tani On Board

The young bank lady takes him to the locker box, hands over the key to him, and says that she will wait outside for him. He nods with a smile, waits for her departure, slowly turns the key, and opens the locker. He put his hand inside, takes out a small red velvet box, touches it on his forehead, and then opens it. His face becomes enlightened with a thousand watts. He momentarily goes 60 years down the lane. Bhojohori lost both of his parents at a very early age before he turned 10. Although he was his parent's only child, there was nothing left to feed him once they were gone. As none of his parental relatives wanted to take care of him, his maternal uncle took him to their place unwillingly. Though his uncle loved him, he was not welcomed by his aunt. He attended a school there and was good at studies, however, could not continue longer. He left that place by the time he was barely 14 years old because of the rude behavior of his aunt and her children. He left his uncle's ho...

'Yoga' is a tiny but powerful word. The benefit of doing yoga is well known. I, myself learned yoga for two years and now I try to do it at least a few days a week for a couple of minutes. As the effects of yoga on our health are known to almost everyone, I am not going to repeat it here again. But I will tell in what other ways it is helping me. Last weekend, I was down with a migraine. I tried everything possible, green tea, ginger tea, apple, drinking a lot of water, but nothing worked as usual. Medicine also did not work. Yesterday afternoon, I thought to do yoga if that helps. I placed the yoga mat on the floor, near my bed. I was trying to do a 0.75 headstand (as I can not do a proper headstand, I can lift only one leg at a time). As I put down my head on the yoga mat, to do a headstand, my eyes got stuck beneath the bed. So many things are there, a chocolate wrapper, a cap of a pen which I was looking for a couple of weeks back. A zandoobalm (an ointment that someti...

"What else to eat now?" that's the first thought that comes to my mind after taking the last bite of my food. My mind always craves food though my tummy is full, especially nowadays, when I am enclosed in the house due to covid. Initially, I followed my mind, a mugful of hot chocolate or the extra amount of food that should have been for the next meal made me happy. As an obvious result, weight gain, lethargic feeling. After long suffering, finally, I got the resolution. Now I am following the 'food in every 3/4 hours' method. Having breakfast within 1 hour after waking up, then lunch after 5 hours but having a mid-morning snack in between. Afternoon snacking happens after 3-4 hours from snack, followed by dinner after fours from that. In between, if I feel hungry, I fill up myself with water. Stil!!!! after having a full plate of a meal, I feel a craving for food. Before covid, this longing was not there much, at least after lunch, because I used to go to the ...

  It’s the beginning of a fine morning. I am still in my bed and my eyes are closed. But I can feel that the birds are chirping in the garden, I also feel the cool morning breeze coming from the window which brings the sweet smell of jasmine flowers from my garden. I am still in my bed, curled in the comforter, planning and foreseeing the new day with my eyes shut. It is going to be a long day, several commitments have to be accomplished. It must be 6:00 am now, oh.. I can’t be on the bed anymore. For once more, I squeeze myself and am about to open my eyes. Suddenly, a shake! Someone is shaking me. Who is it? There is no one at home. How could someone enter my house? With annoyance and shock, I opened my eyes and saw a teenage girl standing beside my bed. After a moment of shock, I ask her, who are you? She smiles and nods her head. And then says, you know me, we met once, several years ago when we both went to school together. I look at her carefully, do I know her? She does not ...

We could see only BIG 4, missed the rhino. It was an amazing experience. Zebras and giraffes are so cool. We saw a few philosophers monkey and baboons, saw them in meditating Buddha position. Baby impalas are really cute, cuteness overloaded. Horns of Kudus are pieces of art. Elephants are big bosses there. Lionesses did not care about us during their us time. Leopards were busy with PDA or we were poking our nose in their personal life. Had a great fun, and a bit adventure while coming back. Lots of tress, and birds, really beautiful birds. Realised one thing, life is hard for these animals, they have small grasp, but bigger belly. It must take a lot of time and effort to fill their belly. That is as true as for farmers, daily wagers.  Did not have any great camera, I had only mobile camera. So could not capture great photos. In fact, I have no photo of Leopards and lions. Thankfully, had a binocular, so could see them. Here are a few ordinary photos. Before that, thanks to all wh...

