Magical Touch

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Coiled inside the blanket

I could see only darkness that night.

Cold and numb

Burning forehead and aching limbs;

The pain was not merely physical

It's branches were spread in my heart too

Or, was it vice versa?

Robbing me off my hopes and dreams.

I frantically yearned for a magical touch

That can heal my unseen cracks.

The moon peeped in my room

Summoning me to be its mate;

I walked to the balcony of my room

The pain still vivid and clear;

I ogled at the moon and started feeling better

Was the moon showering magic dust on me?

I could hear the leaves sigh

As the autumn breeze changed its plan;

The breeze touched me tenderly

Like the first stolen kiss,

Beams of moonlight, twinkling of stars

The ecstatic jingle of the wind chime

Touched my soul with abundance of love 

It was a healing therapy: Love of Nature.

Linking this poem to Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Recovery/Healing

Stand-up comedy: The best form of entertainment

Life should be lived to the fullest, even amidst hectic work schedules and meeting tough deadlines. Without entertainment, life is such a waste. The best way to live life is to work hard on the weekdays and party harder on the weekends.

You can scope out the most happening bars and pubs that suits your style in www.liveinstyle.com. The bars such as Blistering Barnacles and Big Pitcher are brimming with fun and energy. They have an array of amazing cocktails and liquor options. The ambiance of such a place would surely make your weekends exciting and let you have an amazing time.

The best thing about these bars is that they feature performances of some great stand-up comedians such as Kanan Gill, Vir Das, Gursimran Khamba, Ashish Shayka, Aditi Mittal, Tanmay Bhatt, Praveen Kumar, Abish Mathew and Rohan Joshi. Can anything else be better than this?

Humor makes us see the lighter side of life and stand-up comedy is the best medium to make people laugh. Everyone cannot be a stand-up comedian. Stand-up comedy requires courage and confidence to step up in front of a large audience and perform your act.

During the first few minutes, you may find your mind shouting and begging you to stop and run, but you continue your act with confidence. Soon, you can hear the giggles and laughter from the crowd, which brings a huge relief. Stand-up comedy is about being bold enough to try to make people laugh, without having the fear that no one would laugh at your jokes.

www.liveinstyle.com is encouraging Stand-up comedy not only by featuring the popular stand-up comedians in the several bars and pubs that are listed on their site, but also by supporting the Comedy Hunt contest on YouTube.

A stand-up comedian is someone whose wit and humor gains him thousands of fans. So if you think that you have the power to make people laugh effortlessly, then you must take part in the Comedy Hunt contest. You just need to send a short funny video which should be maximum 3 minutes long. The video just needs to be funny and nothing else.

As we talk about Stand-up comedy, I just remembered that famous Irish proverb:

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything.”

So true, isn’t it? Stand-up comedy is one of the best forms of entertainment which works as a major stress buster in our fast paced lives. You won’t find a single person who doesn’t like to have a good laughter. And there are only a few gifted ones who can make people roll on the floor laughing.

Are you one of them? 

Let your heart sing forever!

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The chaos and the cauldron

The angst and the fears

The bitter pangs of loss

Let them not cloud your vision

Let them not take away

The love, compassion and hope;

The sweet music divine

From your heart.

Embrace solitude in a park

Bask in the beauty of the lush greenery

Reflect, admire, smile.

Allow Nature to soothe you

And cleanse the burden of your heart.

Let love be the lyrics

Let kindness be the music

Let your heart sing forever!

Linking this poem to Midweek Motif ~ 'Let your song be delicate'

What's the date? (100 word story)

“What’s the date, today?”

“15^th September, Ma’am.”

As she heard the words, a wave of pain and a ripple of chaos erupted in her placid heart.

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One date. A thousand memories.

And all this while she thought that she has moved on.

Engaging her student with some sums, she rushed to the terrace to grab some fresh air. The smoke of the burnt good days was suffocating her without mercy.

After a few minutes, she said a silent prayer and heaved a sigh.

“You’re not there in my life anymore, but you’ll always be there in my prayers. Happy Birthday!”

