LIFE AS IT IS

  Not once in my life before the year 2020 had I thought of recording audiobooks, and that too in Bengali. Having been educated in the English-medium school system of Bangladesh, my exposure to Bengali literature was quite limited, limited to works of Humayun Ahmed and Satyajit Ray, Sunil Gangopadhyay’s Kakababu series, and Rakib Hasan’s Tin Goyenda books, I confess. And although I tried to blog in Bengali in the past, I could not carry on, because my vocabulary did not flow smoothly. I was a person who lacked confidence in her spoken and written Bengali; I was also under the impression that I could never undertake a Bengali-language project and become successful. But life had its own plans for me.  We do not know what life has in store for us. Like I never thought I would one day run a YouTube channel that targets a niche audience, I also never thought before 2020 that I would bear witness to a pandemic and live under a stay-at-home situation for more than a year. The CO...

  Fairy lights that lit up streets, doors and windows of houses and shops, reindeer sleigh and Santa Clause that gave the common area of every shopping mall a festive appearance, and holiday tunes that filled the air of cafés and diners are now gone for a year. In contrast to October, November, December, and the first day of January when Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year are celebrated respectively by most Americans, January is not only colder-grayer but also quiet and uneventful.     Whether you want to partake in the above-mentioned festivals or not, if you live in the West, their festivies will touch you in one way or another. Come October, you see Halloween costumes and Halloween-themed home decor, food, and much more all around you. Your child’s school might even hold a Halloween parade on campus. And on October 31, you will have kids trick-or-treating at your doorstep. I am not a Halloween fan but usually buy small treats to give out to kids who knock...

  There is no other fabric that feels as luxurious as cashmere against the skin. Well, mulberry silk does. However, because this is winter time, we will discuss cashmere and cashmere only, world’s most sought-after fabric of the cold season.  The Daily Star link Cashmere is a word that derived from the angilicisation of Kashmir, the place where the cashmere goat originated. It is a fibre that is obtained from cashmere goats, which live in mountainous areas and cold climates. Today, China is the largest producer and exporter of cashmere wool. However, Mongolia is known to be the producer of the world’s finest cashmere. Grade-A cashmere has the highest quality, followed by B and C.  Cashmere being an expensive fibre is primarily used by mid-luxury and high-end fashion houses to produce everything from sweaters, dresses, coats to scarves, gloves, beanies, socks, even scrunchies, and more. However, cashmere which was once only worn by the royals and wealthy have become more a...

  A steaming cup of strongly-brewed tea, boosted with milk and sugar, is sometimes all you need to unwind. For a few minutes, you do not want to think of anything else but the cup right in front of you. In the steam that rises from the cup, your stress and fatigue mix and evaporate.  The Daily Star link Every morning, a cuppa prepared in deshi-style is what most Bengalis crave no matter what part of the world they live in. In a Bengali kitchen, the first thing that often sits on the stove in the morning is a saucepan or a kettle to brew breakfast tea. Why? Because a Bengali tea lover's morning without tea makes them unproductive, fatigued, and irritable!  A cup of tea prepared with milk and sugar is what we love in the morning and evening, although many are now switching to plain tea for health reasons. Our undying love for tea, whether it is plain tea, lemon tea, masala tea, or milk tea, bind us together; our love for tea transcends all our differences.  To us,...

  A neat haircut has the power to transform the way you look! As a woman who has to visit the beauty salon every 8 to 10 weeks because her layers grow faster than she wants, there are a few things that I have learned and taught myself over time about salon etiquette. They have always saved me from the agony of leaving a salon with a sad face and a bad haircut.  The Daily Star link Be specific Decide before going to the beauty salon what you want. I have learnt from my personal experience that hairdressers want you to be as specific as you can about your needs and wants, be it a cut or colour. "I don't want my hair to be too short" is too vague for anyone, including hairdressers. Your definition of 'too short' may be different from your hairstylist's definition of 'too short.' Therefore, be specific. Consider saying something like "Take an inch off the length." A bad haircut can jeopardise your mental peace. Therefore, it is very important to ...

  Try to plan one trip to the beach every year. Do some careful financial planning, save up, and set aside three to four days (the more, the better) from your work schedule to spend time at the beach, because an annual beach getaway is absolutely worth it. For those people who live in landlocked regions, going to the beach can be a time-consuming and costly affair, so consider yourself lucky if the nearest beach is not too far from your location.  The Daily Star link We lived in Minnesota, USA, for five years and during that time, we managed to make just one beach vacation. Because we lived in America's Midwest, which shares no border with sea or ocean, a trip to the nearest beach meant travelling 2.5 to 3 hours by air. However, after moving to Delaware, a small state with pretty beaches, beach getaways have become an annual thing for us. We now go to the beach on day trips, too.  I cannot stress enough how rejuvenating spending time near the ocean can be. The waves break...