Daily Prompt: The Fun Platform

If you are the new leader of your country and had the chance to transform something that’s currently an annoyance( or worse) into a very fun activity. What would it be? How would you go about the change, and why would you choose that particular thing?

This is a very appropriate prompt for us to think about, as the  election fever is brewing in USA and Canada.

I find it amusing when the candidates go from door to door trying to convince the citizens, they are the best compared to others out there.

When I  sit and ponder, really who is better, I hear the echo, “No one, No one.”

They are only interested for themselves and perhaps their immediate family.

Speaking about, “The Fun Platform,” I have no idea how to achieve it. To be successful one needs the funds to do so, which a single individual lacks, those who can afford it, are too selfish to  provide that kind of fun for the inhabitants.

If I could break the tradition of paying off a small number of people  who  work for the contestants, and leave it to them to get  votes to get elected or re-elected.I would, but it’s not possible.

Since election is a serious issue, I don’t think I’d succeed having ‘The Fun Platform. Besides I’m not a politician and cannot deceive the people like they do. Sorry I cannot come with ‘The Fun Platform.’

……………………………… 🙂

365 Writing Prompt: Four stars

Write a review of your life –or the life someone close to you –as if it were a movie or a book.

He was my younger brother, his name was Nurul, my father named him. As a little boy he seemed bright, but we could not gauge his brilliance before he started going to school.

On the instruction of my eldest brother I registered him In “Our Lady of Fatima Convent”, none of us took the time to teach him the alphabets or the numbers. His classmates were well ahead of him.

One day his classmate who sat next to him  was far ahead of him in Mathematics and Bengali, Nurul requested him to teach the numbers, it took him probably a month, he was able to go ahead in every subject of his classmate from whom he learned the numbers.

From that month onward he was speeding along in each subject, no one could beat him in any subject. When he was in grade six he asked me to pray for him for he was planning to compete in the sixth grade scholarship exam. I remember I stayed quiet, I did not give him too much hope, I had no idea about these exams.

When the results came out he was one of the boys who was successful. Two years later he competed in the eighth grade scholarship, he quietly asked me if I thought he will get the scholarship. I only said “I do not know how good you are, I can only find out by asking you  some questions from History.”

It was the subject I took for my post graduate course.I was clearly amazed how much he knew,it was  as much as I did, and he was only in grade eight.

I told him then , “If you know this much in History, I have no doubt you will get the scholarship.”

He stood first in the scholarship exam.

After that success he never looked back. he kept doing better and better in grades nine and ten. In the final board exam, he scored three hundred out of three hundred in general Math,Additional math and compulsory math. His scores were unbelievable in every subject. He secured first place in the exam in the whole district.

He chose to study in Dhaka city, he registered in the catholic college. In those days there was stiff competition between the catholic college and the government college students. Unfortunately the government college principal made it his mission to stop the catholic college students do better in the final exams. Before this the catholic college students  always topped the list in the final exams. The year my brother was in the final it changed, the government college students did better.

My brother was heart broken, yet  he continued his studies and successfully completed his masters degree in Physics.

He then came to Canada to work on his PhD.  in Space  Physics, he was unable to complete it as he fell victim to cancer and could not survive!

 

DP Daily Prompts: Daring Do (2015)

Tell us about the time you rescued someone else( person or animal)from a dangerous situation. What happened? How did you prevail?

A few years ago my husband and I sponsored his cousin’s son and daughter to come to Canada to finish high school.

The local school admitted them in Grade ten, they completed the program in three years. They went back to Bangladesh the girl completed her master’s degree, the boy was sponsored by his first cousin to California where he completed his studies.

The girl is married and lives in Minnesota , USA.  The boy lives in California USA. I don’t know what the boy is doing because I have no contact with him.

I wouldn’t say they were in any danger physically, but they probably would face problems coming to Canada or USA without help.

I didn’t mind helping but it was not easy to look after two other kids besides my own.

One of my friends remarked you’ve brought two other kids for three years, we won’t even have two to spend the week-end.

Another lady who worked with my husband one day met us at the supermarket, she remarked, “Doctor you should give your wife a gold medal for taking care of your cousin’s kids.”

I did not get a gold medal but the fact that my good deed was  recognized by our friends and colleagues  pleased  me!

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/dp-daily-prompts-3/

365 Writing Prompts: Celebrate good times

You received some wonderful,improbable,hoped- for good news. How do you celebrate?

Lately I cannot recall any news that is good, improbable,hoped for so there is very little to celebrate.

I usually celebrate good news by inviting a few of my friends to supper, I cook their favorite dish, we spend the evening discussing everything from world news to global warming. We come up with certain things that can slow down the process , then again I’m not sure if the damage done is irreversible.

In Canada I found out the province of Ontario was pushing the slogan,”Reduce,Reuse,Recycle,”  many years ago our province has only started this only a short while.

Given the fact global warming is a major concern, I am not sure, if the citizens of the world are trying to see what they can do to help.

We’d discuss all this and when all is said and done with, we settle in our homes and try to forget what is happening to the planet of ours.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/365-writing-pr…ate-good-times/

DP Daily Prompts: On Bees And Effs

Do you or did you ever –have a Best Friend? do you believe in the idea of one person whose friendship matters the most? Tell us a story of your BFF( or a lack thereof.

I do have a best friend, it just happened I wasn’t looking for one. I am not sure I believed in the idea of having a BFF.

I met her in the university, she enrolled a year before me in the post graduate course in History, she opted not to write the first year exam because she felt she was not prepared . She repeated the course, I met her then. By nature I’m very quiet when in a public place as in the university. My silence was mistakenly read as, ‘I am a very proud person’.