A lovely evening at the #BergerXp Indiblogger Meet

I used to really get upset whenever I saw my blogger friends from Delhi and Mumbai having a gala time in the Indiblogger meets. But finally a ray of happiness hit my life when I saw about the Berger Express Painting Indiblogger Meet that's going to take place in Kolkata on 12th September. 

So, yesterday was the big day. Although I have been blogging regularly from mid 2014, it was my first Indiblogger Meet. The experience was amazing and I am still brimming with happiness, recollecting the memories of yesterday.

 Just the beginning!

As I reached the Oberoi Grand, Kolkata, I met a very dear blogger friend, Maniparna whose blog Scattered Thoughts has always been a great inspiration for me. We regularly follow each other's blog and therefore, it was great meeting her in person. She recognized me instantly and made me feel like her sister. We connected really well and here is a selfie that we took before entering the Ball Room for the event.

 Maniparna and me

I also met and connected with many more blogger friends, one of them was coincidentally, my classmate from school, Kirti. It was really nice to meet her after 7 years. There were some bloggers who recognized me through my blog and there were some bloggers whom I recognized through their blogs. Overall, it was great to meet so many talented bloggers. I wish I could click selfies with all of them.

Somorita, Kirti and me

There was also a vibrant photo studio where we posed for pictures and we got the photographs before leaving the venue.

 Posing with our best smile :)

Finally, it was time to enter the beautiful Ball Room of the Oberoi Grand, Kolkata for the event. As we entered the room, we were totally enthralled to see the ball room embellished beautifully. We could see our tweets in the large screen. 

The beautiful ball room

The event started on an energetic note as Anoop made all of us sing.We completely enjoyed starting the event with rock music and shouting Yeah Yeah Yeah! 

It was followed by a wonderful interactive session where the bloggers introduced themselves, shared their blogging stories and gave some blogging tips. I really enjoyed this part of the event the most as I got to learn so many things and I was inspired to the core. 

There were bloggers who were as young as 16 and 19 years old, but so full of spark and confidence. It was amazing to hear them speak. I didn't even discover my writing skills completely at this age, and these bloggers are so focused at such a young age.

It was amazing to hear all the bloggers speak. Each of them had a different yet interesting blogging story. It was extremely inspiring to hear veteran blogger, writer and photographer Rangan Dutta speak.

The blogging tips shared by the bloggers were really amazing. There was a blogger who said that it is extremely needed to market and promote your blog in the right way. There was another blogger who said to keep the posts short and crisp, so that you can grab the attention of your readers. Someone said that it is necessary to have an individuality so that the readers find your blog interesting and different from others.

Talking about my blog

When I got a chance to introduce myself and my blog, I felt really happy to share about how I became a blogger after being an author. I talked about how my blog helped me to discover another facet of mine. My blog reinstalled my passion for poetry, as I was only into writing full fledged novels earlier. Now I write everything from micro fiction to poetry to novels and that's because of my blog.

After the amazing fun and interactive session, Berger showed us a wonderful presentation of their Express Painting which is faster, cleaner, better. There are some great tools such as Sander, Mixer, Paint Sprayer etc. which can make the process of painting so much hassle free and better.

After their presentation, they divided us into ten teams for some fun activities. There were two activities: one was sanding in the shortest time possible and the other was painting a social cause within thirty minutes. I was a part of Team Flash and all the members of my team, Kirti, Shruti, Sneha, Dev were so enthusiastic. 

Our team gearing up for sanding

For the painting round, we chose the message "Love is the color of the world". When all the colors of the rainbow come together, we get a single white color. Similarly, when there will be no differences among people on the basis of caste, creed, sexual orientation and religion, the world will be painted with the color of love and it will be a happy world. People should be given the right to choose their partner irrespective of any social dogmas. 

The painting done by our team

Team Calcutta Palette bagged the winning prize. They depicted the social cause : Female Foeticide. All the teams came up with wonderful paintings and overall it was an enriching and fun experience.

Finally, a grand buffet was served and we were given goodie bags from Berger. 

The goodie bag!

I would really like to thank Berger and Indiblogger for gifting us this lovely evening. I hope we have many more such amazing Indiblogger meets in Kolkata in the forthcoming days.

The group pic

The poisonous FRUIT of GRUDGE!