 শুক্রবারের বারবেলা। দুপুরে রান্না করার ইচ্ছা ছিলনা মোটেই। কিন্তু খুব খিদেও পেয়েছিলো, সকালে দুধ চিড়ে খেয়ে কাটিয়েছি। পেটের তাগিদেই অগত্যা রান্না বসাতে হল, আলু সিদ্ধ ভাত আর মুসুর ডাল সেদ্ধ। দুপুরে সব টুকু ডাল শেষ হয়নি, বেশ কিছুটা থেকে গেছিল।  এদিকে Johannesburg এ আজকাল বিকেলবেলা আবহাওয়া খুব মনোরম হয়ে যায়, বসন্ত আসছে এখানে এখন। বিকেল হলেই মন টা কেমন খাই খাই করে, বেশিরভাগ দিনই কি খাব বুঝে উঠতে পারিনা। আর যেটাই খাব, বানিয়ে খেতে হবে, এটা ভেবে বিস্কুট/কুকিজ  আর চা খেয়েই চালাতে হয়। আজ হঠাৎ কিচেনে দুপুরের ডাল দেখে মনে পড়ল, কিছুদিন আগে Youtube এ মুগডালের মুগপাকান পিঠে বানানো দেখেছিলাম। আমার কাছে যদিও মুসুরডাল সিদ্ধ আছে, তবু মনে হলো একবার এটা দিয়েই ট্রাই করে দেখি, অখাদ্য নিশ্চয় হবেনা।          তো যেমন ভাবা তেমন কাজ। বানাতে গিয়ে প্রচুর ছড়িয়েছি, অগুনতি বাসনপত্র লেগেছে। প্রায় নাকের জল, চোখের জল এক হয়ে যাচ্ছিল, অর্ঘ্য এসে বাঁচাল তখন (রামের যেমন লক্ষণ ছিল, আমার আপাতত এখন একটা অর্ঘ্য আছে তেমন) ।এই পিঠে বানাতে, মূলতঃ সিদ্ধ ডালের সাথে ময়দা মেখে, ...

Does your work define who you are or does it burn you every day, slowly? What is work? Does it only mean your profession? Or it is your whole life that you have devoted to, Karma? Should you expect a 'praise', if do something good, and a 'criticism', if you are not up to it? Or should you be indifferent towards other's reactions, or as said in Geeta, ( Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,  Ma Karmaphalaheturbhurma Te Sangostvakarmani)   ''do your job, don't have the expectation for the fruit(result)''? We are always told to love what we do and do what we love. But that is difficult unless your passion becomes your profession and vice-versa. Sometimes, it may happen that though we do what we love, a constant expectation of perfection and pressure for perfection dries us up. We feel lost, we find ourselves disconnected so much that 'loves for work' becomes estranged. We lose the balance between what is a profession, what is a passio...

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Discussions on mental health are still taboo to us. We do not want to talk about it. Most of us are not even aware of the fact that there could be something like mental health similar to physical health, or if someone wants they can get help for it. We still did not accept it and if someone consults with a psychiatrist, we think that he/she has gone insane.  All humans go through ups and downs in life. Good times and bad times are like days and nights in human life. Each and every individual goes through different kinds of individual hardships in life. No one can gauge what others are going through by seeing them from outside. We share our joy, our success with others, but we never share the pain behind that. If anyone is brave enough, he/she can overcome the hard phase, but sometimes it becomes really hard to take, and people get severely depressed, which they are not even aware of. Sometimes we share our problems with friends and family, but a person who is prone to depress, they...

 Hello all,  Today is Saturday, now 11 AM in Johannesburg. It's chilly outside. And here I am at my study desk, with a teacup in my hand, wondering what to do to take a break from work. Ya, it is Saturday and I am working, that's how life goes for the people who are at emergency services like Police, Doctors (the real ones, not like me). security personnel and also people like me who are in academia. We are like ATMs,  working  24 X 7. Writing is my staple way to relax, so here I am again on my blog. This piece is going to be a part of my food diary, which I have recently started. Today I am going to write how to prepare the Spanish omelette in the easiest, laziest way. A few days back, on a sunny morning, my flatmate and I realized that we had only 4 eggs in the fridge, and as they were placed at the innermost corner of the fridge, it got frozen. Initially, we planned to make a normal omelette for breakfast. With that in mind, we opened the egg basket and found that...

This is not a recipe book. This is my digital recipe diary, I tend to lose all the handwritten recipes, so I decided to write here. Since this is an open blog, I do not need to worry much even if I forget the key to open the blog. These are some easy recipes written down here that I have mainly learned over the past 6 months from various YouTube channels (specifically from  Bong Eats  and  Tanhir Paakshala , I am thankful to them), from my friends, and needless to mention, from my best flat mates ever. Generally, people learn cooking from their mother, but my mother always gave me the freedom to learn on my own. I love my mother's cooking, so before the cooking starts, I tend to visualize how the taste of the dish would be or how the dish would look like if that was prepared by my mother. Then I start the preparation of the dish, mimicking my mother's cooking style. I won’t say that cooking is my passion or I love cooking, rather cooking revives my hormone level. I always...

