British Airways believes in the magic of warmth and love

“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness” ~ William Arthur Ward

When I saw the heartwarming video “Fuelled by love”, this was the first thought that came to my mind. Two strangers bond so beautifully with a warm smile and kindness in their heart, despite belonging to different nations. The video shows the bond that develops between an old Indian lady and a twenty three year old British Airways crew member. The video is all about getting love and loving back.

The British Airways crew member, Helena Flynn was quite nervous on her first flight to India. She did not have any idea that when she will leave India, her heart will overflow with love and warmth. She helps and comforts an old Indian lady who was going to her family in Hyderabad. The old Indian lady develops a liking and a fondness for Helena in the flight.

When the flight reaches India, she requests Helena to come to her house one day. Though Helena was hesitant initially, she goes to the old lady’s house and meets the warm, loving Indian family. She gets acquainted with Indian food and Indian music. When she was about to leave, the old lady gifts her a hand-made embroidered handkerchief. The loving gesture brings tears to her eyes.

The deep bond between the old lady and Helena, which is based on love and mutual respect, is extremely touching. Spare a few minutes and watch the absolutely heartwarming video that will surely make your eyes moist.

Every British Airways crew member who has experienced India has left the country with an abundance of warmth and love. Since British Airways values the magic of warmth and love, it has customized its service and product to suit the needs of the Indian customers. You can get the taste of home as the meals are customized. You can also watch your favorite entertainment channel and get the homely ambiance.

British Airways has been flying to India for over 90 years. It currently operates 49 flights a week from London Heathrow to New Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. British Airways knows well how to connect with the Indian customers. They strongly believe in mutual love and respect, which helps them to form such a deep bond with India. 

“Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.” ~ Barbara De Angelis

Blogging gets better and exciting with Affimity!

Have you ever wished for a social media platform that could drive some enthusiastic readers to your blog? Well, I have. Innumerable times! Facebook is a great platform to stay connected with friends and acquaintances, but it has never been very useful to get authentic readers for my blog.

That’s because most of my Facebook friends do not share my passion. Then, why will they care to check out the latest book review I posted or the App that I reviewed? Twitter and Instagram are better, but even they cannot satisfy the readership that a blogger wants….readers who will share the passion of the blogger.

The even more annoying part is when your news feed gets cluttered with status and links that don’t interest you even a bit. There have been so many times when I felt weary checking out the news feed on my Facebook profile. So I really wished of a social media platform that can drive some enthusiastic readers to my blog as well as inspire me with some great content.

And my wish just came true…with Affimity!

Affimity is an awesome Social Media platform that bloggers can use effectively for Social blogging. I have been hearing recently a lot about Affimity from my blogger friends, but when I checked it out, I was absolutely thrilled with the result.

Affimity consists of channels, based on a single interest such as books, movies, music, travel, food, etc. The channel is like your home where you can go to share your content, to get informed and to make friends with people who share your passion.

I am an author and I have a book blog. Therefore, the channel ‘book club’ got me interested the most. I went to the channel and posted about my new poetry book and the latest book that I reviewed. Within a few hours, I got more than 40 likes and a handful of genuine and eager comments. At that moment, I realized that this is the perfect social media platform that I was wishing for.

You don’t need to be a blogger to enjoy the cool features of Affimity. If you are a movie enthusiast or a food enthusiast, you can have a great time basking in the community buzz of the movie or the food channel.

Joining #Affimity will help you to connect with people who share your interest. So if you are a travel blogger, you will get to interact with people who are passionate about travelling through Affimity. The same applies for book bloggers, movie bloggers, fashion blogger and food bloggers.

Once you explore Affimity, you can’t help admitting that blogging gets better and exciting with Affimity. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up in #Affimity to enjoy #SocialBlogging and don’t forget to follow me (Purba_PC) there. 

You can enjoy #AffimitySocialBlogging in your phone now.

Download the app on your Android and iOS phone.

From this moment on...

(Image Source)

She wept uncontrollably, sitting on the cold floor at 3 am in the morning. Her heart was bedecked with thorns and the pain was unbearable. Her parents were sleeping in the other room. All her friends were sleeping too. She had no one in the world to talk about her maladies. She wanted to scream and yell, but she didn't want to wake anyone up. Tucking her head between her legs, she kept sobbing with those questions that haunted her again and again.

What is my mistake in this? I try to be good and kind to everyone, then why do some people hurt me so badly? Why is my heart injured and broken for literally no fault of mine? And this is not the first time...it keeps happening again and again. How can some people be so cruel and selfish? 

