Tag: blogchatter

  • Can I ask you to be…, October?

    Can I ask you to be…, October?

    Can I ask you to be..., October?

    I reached my office this morning and turned the calendar. Today’s October 1st, and I was particularly looking for a good start to the day. Lines on the new page were,

    हा कोलाहल
    केवढी खदखद,
    आतल्या आत..

    This chaos
    simmering unrest,
    contained within….

    I was just staring at those lines for some time. Yes, I have written this haiku, back in 2023, when I was writing for the desk calendar of 2024. I had designed this calendar pairing these lines to the months, and yet this particular haiku struck a chord as I turned the page.

    It’s a contrast…

    I kept thinking why would I put these lines for the month of October while designing. I am in exactly the opposite state of mind today. Calm, happy and energised with the nice short trip to Kolkata for Blogchatter Retreat. It was an exhilarating experience. I will write more about that in some other post. Emotions in this haiku are exactly opposite to what I am feeling right now.

    October is the month of celebrations, we usually celebrate Navratri and Durga Pooja during this month with a chance of celebrating some of the Diwali days too. Kolkata was bustling with the preparations of Pujo and every corner now hosts a bamboo skeleton for Pandals. I am sure Gujrat must have already started humming the garba tunes and preparations are in full swing. Even in Pune, there are some preparations going on to welcome Mata ji. Even if October comes with a blazing rise in heat after monsoon showers, these festivities make it bearable.

    October, I have some expectations from you.

    If you may, please be calm and quiet when you are free for these celebrations, I have got 4 new books from Kolkata. I am very excited to immerse myself into Ritwik Ghatak’s writing and show my love to my fellow bloggers who have written stories for “Blogchatter Book of Love” anthology. So, if you please, don’t throw any curve balls onto me and let me read peacefully.

    What? About Tagore’s Gitanjali?

    Yes, I agree, Gitanjali poems are not to be read cover to cover. So, I intent to read them leisurely, one at a time! Thanks for suggesting anyway.

    Books I got from Kolkata, 2024 (One more is in transit)

    Top post on Blogchatter

    So if I may request, can I ask you to be a bit calmer, October?

    This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop. Checkout more of my writings here, and to listen to my poetry audiobook, checkout this.

  • One unfinished pursuit

    One unfinished pursuit

    This has been a long overdue review. I received the review copy from Blogchatter sometimes in 2022. Life happened, I moved houses. Unfortunately, the copy ended up in some wrong box during the move. Recently, I stumbled upon it.

    When you are dialled in for achieving success in your career, your focus on life kind of takes a backseat. Isn’t this a part of the “Career Romance” trope? When you are running behind a successful career, you end up being alone for a longer time. Then suddenly you stumble upon a person who breaks the spell and reveals the joy of life. This is what Pursuit: Drawn by Destiny is in a nutshell.

    Should you read it or not?

    Pooja has written a nice pacy story which hooks you in from the start with a nicely crafted strong female protagonist who is ambitious, courageous and hungry for success. She has developed the story around this character and keeps you interested in the book. On the other hand, the book lacks in the development of other characters. It feels like the author ran out of paint when she reached the portraits of other characters. They feel like abstract forms without much detailing and story arcs of their own.

    Most of the story moves in the expatriot circle of Mumbai. Yet it feels like the story is set in some fictional place. Characteristics of Mumbai are missing from the story. It feels like expats in Mumbai are moving with their own bubble indifferent to their surroundings and dealing with only of their kinds.

    If you are hungry for some romance novel with full Bollywood style masala, this book will grab your attention. A director can see a good movie in this story for sure. As a debut novel, it has done a great job of keeping you engaged enough that you will not put the book down till you finish. Hope Pooja improves leaps and bounds in her upcoming stories.

    About the book

    Title: Pursuit: Drawn by Destiny
    Author: Pooja Poddar Marwah
    Pages: 230
    Publisher: Becomeshakeaspeare.com
    ISBN: 9388573641

    My rating

    Story: 2/5
    Cover Design: 2.5/5

    Overall rating: 2/5

    Where to Buy

    Should you read it?

    If you are in looking for frenemy to lover trope, you will enjoy the book. However, I feel it’s one time casual read.

    This review is powered by Blogchatter Book Review Program and I received this copy of Pursuit in exchange for my honest review. You can read more of my book recommendations here.

