Astrospeak: Taurus Weekly Forecast for the third week of February

Every Sunday, I religiously read the 'ASTROSPEAK' section in the Calcutta Times supplement of The Times of India. I am a Taurean and this week's weekly forecast reads, "Events occur as a direct result of your willingness to entertain the unusual and to think out of the box. This aspect favours group activities, financial endeavours associated with groups or organisational efforts, educational pursuits, writing, publishing, speaking and humanitarian efforts." Well, I never quite believed in astro forecasts, but this week, it seems, my astro forecast matches my ongoing activities. After all, I am writing a bit more and a bit more active in my blog. What do you say? But, sadly, there's no financial endeavour associated with my blogging. I am quite unsuccessful at that. Does financial incentives dwindle your passion for something, or enhance it? Share your opinions!

My January In Review

Finally. the first month of the year is over. Though this year we got a mostly warm January, yet it's the best time of the year in a tropical country like ours. I particularly like when people gift me diaries and pens to mark the beginning of a brand new year. And this year, I got quite a few of them.

January is the month when I had a hair-cut and did a new hair style. There was a republic sale on most online shopping sites and I bought quite a few dresses for myself. We had a picnic from office and had a sumptuous menu. On the last day of the first month, I visited zoo after a long time with my son. And yes, I watched 'Baahubali' (Hindi) and loved it. Now I am eagerly waiting for the second part of the film.

But apart from all that, what made this January especially special is the fact that for the first time in life, I tried my hand at short story writing. I wrote for the 'Write India' contest organized by the Times of India. The author of January was Ravinder Singh and I wrote a love story. The process was really painful, for I had to think, to do a bit of research and finally come up with what can be called a story. I submitted it on the last day of the contest and thank god, it was submitted. I don't know how it went, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for this first attempt at writing fiction.

Adieu January! February is really hectic.

LOVE: Is it the elixir of Life?

"We are born of love;

love is our mother.

Through love all that is

bitter will be sweet, through

love all that is copper will be gold,

through love all dregs will

become wine, through love all

pain will turn to medicine."

-Jalaluddin Rumi

What can be a better day for this write-up than today. Today is the eve of Valentines' Day and today , this year, is also the day of Saraswati Puja, the so-called Valentines Day for Bengalis. Of the nine rasa, which are intrinsic to any Indian art form, Love (Sringaram) is predominant, which inits turn, is capable of evoking all the other forms of emotion. Such is the power of love. I recently read an article in Times of India, which I'd like to mention here. There one Lucy Brown, clinical professor of neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who studies the brain activity of people in love, told, "It's a reflexive urge, like hunger and thirst." And I think, that's the reason people fall in love, even when they don't get it in return.

P.C.: www.intrawallpaper.com

But what happens when that love remains unreciprocated? When the person you love proves to be unworthy of that love? Especially in the Indian context, it often happens that the relationship between two persons doesn't remain a personal and private affair. The family members often interferes too much. And the sweet love turns rancid. Many a times, I have heard about women commiting suicide, unable to cope with the pressure of marital life. But can one love, one relationship define an entire life? Is there any need of such kind of love that takes away lives of so many innocent? What is your opinion? I'd like to hear from you.

Is love confined only to its most popular form? Lastly, I'd love to quote a saying by Ruskin Bond, one of my favourite authors, who is not married, 'My life have been one long love story, and I have loved people, I have loved books, I have loved flowers, the sun, moon and stars, old roads, old trees, children, grannies, butterflies, seashells, fairies... And of course I keep falling in love, for where love begins, there is the border of heaven.'

My January in Books

Last year, I took the Goodreads challenge to read 12 books and I read slightly more than that. Though some books are half-finished, and some needs a re-read at some places.

This year, though I have raised my target a bit more. This time I want to read 18 books. I want to utilize this platform to keep a track of my readings throughout the year.

Book reading-wise, January was not a very productive time for me, as I had some other commitments which kept me busy. Lets come to books I read during this first month of the year.

1. 'Sister of my Heart' by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

I started to read this book in last December and finally, this January, I have finished reading this book. Divakaruni is my favourite story-teller and like her other books that I read previously, I loved this book too. It's an intense story of two sisters, remotely connected by blood, but who are very close to each others heart. I loved it so much that I have bought the sequel of this novel, 'The Vine of Desire', though I haven't started to read that yet.

2. 'Bishad Periye" by Suchitra Bhattacharya
(Can be translated roughly as 'Beyond Sorrow')

This is a novel written in Bengali. Last year, I had not read a single Bengali book, except the Pujabarshiki 'Desh'. So this year, I want to read some Bengali books. And this is the first Bengali book that I read this year. This is the story of an elderly couple, both of their sons are settled elsewhere and they live all alone. Then, to fill the void in their lives, they provided Paying Guest accomodation to two girls and that single decision had a profound influence on their lives, as well as the lives of the two girls. Very contemporary description of old-age-years. The language is very simple, typical of Suchitra Bhattacharya's writing. A good read, overall.

3. Chanakya's 7 secrets of Leadership by Radhakrishnan Pillai, D. Sivanandhan

This is a book on leadership and the language is so simple that even someone, who doesn't have a management background can understand this. As I don't have a management background, I decided to read this one to inculcate some leadership virtues in myself. The principles can be applied both in professional life as well as in personal life. I had held the belief for long that the time-tested formulas, that prove to be useful in the field of administration, can be applied in personal life as well. This book confirmed my belief. I am only half-way through this book, though. And it encourages to not only go through the book, but to think as well about what you read. Some quotes are worth mentioning:

"In human beings, nature has placed the head above the heart. A leader should let the head rule the heart, and not the other way around."

