands

Oblivious of the surroundings..

My world was confined around you 

Obeying your mischievous errands..

I blindly followed you

Though mostly led to trouble..

With you by my side, felt as if 

I can win all battle..

We fought, we patched,

We were the worst of foes

And the best of friends..

As I grew, you protected me..

Like a father you cared..

Like friends we shared..

After Dad you silently took his place

And tried to fill the vacuum..

And you still treat me as a child 

Forget not, I am myself a mum..

I know I will always be

That little sister for you..

And you will always be 

My macho hero, bro..

On this special day 

Remembering and longing for you..

May all sisters be blessed with a brother like you..

Happy Rakhi Borda..

Love you and miss you always..

Craft Work

Being in a co-ed school, there was always an option of choosing the crafts between the one meant for girls and the one for the boys. I had never chosen the ones meant for the girls until once it was made mandatory that girls have to do the crafts meant for them only. It was designing cross stitch patterns on a table cloth.

One day before my craft class, my mother tried hard to make her daughter master the skill. She even bought a pattern book so that I could choose the best pattern for me. But the girly things were never meant for me. Being pretty sure that nobody would be able to complete the work in the specified time, I somehow made sure that the class gets over without the teacher noticing my inability to do it. As expected none of the girls could finish the work on time and the teacher asked to complete it at home. So, I very happily took the work home for my mother to complete it.

But now, being a mother myself, there is no room for escape from the situation. Now, I have to help out my daughter who is very much unlike me as a child. She is over enthusiastic about the projects and crafts she is asked to do. She is a perfectionist and is never satisfied unless the outcome is perfect. So, now I have to struggle hard to cope up with the situation. 

Yesterday and day before yesterday, we, both mother and daughter were busy completing her two craft works - one a car hanging and the other a wind chime. Both the works to be done by beads. The car hanging was easy but was very time consuming and the wind chime needed a bit of innovation. The problem with Akanksha is that she wants to do everything by herself.

The car hanger was done using a bouncing ball, needle point pins, colored beads, colored sequences and a ribbon to hang.

The finished product was as below..

The wind chime was a bit complicated. It was done using the upper portion of a plastic bottle, glass paints, colored beads, marker pen, glass pipe, nylon thread and foil paper..

I helped Akanksha to cut the bottle in a wavy way..

She drew patterns on the bottle with the help of a marker pen before putting paints..

Each edge was marked with a dot to make a hole to hang the beads which were put together on a nylon thread..

I helped her making the holes with a punch..

Akanksha first used the black out liner over the patterns she made and let it dry. Than she filled the inside colors and put it to dry. She was doing one pattern at a time and letting it dry and than again moving to the next. This procedure made her loose all her excitement and was frowning when I tried to click pictures. So no more pictures were taken while the little lady was on action. By the time the whole painting was finished and left to dry both of us arranged the beads to be hung and once the paints dried and the beads were hung it appeared as below....

The first reaction came from the dear father waking up from a tight afternoon nap, "This is a ridiculous color combination". I tried not to listen to the comments fearing that Akanksha might again be adamant to redo it. But to her reaction I was very happy. She replied her father with a yawn, "That's all a 10 years old little girl can do. Nothing more than that". At it there was an outburst of laughter from we, the fortunate parents. 

Shooting at Doordarshan Kendra

The whole of last week was very hectic for Akanksha. Early morning she went to school and after school she had to rush to her dance school for rehearsals for a shooting of a Manipuri dance drama-Krishna Lila, at the Doordarshan Kendra on Saturday to be telecast on the occasion of Janmasthmi. 

On Saturday, all the not less than 30 odd participants reached the Doordarshan premises at the scheduled time of 12 noon. All the participants were accompanied by their moms and curious relatives. I alone accompanied Akanksha as her father had a working day. Yet he was humble enough to drop us at the venue.

The Kolkata Doordarshan Kendra is situated at the posh Golf Green area in the Southern fringe of the city. It is merely one and a half kilometers from our house. As soon as we entered the building the temperature became soothing as the whole of the building is air conditioned. It has lavish rooms and spacious corridors. The whole building is so large that it will take quite sometime to get acquainted. The interiors of the building is beautifully done but it lacked a bit of maintenance. We were led through a vast corridor to the green room. As we entered the green room we found it full of children getting dressed for the program. The seniors were helping the juniors to dress.

Professional make up artists did the make up and the procedure was over by 2 o'clock. The shooting was scheduled to start at around 2.30 p.m. But due to some technical problems it did not start in time. The children started playing antakshari to kill the time. 

Akanksha gives a pose after make-up

Akanksha with Raya

Akanksha with Gunja

In the mean time I somehow managed to enter the studio where the shooting was to take place. I was surprised to see so many people engaged for the particular job. There were camera men, sound technicians, director, helpers, light men etc,. All were busy with their own job. I was standing there and was bound to think so many hard works are behind a finished program presented before us, which we watch sitting at the cozy couch of our living rooms and also we never think twice before criticizing anything that we do not like. May be from now onwards I will give a thought before criticizing such work.

Though photography was prohibited inside, I managed to click a few pictures of the studio with my mobile. It is not clear as I clicked it from quite a distance.

It was 4o'clock but the shooting did not start yet. By then the children became restless. Most of them were hungry and sleepy and wanted to go home. We, the moms, fed them with whatever we had brought from home- cakes, biscuits, chocolates and somehow managed to cool them down. Few of us went to the canteen to bring something for them to eat. The canteen was again very specious that served very tasty tea and coffee and that too at a very cheap rate. Since we went there quite late most of the snacks were finished. There was only sweets(gulab jamuns) left. We ordered 50 gulab jamuns but each of us first sipped a cup of tea and than went to the green room and flashed the news of tea and coffee being served at the canteen. Within a fraction of seconds the waiting room was empty since the parents flocked at the canteen. The children were happy to see the gulab jamuns.

At 5.30 pm the children were finally taken to the studio. The guardians were not allowed to enter the studio and waited at the waiting room for another one and a half hour for the shooting to get over.

At 7 o'clock finally the shooting got over and all of us headed for home. Though it was tiring both for the children and the parents yet it was a whole new experience for all. Also, we parents got more time to know each other well, which otherwise is not possible. Now, waiting with fingers crossed for the day the program would be telecast.