Daily Prompt: A Brand New You, Effective Tomorrow

Tomorrow you get to become anyone in the world that you wish. Who are you? You can choose to be anyone alive today, or someone gone long ago. If you decide to stay “You” share your rationale.

It sounds interesting to be anyone I wish, here is the problem. I know a lot of famous women by name and a very scanty info about them,if I want to do a good job, I’d have to do some research. The only woman I know well is me. I can write much more about me than anyone else.

I’d like to change certain things about me, in the New Year 2016. I’d seriously consider writing more poems and stories. Participate in challenges to improve my writing.

I haven’t actively tried to clear my basement, this is the year I’m going to fix it. Throw away everything I have no use for or give it away.

Read all the books I have in stock, before I buy  anymore. I also would like to spend time learning French and Spanish. I have some basic knowledge of these languages, I want to build on it.

The other languages I would like to learn are Persian and Arabic, I know the alphabets, it may help.

This is all I can think of right now.

Limerick: Woman

 

Limerick: Woman

There was an old woman from Greece

Who asked a warm coat of her niece

But the girl despised her

And refused to oblige her

So  she  demanded she leave her in peace!

 

Daily Prompt: Childhood Revisited

What is your earliest memory? Describe in detail, and tell us why you think that experience was the one to stick with you.

I love thinking of my childhood a lot. It was my most happy days. I had a  lot of siblings, I loved playing with them, they didn’t mind having me, even if their friends came along.

One of my earliest memories of my childhood was that of my Dad. My brothers’ friends thought he was handsome and resembled Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Now that I think of it I feel, the reason might be, he was tall and thin like Mohammed Ali Jinnah. My Dad loved speaking English. He believed any language we speak must be spoken correctly.

He was very particular about our mother tongue, Bengali. In our house we were encouraged to learn different languages, but  the rule was, we  must speak our mother tongue when we were in  the house.

He told us he did not want his children to be upstarts, at that time I did not know what the word meant. This much I knew we must not speak any other language with each other when we were at home.

In Bengali we have a lot of dialects, if one is  from a certain district the dialect is different. My mom grew up in a village near the little town named ‘Feni’, district Noakhali  she spoke the dialect from  that district, since we interacted with Mom more than Dad we spoke the Noakhali dialect.  My dad probably was concerned because we did not speak proper Bengali. He made sure we heard the proper speech too. Whenever he spoke to us he spoke  proper Bengali.

One day I was playing outside with the neighbors, I noticed some kids playing with yellow balls. I was fascinated and wanted to have one. I was six years old and didn’t know how tired my Dad was when he came home from work.

My Dad’s usual greeting was,  “ma Ranu kaimon achho?”(Ranu how are you?)

I wasted no time telling him I wanted a yellow ball just like the boys were playing with. My Dad didn’t get a chance to go into the house, he turned around and left, in the meantime I forgot all about it until I saw my Dad back with four yellow balls.You must be wondering why four, he knew my siblings would ask for it too.

This is the fondest memory I have of my Dad. I used to tell my husband, if our children want something, don’t say you do not need it, but buy it for them.

I feel the lesson I learned from my Dad is never say no to our children, when they ask for something, provided it’s within our means. It makes a child happy.

…………………………………:)

 

Daily Prompt: Fearless Fantasies

How would your life be different if you were incapable of feeling fear? Would your life be better or worse than it is now?

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I’m not sure how my life would be without fear. I know this much if I wasn’t afraid of anything, I’d do things that I normally wouldn’t do.

To me the fear element in me keeps me from doing things that are dangerous. I wouldn’t buy things on credit if I know I will not be able to pay my bills. I wouldn’t go for a walk in the middle of night in a strange city. I am very cautious which I feel is good for me.

Then again certain things  happened in my life makes me afraid of dogs. It happened when I was very young,my sister wrote a note to her friend and gave it to me to take it to her. It was early evening, the friend lived close by, I mistook someone else’s house as hers,  and walked along the driveway, I saw a bunch of dogs on the front veranda, somehow I suddenly got scared and felt they might come after me. I started walking backwards all the while watching them. The dogs thinking me to be an intruder, jumped down, barked viciously and came towards me, I was so frightened I kept running and screaming. That was the day, fear of dogs was permanently entrenched in my mind. I  haven’t been able to overcome this fear.

I guess if I didn’t face this fear of dog at such an early age, I wouldn’t be afraid of dogs.

………………………….. 🙂

 

 

 

Daily Prompt: Ebb and Flow

Our blogs morph over time , as interests shift and life happens.Write a post for your blog_  but three years in the future.

Three years from now, what will happen I cannot tell. If I get bored with the look of my website. I will change a few things here and there. I’ll include more photographs of nature, people, places and sports.

I will continue to write poems and short stories.

I will have a food post every week,these will be foods I love to eat and cook.

For now this is all I’m thinking about.

…………………. 🙂

Limerick Prompt: Surprise

 

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Limerick : Surprise

Our limerick this week was Surprise,

I missed the deadline Guys,

for I was busy baking

and my oven was Shaking

to quickly  present the Cookies and Pies!

……………………… 🙂

 

 

Daily Prompt: Un/Faithful

Tell us about the role that faith plays in your life -or doesn’t.

When I think of faith, it is about people different products in the market and of course religious belief.

Let me write about foods we buy at the supermarket. I tend to visit  one near my home, I find it has a variety of food and are fresh, depending on what day of the week I visit the store. Mid-week I find the fresh foods are picked and scattered by consumers, this keeps me from buying the fresh produce, because what is left on the shelves are not worth eating. This is is when my faith in buying fresh vegetables takes a beating. I then buy frozen vegetables, lately I’m finding even these vegetables are not worth buying.

