Daily Prompt: West End Girls

Every city and town contains people of different classes: rich, poor, and somewhere between. What’s it like where you live? If it’s difficult for you to discern and describe the different types of classes in your locale, Describe what it was like where you grew up … was it swimming pool and movie stars, industrial and working class, somewhere in between or something completely different?

Where I live right now it’s difficult to tell between:rich, poor or somewhere in between. Where I grew up everything was clear cut.

If you were rich you had a chauffeur driven car, more servants than kids, and every day was a day resembling Christmas. There was no shortage of food. Leftover was an unknown term. The rich always ate fresh cooked meal prepared by chefs. There was one thing which was very strange. The servants were not offered the same food as the masters. The menu for the servants was different, it was not anything delicious but lentil soup and rice. The servants were happy to get that.

Moving on to middle class i.e the in-between. They lived a restricted life, they had servants but one or maximum two. They did not have cars, rickshaws were the mode of transportation for them, it was cheaper and the people used them to get to work, school, shopping or visiting friends. They dressed accordingly, ‘they cut their coat according to the cloth.’

There were two groups of poor people, ones who earned their living to feed themselves and their kids, they walked everywhere, their mode of transportation were their feet. They did not talk about poverty but seemed contented.

The other group of poor people were the ones who begged from door to door for food, money and clothes. On Fridays all the rich, and middle class people gave money , food and clothing to the beggars.They did not get clothing and food every Friday, but once a month. They did get money every Friday.

On special holidays such as the holiday after a month of Ramadan, the poor people were given clothes by the rich and middle class families.

On Eid al azha another important Muslim festival, this day animals were slaughtered, depending on how much a family can afford, the rich and the ones who were slightly better off would sacrifice, a cow or two. The meat was then divided into three portions, one part was for the poor people, one for the friends and relatives, and the other part was for the families themselves.

Goats were sacrificed by the not so well-off middle class,because they were cheaper. The same thing was done with the meat it was divided into three portions and distributed to the people mentioned above.

…………………………….. 🙂

DP Daily Prompt: Three Letter Words

Write an entire post without using any three-letter words.

Today is first April, it reminds me of my students, they were only interested to fool me. They were never successful, because I tried to be cautious.

When I think of it I remember when we were little kids going to school by school transportation. We always sang this ridiculous song: Station school there is no rule, tell your teacher their students more likely belong to a class of fools.

It is difficult to leave three-letter words!

………….

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/dp-daily-promp…e-letter-words

 

DP Daily Prompt: We Built This City

What do you love most about city/ town place where you live? What do you like the least about it? If you were mayor, what would be the most important problem you’d tackle? How would you tackle it?

I love my city, it’s not too large, we have everything we need right in the city. we have a good transportation system, it’s the Metro bus, the drivers are extremely helpful and always smile when you get on and off the bus, unlike in the city of Montreal, they are very unfriendly, once I wanted to know something, the driver showed his disgust by just pointing out.

I’m appalled at the bus drivers in Montreal, may be because  our city bus drivers are always ready to help and they are never rude. Once a passenger missed his bus, he asked our driver what he’d do, the driver called that driver and asked him to wait at a certain stop. Where can you get this service, isn’t it unbelievable?

I’m pleased with almost everything the city provides, there is one problem of littering, the amount of empty coffee cups, McDonald’s wrappers, and other fast food cups found on city streets , people’s  homes  is unbelievable. My house faces the main street, unfortunately there  is a bus stop in front of my house there is an unbelievable number of trash in my front garden.

If I was the mayor I’d try to make sure people stop littering the streets, homes and parking lots. I’d have to get help from volunteers on a rotating basis to enable them to spot the abusers, if the same people are caught too many times they’d be charged a hefty fine.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/03/19/dp-daily-promp…lt-this-city-2

 

365 Writing Prompts: Interplanet Janet

You get to design your own planet: tell us all about your planet– the weather,the seasons,the inhabitants. Go.

My planet will be a place where poverty is non-existent. Families will have homes according to their needs, a small family of four members will have a home for four people, i.e, three bedrooms , a moderate size kitchen, two full bathrooms, one for the parents and one for the kids, there will be a powder room with a sink and a toilet for guests.