As she felt lost within the tangled web of questions, her eyes fell on the mirror. She hated the sight. Red, swollen eyes. Runny nose. Dark lines under her eyes. Messy tresses drenched with tears.  

She wiped her tears and looked into the mirror again. She grabbed a rubber hand and tied her hair. Now the sight did not disturb her as much as it did a few minutes back. She touched the dark circles that were accumulated due to loss of sleep for almost a week. Her eyes looked tired due to severe crying. There were marks of nails on her cheeks that she inflicted on herself. When the pain in her heart became too excessive for her to tame, she tried to cause physical pain to herself, in vain.

What have I done to myself? Here, I am crying because some people I loved, have deeply wounded me. But was I kind to myself?

The more she looked at her in the mirror, the more she realized how cruel she had been to herself, for no fault of hers. She took some face wash in her hand and washed her face thoroughly. Instead of sitting on the cold floor, she went to her bed. She covered herself with the blanket and took a deep sigh. 

I can't control people's behavior towards me. Some people can be cruel and selfish. Some people can be insensitive or manipulative. But I promise that from this moment on, I won't be cruel to myself. From this moment on, I won't inflict myself with pain and conflict. From this moment on, it is my first responsibility to take care of myself so that I can battle with the wounds given to me by others. From this moment on, I will treat myself with kindness, care, forgiveness, compassion and love. I will be there for myself as a friend, always. 

P.S. Especially wrote this post because one of my close friends is going through a bad phase. I hope the message reaches out to her and she gets encouraged to love herself with all she has. 

Prompt 97- From this moment on

The Red Gate

(Image Source)

I am the red gate of her house

She makes me feel important

Though I am nothing special;

Every evening,

She looks at my direction

From her balcony

With a coy smile

And impatience tickling her.

As she sees him,

A wide grin appears on her face

I keep looking at her, happily

Till she walks inside her room.

I am the red gate of her house

She makes me feel like a friend

Though I am an inanimate object;

Every evening,

She looks at my direction

From her balcony

There is no sign of him

For months now,

She sobs and wails every day

Confiding in me,

I desperately look forward

To his arrival just to see her smiling again.

-Purba Chakraborty

(11.02.2016)

Linking this poem with Poets United Midweek Motif ~ The Inanimate & The Non-Human

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My poetry book "The Heart Listens to No One" which is a collection of 35 love poems is now available in Amazon Kindle.

Buy the book from Amazon.in

Buy the book from Amazon.com

Playful Shadow of Reality!

(Image Source)

Revealing the truth

In shreds and bits

Some sprinkled here

Some scattered over there;

Revealing the truth

Wearing a mask

So that the readers

Cannot connect all the dots.

Fiction is a playful shadow

Of reality and truth;

Following it loyally

Imitating it in parts.

If the fiction is touching,

Trust that the reality is heart shattering.

-Purba Chakraborty

(8.02.16)

Linking this poem with Prompt Nights – Truth is stranger than Fiction [5] and sharing with Poetry Pantry #288

My 1st poetry book...Releasing on Valentine's

My relationship with poetry began when I was eight years old. I have memories of writing poems on sheets of paper and using my Dad's stapler to make it look like a book. I used to also sketch something on the first page and write "A collection of poems by Purba" on top of it.

So, I guess I had this dream of authoring a poetry book since I was eight. I have authored 2 novels till date Walking in the streets of Love and Destiny (2012) and The Hidden Letters (2014). I have also contributed my poems in various anthologies. However, I was a bit hesitant to release my solo poetry book because of various reasons.

Honestly, my blog played a huge role in making my decision firm to work on a poetry collection. It helped me polish the art of writing poetry and also rekindled my intense feelings for poetry. 

Here, I must also mention the talented poets that I came across Poets United, a community for poets who blog. Their constant encouragement and honest feedback had helped me a lot. Had I not come across Poets United, perhaps I would have been happy being just a contributing poet to anthologies.

So, finally, after 2 months of hard work, I am ready with my 1st poetry book. It's titled ~

The Heart Listens To No One

...it hums its own song...

It is a collection of 35 love poems. The poetry collection is divided into the following 5 sections, representing the 5 aspects of love~

Unconditional Love

Longing

Romance

Fond Reminisces

Separation

The Kindle Edition of the book will be available for download on Valentine's. I am also looking forward to release the book in paperback. If things go right, then may be the print version will be available by April. 

Will soon share the ordering links.

And here is the cover of my 1st poetry book. Hope you all like it.