"How much time in a day do you spend in thinking? Do you have a dedicated time in your daily routine only to think?

Thinking about thinking makes you a great leader."

Though personally I don't agree with all the opinions expressed in this book. Take, for instance, the viewpoint of the author on intelligence: "Research has proved that every person has equal intelligence at birth." I don't know any such kind of research though. As far as my knowledge is concerned, intelligence has both a genetic and an environmental influence on it and quite obviously, everyone is not blessed with intelligence equally. Intelligence, like most other things, in inherited.

My UPSC Journey: The End of an Era

I started this blog way back in 2008, during my probation period as an officer in State Bank of India, the public sector commercial bank of India. After that, I didn't wrote anything for a long period of time. You can say I almost forgot that I have a blog. Meanwhile, life went through various ups and downs, both professionally and personally. I left my job with SBI and joined Government of West Bengal as Additional District Sub-Registrar. It's a Group-A service. My UPSC journey started in 2010. That year I filled up the form, but couldn't appear for the examination due to lack of preparation. I appeared for the first time in 2011 and in that very first attempt, I qualified in the Preliminary Examination, but could not write the Mains due to physical illness. Next year, I appeared again. That time, I was seven-months pregnant, when I appeared for the Prelims, but missed it by 4 marks. I re-appeared in 2013. This time I qualified in Prelims and wrote the Mains with whatever little I could prepare in my little time. That year, there was a massive change in syllabus and also I had scarcity of time due to my job and 1-year-old baby boy. I could not qualify the Mains. That year some of my articles got published in Mrunal's blog and they were hugely appreciated. Really, I owe Mrunal Sir a lot. In the process, I made some new friends. At this time, I thought of publishing all my already-published articles in my own blog (yes, finally I remembered that I have a long-forgotten blog of my own). Subsequently, I wrote some more articles and some other articles not connected to UPSC at all. I got appreciation for them as well. I last appeared in UPSC in 2015 and failed to qualify in the Prelims. My UPSC journey ended there. Even now I get many requests to write on many topics connected to UPSC. But now I have no reason to write for UPSC. But if you want, I can share here something I wrote previously in my own exercise book, though I am not an expert on the same. Do write me and let me know if you want to read on any topic. I'll write if possible.

My e-mail id: swagata_07@yahoo.co.in

Thanks for reading my blog. It's only because of my writing that I get connected to many people previously unknown to me. That's something I really cherish. Keep reading!!!

A Unique Way to Begin The New Year

Every year, I begin the new year by sending SMS messages to my friends and colleagues. This time, I thought to begin it in a unique way, by gifting a book to a fellow book-lover, though unknown to me. This way I can spread the joy of reading in this new year.

This is how it works:

STEP 1: Send a book to the address I'll give you. This is the address of the person who has introduced me to it.

STEP 2: Coy and paste my status on your Facebook wall, which is as follows:

Then when someone comments/says yes, give them my address and name.

Whoever says yes will send a book to me.

Of course, in reality, you may get far less books than 36 as claimed in the status message. But then the focus is on spreading the joy of reading.

Today I gifted a book to an unknown person. In my case, I decided to gift the book which happens to be my best read in 2015. So I gifted "Riot" by Shashi Tharoor to my unknown friend, hoping that he likes it. Thanks to e-commerce giant Amazon, it took me only a few minutes. Lets see how many books I get ultimately in return, or whether I get one at all.

In this digital age, number of book-readers are dwindling fast. In this scenario, this kind of initiative can go a long way to promote reading habit.

Thanks to all the readers who visit my blog and wishing all of you a very happy and fun-filled year ahead. Stay tuned to my blog. Keep reading!

Revisiting the Golden Days: A Write-up on my school

"Ye daulat bhii le lo, ye shoharat bhii le lo

Bhale chhiin lo mujhase merii javaanii

Magar mujhako lautaa do bachapan kaa saavan

Vo kaagaz kii kashtii, vo baarish kaa paanii....."

So goes a popular song of Jagjit Singh. Indeed, we all want to go back to our childhood days. Yesterday was the reunion of my school. Though I didn't attend the reunion, I saw so many photos of the reunion in Facebook page of our school's alumni association. It made me feel so nostalgic yesterday night to see the old school building, my beloved teachers once again, thanks to Facebook. Memories swamp over me.... Writing admission test for getting admitted in Class 5, the big classroom of Section A, Class 5, me sitting in the last bench, sharing lunch with friends, getting angry over some squabble with them, playing in the school playground with them..... me giggling over some silly jokes in the big, airy, 2nd floor classroom of Section A, Class 6, standing over the bench holding ears with all my classmates for talking loudly in the class..... the big tree on the school entrance..... the wicked gate-keeper of the school with stretched ears, thats why we called him 'Lambokorno'..... writing exams, trying to draw perfectly those Geometrical figures..... wearing a saree for the first time in Class 9.... borrowing my mother's pink saree to wear in the school's Saraswati Puja..... making measurements in the Physics lab, breaking a test-tube in the Chemistry lab and the teacher's reproach..... that frog dissection in the Biology lab which gave me vomiting..... I entered there on the verge of adolescence and left it on the edge of adulthood..... Meanwhile, it occupies all the 8 years of my adolescence..... Memories that seems to be from a previous birth (do I have any?)..... eyes glisten even today as I think of my alma mater..... Life was so simple as can never be again..... Thanks to Gramya Hitakari Alumni Association..... Keep up the good work, girls (we will never grow up to become women in our teachers eyes, I guess)..... Miss my school, my friends, my teachers..... I am what I am today because of you.