The kitchen will be equipped with all the necessary appliances, such as a stove, refrigerator, toaster oven  microwave oven and a dishwasher. There will be a double sink in the kitchen, one part for washing and the other for drying. we don’t need a dishwasher every day, a few dishes used can be hand washed and put away.

Larger families will have larger homes.

The citizens will be free to practice their religion without any interference. Education will be free, the farmers will produce and consume their food and sell them in the market, they will own their land, there will be no landlords.

There will be entertainment centers and centers for physical exercise,to make sure everyone is happy and healthy.

There will be public transportation for all to use, the citizens will be encouraged to use private cars only when it is absolutely necessary to prevent pollution.

There will be government subsidized health clinics for all the people on my planet.

The climate  will be temperate,not too hot nor too cold. There will be two seasons, winter and summer. In the winter the citizens will need a light coat or a slightly warmer sweater or cardigan. The summer will be tolerable,not too hot.

The inhabitants will be encouraged to get education according to their potential, there will be regular tests conducted by educators who will decide what kind of education a certain individual needs in order to be useful for he/ she to be a productive citizen.

Armies will not be required to defend the planet, the citizens will be trustworthy and will  stay away from any kind of quarrel on a small or large scale.

There will be one meeting a month to find out if there is anyone unhappy about anything, if necessary help will be given to them instantly.

I hope all the people on my planet will always be healthy and happy and will help each other.

k: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/12/21/365-writing-pr…erplanet-janet

365 Writing Prompts: Blogger in a strange land

What’s the strangest place from which you’ve posted to your blog? When was the last time you were out and about,and suddenly thought ,” I need to write about this!”

I am posting from Montreal now.I came here six days ago, I posted first couple of days from here, then there was a problem, I lost the internet for a few days, I was unable to write my prompts.

Montreal is larger than the city where I live. Most of the people speak French, there are a few English speaking people as well.

We visited a few interesting places, there are good shops here, the prices comparatively are cheaper here than where I live.It is one of the ten provinces in Canada.

There are a few different means of transportation within the city: bus, subway and taxi. I like the subway best, it doesn’t take very long to get to different places.

It’s a cosmopolitan city, you can hear all kinds of languages spoken. Since Canada is a bilingual country one must know both English and French to be able to find jobs.

The best thing here is the variety of foods we can get.

To us the main attraction is the “Farmers’ Market.” Here the farmers bring their produce and are eager to sell them,I saw some customers buying a variety of vegetables filling their carts, most of them live here.we only bought a small amount of vegetables to eat here.

I’m enjoying walking around, it’s fall and the leaves are colorful and look beautiful.

Soon we’ll be going back to our home, it’ll be fun talking about our adventures to our friends.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/365-writing-pr…a-strange-land/

365 Writing Prompts: Far from home

Tell us about the farthest you’ve traveled from home.

A few years ago I traveled to Dhaka from St. John’s, it was a long flight. I had a stop over at Frankfurt, it was a long ten hours wait at the airport. There was nothing at this airport that could delight anyone much less write about it. There  was a long unattractive lounge, it had scattered benches, which seemed to say, “why are you here,you’re not welcome?”

It gave the impression of a first come first served basis benches, e.g too bad you came late here, there is no place  for you to sit . The scenario was so unfriendly I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Finally when I thought I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, I had the misfortune of meeting this sour, ill mannered gentleman who refused to answer my question. He worked for Qatar Airways which was the airlines I’d taken to fly to Dhaka.

After more than twenty four hours I finally reached my destination, Dhaka, my siblings were there to receive me. Getting out of the airport was long, there were all kinds of forms to fill in,  the lines were too long I was tired.

Going from the airport to my sister’s home was not that easy, there were traffic jams,bad drivers, buses, rickshaws , private cars, taxis, there were all kinds of transportation, trying to go faster than the other one. It was a picture of chaos. I was visiting after a long time, it seemed the population of Dhaka increased by leaps and bounds.

After more than three hours I was home, I was thankful I got home safely.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/365-writing-pr…-far-from-home/

 

DP Daily Prompt: A Tale of Two Cities

If you could split your time evenly between two places and two places only, which would these be?