My attention goes from food to people, I’ve met some really great people, and not so great as well. I try to give them a chance, I do not give them three strikes right away, I wait and figure them out. In my mind it’s better to know who they are by their day to day reaction with people. I have no faith in people who boast about themselves, immediately I think,”empty vessels make more noise.”

Some of them are capable of hiding their real selves, like Bundy who was able to fool people by his outside behavior, then there was the man in Chicago who pretended to be a beggar, he was able to get inside the house of the nurses and kill most of them.I am careful who I trust, the world is becoming a dangerous place.

Even the real beggars are difficult to trust. The example of a  woman beggar is still alive in my mind. I was a student visiting my uncle in Dhaka, there was a knock on the door, the servant opened the door, I saw a woman standing outside begging for money, she was wearing an old torn sari, my uncle saw her and told the servant to get a new sari from the closet to give her. He told her to change the sari and throw the old torn sari, she wore the new sari and carried the old one with her.

My uncle looked outside to see what she’d do with the old one, he was amazed to see she was wearing the old one, and the new one was not with her. This was one way of cheating people. This way she collected a lot of saris  given to her. This was her way of making money, she sold the new saris and continued to wear the torn one. It’s difficult to have faith in people who trick us.

I take my time to know people, I avoid being fooled.

I have strong faith in God, I know if I do wrong I’ll face the consequences. Although there are people who are liars and thieves, but they do all right. In my mind I believe  they will face the consequences  of their misdeeds  they will not be spared.

…………………………….. 🙂

 

 

 

Daily Prompt: Generous Genies

Remember those lovely genies who grant wishes?Well, You’re one and you’ve just been emancipated from your restrictive lamp.You can give your three wishes to whomever you want. Who do you give your three wishes to, and why?

I’d like to grant the three wishes  to my writer brother. My one wish for him is to become diurnal instantly. Studies have shown that people who are nocturnal , suffer from ill-health. God made us diurnal for a reason so we can work during the day and sleep at night. Also to make up for the sleep at night they sleep for more than nine hours. More than nine hours of sleep is unhealthy. My friend needs this wish so I think he’s the right person to get the wish.I therefore grant him this wish.

My second wish is for him to be very successful in his career.

My third wish is for him to be very happy. 🙂

 

………………………………… 🙂

Daily Prompt: Exhale

Tell us about a time when everything seemed to be going wrong__ and then, suddenly you knew it would be all right.

I could not think of writing about everything going wrong in my life. I decided to write a fiction using this prompt.

Samina a twenty year old girl, made up her mind to leave Kolkata and go to Dhaka to continue her studies. Her eldest sister was living in Dhaka at that time.

She had a ready made residence waiting for her to live. Her sister and the nieces were delighted to have her, she was pleased as well.

Samina registered in the local university to continue her studies. Things were going well she became friends with one of her classmates.

At the end of the year, it was time for her first exam, she was not  ready for it. It would be wise not to sit for the exam. She knew she’d fail the exams,  and decided to repeat the course.

Next year she registered again for the same course, she continued neglecting her studies, this time it was worse she fell in love. Her friends noticed she spent all her time  writing letters to her boyfriend. As a result she was unprepared for the exam at the end of the year. This time she sat for the exam and fortunately passed but  was last in her class.

She registered for the second year course. Her sister found out about her love affair and tried to discourage her. She was afraid if her parents knew about her boyfriend, they would make her go back to Kolkata.She thought the only way to avoid her sister and her parents’ interference in her  life,  it would be best for her  to move to the University residence.

She started her courses, but her mind was elsewhere, as a result she failed the final exam.

She quit school, her parents were informed about her love affair. They felt it was better she got married, she’d be happy.

After months of preparation the date for the wedding was  settled. Invitation cards were sent  out to friends and relatives for the big day. Exactly a week before the wedding, Samina received a letter from her future husband.  He wrote:

Dear Samina,

I am sorry I cannot marry you. I have decided to marry another woman, my sin for not marrying you, would be far greater if I don’t marry her.

Samina’s world fell apart, she did not expect such an outcome. Everything went wrong for her.

Her parents and her siblings hoped that her fate would change for the better some day, that this was a lesson, she’ll learn from it and  hopefully will be all right.

…………………………………………….:)

 

 

Daily Prompt: Take Care

When you’re unwell, do you allow others to take care of you, or do you prefer to soldier on alone? What does it take for you to ask for help?

Normally if I’m unwell because of a cough or cold, I take care of it myself. There are times I’d like to get help. A while ago I suddenly felt very ill, my legs were tired, I had difficulty breathing, I told my husband I really felt  sick. He of course did not take it seriously, he was of the opinion, I had gained weight therefore all I had to do was to lose the excess weight.

This feeling of being unwell went on for some time. One day  I  told my husband, I was really sick. I explained the symptoms, he got very concerned, he immediately made an appointment for me to see  an internist.

I went to see this physician one day. He looked at me and asked me to tell him in detail, how I felt. As I spoke he listened quietly, when I finished, he told me right away, I had hypothyroid, and I’ll have to take off from my teaching job for six weeks.

I realized it was too long, what will the kids do, if I’m off for so long.  When I told him how I felt about it, he explained I needed rest and I must not worry about the kids, it was the responsibility of the administration to find a substitute to replace me for that period of time.

This was the time I needed help, I could not fix my problem by myself.

……………………………………. 🙂