    I am participating in blogchatter’s TBRChallenge

  • Grandma’s alluring recipe

    Grandma’s alluring recipe

    Grandma's Alluring Recipe with a sketch of an old lady

    When I think about my life of almost three and half decades, I find that my grandma has a lot of influence on me. She developed all the soft skills which makes life pleasurable. She has mastered the art of cooking a perfect recipe which will entice all your senses and bring joy when you are finished with it. This is the one recipe which I find most fascinating and yet alluring at the same time. This is a perfect serving of something which you can enjoy at a table, or when you are lying awake in bed in the wee hours of night, or while lazing on a couch on a Sunday afternoon. Basically, you can just devour this at any moment of your liking. Can you guess what it could be?

    It’s not what you think

    I am definitely not talking about any of cake, bread or some other complicated dessert or some exotic dish from Mediterranean or European cuisine which my grandma cooked. In fact, it’s not anything related to food. I want to decode and recreate her master recipe of a perfect story. There are hundreds of best and renowned storytellers around the globe. However, for me, she is The OG storyteller. I have grown up with her stories. 

    Her stories featured very common characters. If it’s written for children to read, the protagonists will be someone whom you will find playing with you on community gardens or playgrounds. Her stories for an adult audience, plot points were about the general life situation. Even though she wrote stories based on mythological characters, her stories were never fantastical or portraying anything larger than life events. Lord Krishna in her stories would be as human as you would be. And yet his deeds fascinated you.

    I want to create the same magic one day

    I had tried my hands on writing some stories yet I could not find her secret ingredient which makes the story exciting yet relatable. In 2021, my grandma passed on to tell the stories to the gods and demigods above. And I have lost the opportunity to get trained by her, it would have been a perfect masterclass for me. Yet I dream that one day, I will stumble upon that mystery ingredient which makes the recipe of storytelling fool-proof. I will always wait for that day, and in the meantime, will keep trying my hands to perfect this alluring recipe.

    This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop. If you want to read more such posts, click here.

  • Charming Spell of Desai’s “Shriman Yogi”

    Charming Spell of Desai’s “Shriman Yogi”

    In honor of the former president of India late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Maharashra celebrates “Reading Inspiration Day” on 15th of October. On that occasion I wrote a post about the book which inspired me in the world of books. It cultivated a hobby of reading. It was a Marathi post. Today I have the opportunity to bring that book in front of a wider audiance through Blogchatter’s bloghopping prompt.

    There’s a cupboard in my house, my grandma’s cupboard. It’s filled with all sorts of books. This is the story of my entry into the enchanting world of books. I must have been in 4th or 5th standard back then. But back in those days, my interaction with that cupboard was limited to stealing some glances at them if the door is open. My grandpa used to be a member of big public library in Nashik. So those borrowed books was in house too. But I never felt like picking one up and read.

    But one day, it was all supposed to change.

    I think it was a summer break for my school. I dared one afternoon and opened that cupboard. While browsing through the shelves, reading book titles and author names on spines of well stacked books. However, one particular book caught my eye. It was quite a huge chunky book. But the size didn’t grab my attention. Binding of the book was unique. Unique yellowish hard bound cover was unmarked. It didn’t bear any title, any name. I grabbed that book and took it out. It felt quite heavy at that time, with 1000 plus pages in a hard cover binding. I opened the cover and title in bold orange caught my eye.

    “श्रीमान योगी”. For obvious reasons, i couldn’t understand the meaning of the words. Yet I stated reading it. And man, what a joy it was! Ranjeet Desai is the man who showed me the what joy of reading meant. There must be something about Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj back in school that year, to story in book felt much more gripping and interesting than chapters of my textbook. I was oblivious to the greatness of this author. I finished the book in straight 3 days, loosing track of food, sleep, playtime and all other attractions which a 10 years old kid could have in late 90s.

    After this, there was no turning back

    I got hooked on the habit of reading. I started picking up the books borrowed from library. Many of which I have left unfinished as I couldn’t understand a thing in it at that age. But I have read this particular book number of times. Even now, I pull this one off the shelf and start reading from a random page. It still gives me the same pleasure. Recently I bought two short story collections of Desai’s stories. I have finished बाबूलमोरा and will start मोरपंखी सावल्या now as my next read.

    Fortunately for you all, Vikrant Pande has translated this Marathi book into English and Harper Collins has published it Under Name of “Shivaji: The Great Maratha”. So, grab your copy and let me know what you think.

    This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop. If you want any more book recommendations click here, and to listen to my poetry audiobook, checkout this.

  • Nice to be acquainted with A to Z’s of Tilottama

    Nice to be acquainted with A to Z’s of Tilottama

    Jibanananda Das, a Bengali Poet once said, কোলকাতা কোনোদিন তিলোত্তমা হবে meaning, Kolkata will one day be Tilottama. Kolkata, our own city of joy, music, art and culture has always fascinated me. It is still very illusive for me as yet I haven’t set my foot on her soil. It keeps intriguing me through the references I see in movies, and read in stories. Recently, I got an opportunity to get acquainted with the A to Zs of this Tilottama through the lens of a book called Tilottama at a glance, written by Sreeparna Sen.