 

The two cities I’d love to pick are: St. John’s where I live, and Montreal the city I love to visit.

I like St. John’s a lot,it is a city of about two hundred thousand people, the weather in winter is cold,in summer it is cool,it does not get very hot. This year we had a very long snowy winter, the winter was terrible everywhere,I’m not going to hold it against my city. Our people here are very friendly and co-operative. We can find everything from food to clothing and other essentials without any trouble. 

Our transportation system is excellent,in the city and outside. We have an excellent university, we also have technical colleges for students who’d want to learn a trade right after high school.

I like to  spend part of my time in Montreal, it is a much larger city, I like it because I get to meet my good friends and watch some tennis matches.

It is not really possible to divide my time  evenly between these two cities, but I’d like to go  for a short vacation. 

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/dp-daily-promp…-of-two-cities

 

 

DP Daily Prompt: We Built This City

I love my city because it’s not huge. Going from one place to another does not take long. We seldom have traffic jams, only in the morning traffic is slow but not terrible and also in the afternoon when people are returning home from work. The super markets and the malls and shopping centers are a short distance from my house.

The schools and our only university is well equipped with books,journals and magazines we need for our daily work.

Our people are very friendly,they are always ready to help, should anyone need assistance.

Our transportation system is awesome,we have public buses and taxis  to take us anywhere if we don’t have our own car. The fare is reasonable.

We have a variety of restaurants, if we need it for a special day,like birthdays,anniversaries etc.,

The one thing that becomes a problem is when we want to fly out to different destinations,there are only a few airlines, it costs more to get out of the island and also takes longer to get anywhere because of the connecting flights.

The weather is a problem too. Sometimes our flight gets cancelled on a perfectly sunny day because of  fog.

If I were a mayor, I’d see to it the condition of the roads are better. There are too many potholes and drivers get their car tires punctured if they are not aware of the potholes.

More parks are necessary for children and their parents to visit. The existing parks should be in good shape,to keep the children safe from accidents.

Some of the public buildings need a face lift for the safety of citizens.

All in all my city is a very affordable and safe place to live in.

There are always some drawbacks everywhere we live, there isn’t a perfect place anywhere I think, it’s nice to accept the way things are in any place and do our best to adapt.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/prompt-built-city/

Writing Prompt: No, thanks

I wouldn’t like to visit Timbukto, it is supposed to be any remote outlandish place in a faraway country.

I don’t want to end up in a place which no one knows about. There may not be places to see or if there is any ,transportation may not be adequate.

The language might be difficult to understand. Perhaps people are unfriendly they may not want me there.

I am selfish I want to go somewhere I can stay in a comfortable place,eat food that I recognize, talk to people who understand me. Timbukto will be completely different and I am afraid to try new things.

https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/365-days-march3rd-No,thanks/

Niruddesh Jatra Traveling to an Unknown Destination(poem) by Tagore,Translation by Ranu

ocean (Photo credit: Stephen Edgar – Netweb)

How much further will you take me,pretty woman?

Tell me where will you dock your gold boat.

Whenever I say O stranger,

you only smile, pleasantly__

I fail to understand what’s on your mind.

Quietly you raise your finger

the vast ocean is agitated,

far in the distance the sun is setting.

What is there, what are we on the look-out for?

Tell me, O  foreign woman__

where the funeral pyre is burning,

the sparkling tremulous water,

in this direction the bride with tearful eyes,

what is there in your abode

on the bank of the resounding ocean

on the foot of the imaginary mountain?

You look at my face and smile without a reply.

The air heaves a deep sigh.

the flow-tide bellows .

The suspicious indigo water,

without looking I watch the shore,

as if  the overflowing deluge is oscillating.

Right after the gold boat appears,

followed by the evening_

in the middle of all this why dost thou smile quietly?

I fail to understand what brings you such pleasure.

When you beckoned who wants to accompany me__

I  looked at you for a moment that morning.

you showed the  flowing light

the vast ocean ,

the restless light trembling in the water.

I boarded the boat and asked__

is there young people over there,

is there hope for success ?

You looked and smiled.