Her name is Mini, she comes from a wealthy family, in contrast my parents were not rich, my Dad was a civil servant who had a 9 to 5 job.

I am not a very social person, therefore I do not make friends easily. How she and I became friends is strange. One day she volunteered to go with me to the library, it surprised me, she didn’t strike me as someone studious. Anyway her reason was to let me know about our other classmate. Mini was one of those people who believed her classmates should share their notes with each other, it wasn’t the case with this person, she complained, I listened. She also wanted to find out what sort of a person was I, she was not disappointed I shared all of my notes.

We were room-mates also in the dormitory, we became friends, she took me to her sister’s house, she had another sister who sent cooked food for us, we were having a great time. Our friendship was stronger, I was invited by her sisters whenever they had a party. Things went well we saw each other regularly.

I had to move to Canada after I got married, we didn’t write to each other, our friendship did not end, lack of correspondence with each other drifted us apart. I do visit her when I go to Dhaka, we have long conversation, she is still as nice as she was the first time I met her!

//sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/dp-daily-promp…-bees-and-effs/

 

DP Daily Prompt: Instant Celebrity

If you could be a famous person for a day , who would you be? Why?

I thought about instant celebrity for a few moments. After taking a big part of my morning thinking, I came up with the idea I want to be the famous Joseph Phillipe Pierre Elliott Trudeau, he was the fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada for sixteen years.

He studied law and in 1961 he joined the staff of the university of Montreal as a professor of constitutional law.

When his party was looking for a leader after Pearson retired , he campaigned for leadership. He won and his party won the election,he was sworn in as Canada’s fifteenth Prime Minister.

The two important events that took place during his time was the implementation of Bilingualism , he fought hard and won to keep Quebec part of Canada and Canada’s patriation from Queen Elizabeth’s Britain in 1981.This brought about new and widespread civil rights for all Canadians.

His dedication for his country was amazing, his accomplishments are many,although I only listed some.

I like to be famous like him even if it is only for a day!

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/dp-daily-promp…tant-celebrity/

 

 

 

DP Writing Challenge: Ghosts of December

Many years ago I came to Montreal in the month of August.  I was excited and scared at the same time. Excited this was the first time I left my home Dhaka to come to Montreal so far away. I was newly married. Mine was an arranged marriage I did not know much  about my husband. We were married in January, he left Dhaka, Bangladesh little over two weeks after our marriage. He was a physician in a hospital in Montreal.

I stayed back with his parents in the village for over six months. I didn’t know anyone. I noticed everyone who came to the house would only stare at me, as if I was some kind of a rare thing that they had never seen before.  My father-in law was the nicest person in that house,he treated me like  his daughter.

After over six months I got all my papers ready to travel to Montreal to join my husband. I didn’t know him at all. It was this part that scared me. Was he nice,will he treat me well, what kind of attitude will he have towards me? These were questions I had in my mind. I was afraid to ask I didn’t really know how he’d react.

Three months after I landed in Canada. My husband wanted to go to Chicago. He knew a family,they were Mr. and Mrs. Finlay. Mrs. Finlay was curious to see me. My husband thought  Christmas time would be the best time to go for a visit. We went two days before Christmas.  Mrs. Finlay  invited us to stay with her. She had a decorated Christmas tree,there were gifts under the tree for all of us. One of my gifts was a ,’Better Homes and Garden Cookbook’. I was happy, I’d be able to use it for baking. This was my first Christmas. I learned a few things about this special holiday.

After celebrating Christmas day.  We were out to buy a winter coat for me. I wasn’t really interested to buy anything, but my husband was determined to buy one whether I wanted it or not.  Earlier that day Mrs. Finlay told me she told my husband not to marry anyone from Bangladesh. I was not happy to hear it. I was only interested to go back to Montreal. I had to buy a coat.I couldn’t leave without it.

Since the first Christmas we had many more. Our family was larger, we had three kids. We gave them what they wanted, so they wouldn’t feel left out.

This Christmas my family is down to two.  My husband died a few years ago. Despite my best intentions and hard work one of my kids said in her email a few days before Christmas,  “I  do not wish to have more than a  courteous  relationship with you.”

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/writing-challenge-ghosts/

DP Daily Prompt: I have Confidence in Me Ranu’s post https://sabethville.wordpress.com

A map of the languages spoken in Bangladesh, in English. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Am I good at what I do? These days I spend plenty of time translating Tagore’s poems and songs into English from Bengali. Fortunately Tagore was a Bengali,which is also the language I speak,read and write.  When I started this arduous task,I wasn’t sure I’d have much success. My online course friends and some bloggers think, I am doing a decent job.If I were to take their word,I’d say,I am good at it.

Before this I taught a number of years,both in Bangladesh and Canada. I did well according to my supervisors.

What would I like to be better at is a question,I wonder if it is possible to answer.I’d give it a shot.

After I got married, my husband did all the work from paying bills to submitting income tax,and also took care of the financial part. There were many things I didn’t know was done by him.

Today I am sitting in my bedroom with the computer in front of me and trying to ask myself, “What do I want to be good at”? My husband passed away eight years ago. It is enough time for an individual to put his/her house in order. Regrettably I haven’t come close yet. I am looking at all the files piled up on my bed and thinking how can I organize these.

I can do a lot of things that are unimportant,but am totally lacking the organizational skill. Maybe some day when the stars are aligned properly,my files will stop asking me ,”What are you planning to do with us”? I am at this critical stage now and this is what I’d like to do better.