 শিয়ালদহ থেকে সন্ধ্যে ৭টার ট্রেন টা ছাড়তেই,  জানলার পাশের সিটে গা এলিয়ে ফোনে গান চালিয়ে কানে  ইয়ারফোন  লাগিয়েছিল সে। সারাদিনের পরিশ্রমের ক্লান্তি তে কখন যে চোখ দুটো লেগে গেছিল, তা আর স্বাভাবিক ভাবেই খেয়াল নেই।  আচমকা ঘুমটা যখন ভাঙলো, ফোনে তখন তার প্রিয় শিল্পী, মান্না দের 'কে তুমি তন্দ্রাহরণী' বাজছে, আর সে সত্যিই সামনে দাড়িয়ে, চোখের আগে। তার ঘোর কাটলো, সুমিষ্ট রিনরিনে কণ্ঠস্বরের অনুনয়ে, 'একটু সরে বসবেন প্লিজ  ' . সন্ধ্যের গোবরডাঙ্গা লোকাল, সবে অশোকনগর ছাড়ল। ভিড় না থাকলেও, বসবার জায়গা খুব একটা নেই।  তবে একটু চেপে চুপে বসলে, প্রত্যেক বেঞ্চেই আর এক আধজন বসতে পারবে। তার বেঞ্চের বাকি সহযাত্রীরা কেউ ভেতরের দিকে সরে বসতে রাজি না হওয়ায়, অগত্যা সেই 'চম্পাবরণী' কে তারই ঘুমটা ভাঙাতে হল, একটু সরে বসবার জন্য। এমন অনুরোধ তার কপালে সচারচর জোটে না, তাই ঘুম ভাঙার বিরক্তির বদলে, মন টা বেশ ফুরফুরে হয়ে গেল। অবশ্য সেও জানে যে , এ সুখ ক্ষনিকের। আর দুটো স্টেশন পরেই তাকে নামতে হবে। সে পাশে বসতেই, নাকে হালকা একটা মিষ্টি অথচ ঝাঁঝালো ...

সকাল ৭টা , ঘুম থেকে উঠে আড়ামোড়া ভাঙতে ভাঙতে টিয়া ব্যালকনি থেকে news paper টা নিয়ে এলো। এ তার রোজকার রুটিন। বাসিমুখেই প্রথম পাতার হেডলাইন গুলো দেখা চাই। তার সকালের মূল আকর্ষণ অবশ্য লুকিয়ে থাকে দ্বিতীয় পাতায়।  হ্যাঁ , ঠিকই ধরেছেন, রাশিফল। যদিও সে দাবি জানায় যে সে কোনোরকম কুসংস্কার এ বিশ্বাস করেনা, তবুও রোজ সকালে উঠে রাশিফলটা না দেখলে, তার দিনটা ঠিক জমে না। অন্য সময় হলে, বেশিরভাগ দিনই সময়মত কলেজ পৌছানোর  তাড়ায়  ভুলে যায় কি লেখা ছিল। এখন অবশ্য কোনো কিছু আর আগের মত নেই। করোনার জন্য ঘরে বসেই কলেজের ক্লাস করাতে হয়। কোথাও পৌছানোর তাড়াও নেই, চাকরির সুবাদে একা থাকার দরুন কারো সাথে কথা বলারও নেই।  তাই, আজকাল রাশিফল গুলো একটু বেশিক্ষনই মনের মধ্যে গেঁথে থাকে।  ভালো কিছু লেখা থাকলে , মন টা হাল্কা লাগে। খারাপ কিছু লেখা থাকলেই, মন টা  সারাদিন খুঁত খুঁত করে।  আজ রাশিফলে লেখা আছে, আগুন থেকে বিপদ। বার বার করে মন থেকে কথাটা বের করে দিলেও, আবার মনে পরে যাচ্ছে। সকালে রান্না টাও খুব সাবধানে করল। সকাল গড়িয়ে বিকেল হল, কিছুই ঘটলো না।  তবুও মনটা ভার হয়ে রই...

  'The best ever Rasgulla that I have ever had in Johannesburg', that's what Arghya, my flatmate said, after eating two sparrow egg sized homemade Rasgulla(or like that). Not to mention, those were made by me. Arghya moved to Johannesburg in the last week of February, 2021, two months after me. Both of us stayed in the Wits guest house till the end of March and then moved to this apartment, near Johannesburg Zoo.  Since I/we came here, because of corona, our movement is limited within university, home and supermarket. So far we went out of our regular zone only twice, once to dine in a local restaurant and second time to buy fishes from a Bangladeshi shop. So, you can sense how many Rasgulla Arghya had here in Johannesburg. In the very first week, once we moved to this house, one day, I found that the Milk is not in good condition, because we did not check the temperature in the new fridge. It was set to minimal cold inside the fridge. I was boiling the milk to make tea, ...

'A theoretical chef', that's what my husband told me I am. Well, I can also agree that the title goes in-line with me. I am not much into the so-called 'hands-on' cooking but I watch a lot of videos of cooking, specifically Bengali food and also of baking. That's why I know how to make Biriyani, Lucchi, or sour-dough bread  theoretically , for example. Recently I got a kitchen for myself, so if sometimes I feel that any recipe is negotiable in an easy version, I tend to try that.  I am not very good at measuring the proportion of the ingredients, yet, seldom my experiment turns out to be fruitful. The unfortunate fact is, as I hate wasting, both money and time, whatever I cook, does not matter, how bad it tastes, I eat that with a  pseudo -pleasure. Before eating, I never forget to take photos and post on social media with a 'yummy' caption. Honestly, the food I cook does not taste that much as it looks. Sometimes, I become overexcited about the nontrivi...