When the only response is "Busy"

Thursday, December 15, 2011


I am working on three research papers, one finance project, three presentations, countless quizzes, countless assignments, 8 midterms, 4 finals… and life.


   But don't worry, I am buying my life back soon, just need to sell 10 more days.  


aka my brain, body, eyes etc

Being of Heaven and Earth

Saturday, October 22, 2011

It’s raining after ages. Trickling and tapping on the window pane, while I sit in the drawing room with curtains drawn inwards to the open verandah. And the wind, oh my the wind. Mmm how long have I waited for this wind? Quite long. The time long yearning has turned me foolishly inarticulate of the improbable divinity all around me. I just wish it wasn’t dark out there, and I could meet the nimbus in the sunkissed sky exposing its diverged shapes that speaks to me. It has been a while since we two had a convo. Last time it spoke of a man with big long mustache who coughed unmannerly and grew thunders. I called him Thor en mustachioed. To sustain his propriety he apologized by bestowing an illuminated arc of coloured light in the sky. And I called it rainbow. I wish for another rainbow, I wish for another rain, in another time, may be tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, when the sky is still sunkissed, and the smell of hot morning tea hovers over the fresh scent of cool rain. I want more such days, more such nights. Because I am in love, and I am in love with my name. 


I am a being of Heaven and Earth, of thunder and lightning, of rain and wind, of the galaxies. 