    Unique way to introduce Tilottama

    When you pick up a book which started as a part of a blogging project, you kind of go in with the preconceived notion about the book. However, this particular book will break your assumptions and will make you read it through and know about this wonderful city in one go. It has been a really long time that I have finished a book in one sitting. This short read of just 68 pages, takes you on a journey through the streets of Kolkata taking you to meet its people and their quirk.

    I really appreciate the author for not making it a typical A to Z about a city. It’s not a list of famous places and tourist attractions. There are a couple of iconic locations like Howrah Bridge and Victoria memorial that are part of this book. However, I loved the way Sen has introduced the culture of Kolkata and habits of her citizens as quintessential parts of the identity of the city. The strong passion for food, music and art shared by the people of Kolkata is evident in many pages of this book. 

    My Rating

    I will definitely recommend this book if you want to get acquainted with Kolkata and the people of the city of joy before going in for your maiden visit to the city. Sreeparna Sen has done a great job in introducing her readers to the quirks of her city.

    Content: 4/5

    Writing style: 4/5

    Cover Design: 4/5

    Blurb

    Tilottama At A Glance is not merely the A B C’s of Kolkata for a casual traveller. This book allows you to acquaint yourself with the heart and soul of a rather unusual Indian city with loads of quirks. It is a journey through the culture, history, architecture, idiosyncrasies and other endearing or astonishing traits of Kolkata, that make this city unique.

    About Author

    Sreeparna Sen is a banker and finds her solace in writing. She has authored the book Tales of Wizardencil. Sen is a part of 10 anthologies including an international project Until Dawn.

    About the book

    Title: Tilottama at a glance

    Author: Sreeparna Sen

    Publisher: Ukiyoto Publishing

    Pages: 68

    Where to buy

    This review is powered by the Blogchatter Book Review Program. Also read more book reviews penned by me here.

  • E-commerce for Agro – a new way forward

    E-commerce for Agro – a new way forward

    In my last blog, I talked about how important MSMEs are for the Indian agriculture sector and how they can be the change drivers and flag bearers of the next agriculture revolution in the Indian economy. Today, I would like to focus on one particular aspect of MSMEs which can become a major market area, E-commerce.

    Emergence of E-commerce and Indian consumers

    I remember the days when Amazon and Flipkart started as online booksellers in India and bibliophiles like me just welcomed these platforms with open arms and warm hearts. It was a pure joy when you would receive a neatly packed book with some cute bookmarks added as a bonus to the package. Soon the companies grew big and ventured in many more product ranges from electronics to clothing and recently, to groceries. These pioneers are now almost like online supermarkets. 

    However, there are quite a few specialty platforms who are focusing on only one or two products like Myntra in clothing, Lenskart in eyeglasses and Medplus in medicines. These companies have carved their niche even in such a competitive market. E Commerce is now going to rural areas of the country too. Starting with just delivery services of established platforms, many village craft producers are now getting into their own e-commerce outlets.

    Agro E-Commerce

    Even though handicrafts and artistic stuff is getting into this field, the agriculture sector has rarely explored this method of product delivery. Bigbasket is one of the major players which has grabbed the initiative in doorstep delivery of food produce and groceries. However, there are many such avenues in the agriculture sector which can grow leaps and bounds with e-commerce. Even some small startups initiated by vegetable producers run on the same doorstep delivery model however. Sahyadri farms from Nashik and Green Tokri from Pune are just a couple of examples. They can become a model for many to follow.

    Firstly, a doorstep delivery service of fresh produce is sadly the only idea that pops in a general mindset when we think about e-commerce in the agriculture sector. However, if we start thinking more and more about the sector, many other ideas will also emerge. For example, agro-processing MSMEs can start e-commerce of their processed goods. Small self-help groups can come together, start preparing good old traditional recipes of condiments, pickles etc. These quality products with traditional flavours will sell like hot cakes on the urban e-commerce market with attractive packaging. One most lucrative plus point of e-commerce is these small groups and MSMEs can just avoid middle-man from the trade cycle and make good money.

    A bonus cascading effect

    These increased profits in rural areas will always work fantastically in improving the quality of life in our rural areas. In turn, this will lead to the development of rural areas and reduce the pressure on Indian cities as more and more people will be ready to stay behind and live a good life. 

    Written as part of Blogchatter’s campaign #ECommerceInnovation. Read more posts in the campaign here.