Yesterday, I came across a short poem written by William Blake. It goes like this:

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe;

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;

And I sunned it with smiles.

And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night.

Till it bore an apple bright."

So, this is how the poisonous fruit of grudge grows. The truth is that everyone in our life, no matter how close he or she is, would hurt us and let us down, someday or the other. No one can meet our expectations to keep us happy, every single time. It is really impossible. 

Sometimes, you might feel that you are terribly wronged by the person you thought would never hurt you. Thus, a small seed of grudge against the person would erupt in your heart. You would find yourself complaining again and again, "How could he/she do this to me?"

This kind of thing has happened between me and my close friends countless times. The thing that has saved our friendship, each time is that I have directly talked to my friends about the things which has hurt me. I have not let the grudge grow in my heart, by watering it with tears and nourishing it with anger.

I have noticed that after I tell my friend how much his or her actions have hurt me, my friend is also able to point out where I was wrong and where I had also caused pain. Thus, the tiny seed of grudge dies that very moment we talk about it with each other. 

Honesty and forgiveness smash the seed of grudge totally and saves a long-term friendship from a bitter misunderstanding.

If we really care for a person and if we know deep down in our heart that the person also cares for us, we should never tame grudges in our heart. We should rather talk about it openly with the person concerned and resolve the conflict. 

Else, just like in the poem of William Blake, the wrath would grow and grow until it bears the poisonous fruit of grudge (bright apple) in our heart, destroying the closest relationships that we have formed in our lives.

We should always value our relationships more than the seed of grudge that has newly erupted in our heart.

What do you think?

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Life is wise!

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People often yell and wail

"Life! Why do you give so much pain?"

They forget all the euphoric moments

They lament,shout and complain.

Life never complains

It embraces both smiles and tears

That people throw in its bosom

It endures, teaches, inspires.

Life is wise, life is patient

It speaks to us in myriad ways;

Only the ones who can hear its tales

Savor every slice of life till death.

Linking the poem with Poetry Pantry #268

The dried, red rose ( 55 Fiction )

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As she dusted her bookshelf, a book at the corner grabbed her attention. She opened it and found the red rose, which she had kept there, three years back. 

Dried and tattered, like his love! It smelled betrayal.

Holding her breath, she threw the rose in the dustbin, never to look back at him again.

Tweet: Dried and tattered, like his love! It smelled betrayal. #TheDriedRedRose #55Fiction http://bit.ly/1L8IhL2 via @Manchali_purba

Goodbye vs. Let go

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Goodbye vs Let go?

Earlier, I thought that these two terms are synonymous. But, with the passage of time, with my own set of life experiences and observations, I realized how different the two words are. Both imply separation but there is a huge difference in the two kinds of separation.

Goodbye is bidding adieu to someone, without knowing when you both will meet again, if you both will meet again ever. But, if you ever bump into each other again after some months or years, you both will hopefully greet each other with a smile and reminisce about the fond, past memories. You will shed a tear or two over the distance that prevailed for so long. You will perhaps apologize for not making an effort to get back in touch. You will be curious to know how the other person's life turned out after both of your paths separated.

Let go is something completely different. It is saying goodbye without hope. In let go, you have to replace hope with acceptance...acceptance of the fact that this person is gone from your life forever either by mutual decision or by any one of your decisions. It can be that both of you would never meet again in this life. It can be that even if you both see each other in a cafe, you both won't acknowledge each other's presence. Let go is lifetime silence from the person, who once meant a lot to you. Let go is being okay with not being able to find out how the other person is doing even after say, twenty years or more.

Goodbye is bidding adieu with a tint of hope. Let go is saying goodbye with a tough acceptance that it's over, shedding all hope.

In our life, we meet so many people. We get extremely close to some of them and then after some time, our paths separate. Only a few people stay with us, year after year, decade after decade. They are so rare that you can actually count them on your fingers. 

Dealing with separations gracefully is the art of life. But among these two kinds of separation, goodbye sounds a little easier and kinder to me.

What about you?

Tweet: Let go is saying goodbye with a tough acceptance that it's over, shedding all hope. http://ctt.ec/FX9bf+ #Acceptance via @Manchali_purba