put to words: a moment

Friday, October 21, 2011





Moving in circles, making a constant humming noise…




White, there’s something white, behind it. 
  
~~~


Black again.

….. ….
….. ….
….. ….

Buzzzzzzz

I hear it. That white noise, in my black world. Once again.  

….. …..
….. …..







I am having coffee, and a conversation…


both of quality…


with someone who’s wearing  s o m e t h i n g   mmm..  ‘not white’

but

there cant be a buzzing noise in this crowded coffee shop. It’s a people’s world….

dominated by their stories, in voices that doesn’t sound like buzzzzz. It’s more like…






“Apa dorja khulen, JHARU dimu.”




There goes my sleep.
And I need to fix this loud fan, ASAP.  


Green morning everyone!

Friday, October 14, 2011

I can’t start my morning sorry evening (contributes to my messed up sleep cycle) without a cup of green tea. I used to be a coffee lover and I still sort of am but ever since the shift to green tea instead of coffee, I feel a lot better fresher and hydrated. I usually drink Kazi and Kazi organic green tea, it’s a well reputed brand of a sprawling tea estate of Bangladesh which is also exported worldwide under the brand name Teatulia. KK Tea is the first organic tea substantially produced in Bangladesh, and the first to be certified by international certifying authorities. They also have two other flavours, tulsi tea and black tea. I love the packaging of the tea bags, it comes in a cute tiny rug! 

The acclaimed benefits of green tea are numerous. But for me the best part is it keeps me hydrated. You might think how can a single cup of green tea keep you hydrated but it actually does. On the days I have my uni there’s no water passing through my system, it’s just coke or pepsi. But I have noticed the days I make myself a cup of green tea after reaching home sweet home the dehydrated feeling lowers to quite a minimum level. Of course water is the mother of all drink but since we all drink a cup of tea or coffee anyway I think shifting to green tea is a lot healthier way to satisfy that trait. It is also rich in antioxidants and boots out headaches caused out of stress quite nicely. There are several established studies focusing on the benefits green tea against cancer and heart disease, likewise I have read somewhere that it also helps to fight obesity.

Here’s an easy green tea latte recipe for you guys,

Green Tea Latte Recipe


4 cups cold water
2 Chai tea bags
3 green tea bags
1 cup milk, chilled
4 tablespoons brown sugar or honey 


Boil water and then add both Chai and green tea bags. Seep the tea for three to five minutes, removing the bags and discarding. In ad blender, blend the milk so it is frothy. Pour the tea into individual serving cups and then to each, add 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar of honey. To the tea mixture, add frothy milk. If you like, you can sprinkle a little green tea powder or cinnamon on top.

A helpful tip when brewing green tea is to retain the flavor while not losing the health benefits. For this, I recommend you use one tea bag for each cup of water. For the water, start with cold water, bringing it to a boil. As soon as the water reaches the boil point, remove it from the heat source and let is stand for three minutes. Then, add the tea bags and allow them to seep for three to five minutes, or place a tea bag into a serving cup, pouring the boiled water on top. While this might sound elementary, you will enjoy both flavor and health benefits for green tea latte recipe by following these guidelines. 

Enjoy your morning tea! Have a good day!

Blog trouble

Thursday, October 13, 2011


I have uninstalled commentluv from my blog after it broke my template. And in return it has deleted all the comments I received in my posts since commentluv (inanimate's karma!). Well, no loss, no gain. That's life.


BUT, I have had my lesson after this. I need to get a lot better at HTML to solve any such future issues with much panache.


AND, since I am considering this as an opportunity cost I'll use this chance to change my template. Might stick to this too if I don't find anything better, this broken template's sort of nice too.. what say?


For the time being,  please bear with the random changes and improper broken widgets..


 pardon !

Tête-à-tête: N Ahmed and I

Saturday, October 8, 2011


I usually don’t develop what we call a ‘writer’s block’, what I develop is a focus block. And this often happens to me because I in general do not prefer writing about the greater part of my mind that’s really raw and running, and so the smaller part falls short sometimes and today was such a day. But someone wise once said, ‘where there’s a will there’s a way.’


 So now I will be writing about N Ahmed today.

I met her in my first semester of uni. Back then I had a different life with different people, my uni was not really a place for me to mingle, I was hooked into teaching kids and earning my own money for the first time ever. It made me feel useful and I had no time for new bonding. This was a friendship built on circumstances, we were assigned a group project together and that is how the interaction really started. My initial impression of her? Well she reminded me of a troubled teenager with erratic behaviour who had strong opinions, but the opinions were not from the psyche of that trouble teenager, on the contrary it was from the psyche of a grown up. Well in short, she amused me J. And so, the time finally came when we were euphorically done with our first successful presentation of uni life, the semester eventually ended, and so did our obligation to spend time with each other. But there’s another quote said by another wise man, "No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth." And how could we deny such a wise man of his quote ?



We didn’t J. We became close friends pretty quickly actually, we were alike on many levels and completely different in some, but we got each other. She became one person I could talk to in my way (that is through saying nothing), and my thoughts were interpreted just as I wanted them to be and vice versa. This made us enjoy each other’s company and we gradually grew fonder of each other. As a person she is not exactly the warmest, there’s absolutely nothing tender about her. But this doesn’t blow her karma because of her sense of responsibility towards the things she believes in. She’d anyday kick an annoying kid to the roadside drain, and she would also offer the kid her not so kind hands when necessary. In our initial days of friendship there was one particular thing I remember that contributed a lot to how I feel about her now, there was this case where a woman failing to persuade her former husband to marry her again took revenge by throwing acid on his two minor children born to his second wife. Here’s the link to the news. The case was twisted in many ways, N Ahmed got involved to this case to a level which put herself on the line. All of this was for something she believed in, she believed she could do something for the injured child that would at least secure the child’s future if not the present.  
Another thing that I love about her is that she isn’t one of those people who just sit and wait for something to happen, she has a strong heart which isn’t entitled to support of others for bringing a thought into action. She gazes at the world with dubious eyes and doesn’t put her trust on many, other factors don’t play a role, she just chooses not to trust hominids in general. But she trusts the ones she loves. And I feel fortunate to be a part of those few, because it gave me a chance to see certain sides of her that I might otherwise have failed to notice, and that would have been a great miss. 

N Ahmed, good to know I am not missing out much. Thank you .

[Images: All N Ahmeds]

Hippo Bath-day

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

