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Showing posts with the label bilingual

Scent of spring: Songbirds, cherry blossoms, and warmer days

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    Spring, perhaps the most awaited season of the year, is about to grace this region of the world with its presence. I know spring is about to arrive in Delaware because after a series of unusually frigid mornings, which lasted from December through February, cheerful chirping of red-breasted robins, blue jays, and chickadees has now filled the morning air. In contrast to spring mornings, winter mornings are so hushed and uneventful that one may even question if birds exist in this land at all. To me, birdsongs are the harbinger of spring.  With the first sight of a bluejay perched on the backyard fence or a cardinal dancing on a leafless cherry branch, I know that my wait for spring is almost over, for I’ve learned from past experiences that an increase in bird activity signifies the approach of spring!  In this part of the world, during spring, nature comes alive with an abundance of activity. Everywhere I look, I witness signs of life. I witness new life in the ...

A virtual friendship that turned into something real and meaningful

I joined an online forum a year ago. Let’s not get into the details of what that forum is about, but talk about what I earned from it. The most beautiful thing that the forum has perhaps given me is a few dozen Bengali-speaking friends hailing from both Bangladesh and West Bengal. Some of them are Bengali expatriates like me, living in countries like America, Canada and the U.K. Together we have a knitted a virtual circle of friends, which has the potential of lasting a lifetime. It’s a twist of fate that one of the friends I found on that forum lives only 15 mins away from my home! But when we first became virtual friends none of us knew that we lived so close to each other.  She is older than me and I call her didi or di. She is married with a 12-year-old son. First we talked over the phone and then we met each other for the first time at a concert in Philadelphia, PA, where Kolkata’s musical band, Chandrabindu, performed. She then invited me and my family to her place for l...