This is the week for birthdays. I have 13 friends’ birthday just this week, including mine on the 1st, and many others’ throughout the October. That forced me to think what exactly is so special about October. A fellow buddy explained January is the season of winter, and so is people’s resolution to warm it up which tends to more sex and hence more kids 9 months later. Then came my brother’s explanation, who is studying Bioinformatics. He says it’s not the frequency of sexual intercourse that leads, rather various studies have found seasonal variation in sperm count and mobility to be the reason, which is significantly higher in winter. So this explains why every family has a kid born on October. 


Anyway on a different note, I didn’t do much this birthday. My boyfriend is out of town and I didn’t feel like celebrating the day without him. Might do a party later, but it’s still a ‘might’, coz I feel lazy and lately dozing off seems more convenient than being active about anything. But I do have a favour to ask you guys, suggest me a gift that I can ask for. My boyfriend has been nagging me about what he should give me, he is not that imaginative when it comes to gifts and I usually tell him what I want and he dutifully brings it to me. And it’s a fussy job to give me anything, I don’t wear ornaments, my room is a junk place and I have no place to keep things I don’t need no matter however cute they may be, so random archie hallmark stuff is winnowed out from the list. I like perfumes but he knows I have too many, he bought me a dress this eid and honestly I don’t want anymore dresses. Actually there’s nothing I want, and he doesn’t want to disappoint me. Khota doesn’t know he can’t disappoint me but it’s true he is one person who’ll know immediately if I’ve really liked something or just appreciated the gesture instead. But this time around I honestly and honestly can’t think of anything that I really need.. hmmph, seems like I have everything I want :) Help please! Make me want something!








Anjan uncle and Shangjukta auntie's gift, they are from Kolkata and came here to work on some project. The day they landed was my birthday, they remembered it and later brought me this. It was really sweet of them. 

I love the message on the card, has a lot of warmth in it.

The Ménage

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Good times are over, good times have started. Back to full fledged classes, back to meeting friends more often. So ‘good times over’ crossed out ‘good time’s start’ and now I feel neutral. I won’t lie this neutral feeling has a lot to do with few other things. Few other things that if didn’t happen I would be a little better than neutral. I won’t write about it today, I have a habit of living in denial, I don’t talk about the bad units of my life, it has no voice, I never acknowledge it, and gradually persuade myself that it never happened. I won’t say it’s the healthiest technique out there but hell it has worked wonders in my case. So let’s make this post about my university. I like my university, but I was never one of those people who would stay all day and night in uni out of choice, who’d join in every single club and actively participate in any sort of interactions or the shows or carnivals that keep on running. I am not a social person, and I have a fabulous life outside NSU, that is my university, and the few genuine friends I made in my years here are never subjugated to NSU in any way. We never needed bound times to bind us together. They know I vanish every now and then, and they are not only aware of my hibernation but are as well compliant with it, they have complied with my bad units.
Here are some photos of the little place many call home and I call a ménage J















Eat alfresco

Thursday, September 15, 2011
Our little picnic in the greens... was an amazing day. 
















Sunday Scribblings: Sensation

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Five senses. Sense of sight, sense of smell, sense of touch, sense of taste and sense of hearing. Aristotle did this wonderful traditional classification of our sensory organs. That man was a true genius. But today we are not going to talk about him. Today we are going to talk about a thing we call ‘sensation’. One word, which could mean so many different things. But in different forms, sensation is all we seek in life. Some seek it through the taste of a sensational exotic drink, some may be through watching beautiful women, some through a sensational touch that reaches deep beneath your skin to the veins and flows to your heart, some through sensationalized words coming in the form of gossip to fill your inner hollowness, and for some like me, through a sensational smell that flirts with your mind and teases you in a way that no sight word taste or touch can. So in one way or other we all seek sensation, we seek all five, but some dig you more than the other. Like sense of smell is the one which I dig (take a look at my blog name for instance!), it’s my turn on, my turn off, my meditation and tranquility, it’s my way of defining beauty and the beast. But there are always exceptions, because human beings are weird creatures. And it is possible that there are people residing right among us whose biggest apprehension is about controlling their sensation and strangely enough there are also the kind who’d eye the ones that seek any sensation as though the seekers have committed the biggest crime of the century. But who listens to whom, life doesn’t stop. Within reason your attitude towards life is your own deal, seek all five or develop a sixth one. Human beings are weird creatures after all, anything can happen.

I scored 14 in the test below. What does that make me? I am not telling! Finish yours and find out.


Are You a Sensation Seeker?
A Self-Test

Answer each question according to the way you feel. Answer true if it is at least somewhat true for you. Answer false if it is not very true or not at all true for you.

T     F    If it were safe, I would like to take a drug that would cause me to have strange new experiences.


T     F    I can become almost painfully bored in some conversations.

T     F    I would rather go to a new place I may not like than go back again to a place I know I like.

T     F    I would like to try a sport that creates a physical thrill, like skiing, rock climbing, or surfing.

T     F    I get restless if I stay home for long.

T     F    I don't like waiting with nothing to do.

T     F    I rarely watch a movie more than once.

T     F    I enjoy the unfamiliar.

T     F    If I see something unusual, I will go out of my way to check it out.

T     F    I get bored spending time with the same people everyday.

T     F    My friends say it is hard to predict what I will want to do.

T     F    I like to explore a new area.

T     F    I avoid having a daily routine.

T     F    I am drawn to art that gives me an intense experience.

T     F    I like substances that make me feel "high."

T     F    I prefer friends who are unpredictable.

T     F    I look forward to being in a place that is new and strange to me.

T     F    To me, if I am spending the money to travel, the more foreign the country the better.

T     F    I would like to be an explorer.

T    F I enjoy it when someone makes an unexpected sexual joke or comment that starts everyone laughing a little nervously.




Scoring the Sensation Seeker Self Test



FOR WOMEN

        If you answered true to 11 or more of the questions, you're probably a sensation seeker. If you answered true to 7 or less of the questions, you are probably not a sensation seeker. If you answered true to 8, 9, or 10 of the questions, you are probably somewhere in between on sensation seeking.


FOR MEN

      If you answered true to 13 or more of the questions, you're probably a sensation seeker. If you answered true to 9 or less of the questions, you are probably not a sensation seeker. If you answered true to 10, 11, or 12 of the questions, you are probably somewhere in between on sensation seeking.


©  Copyright 2006 by Elaine Aron, Ph.D.


 This post is a response to prompt # 284 at Sunday Scribblings