Shiva Parvati Ganesh Temple

Shiva Parvati Ganesh Temple is located in Ponda of Goa State, India. There is also a huge Ganesh statue.

Creativity in Goa

I always believe creativity is directly related to place. Little did I realize that creativity in Goa would be different from the places like Medchal in A.P., Bauria in W.B., Kannur in Kerala, etc.

In the month I arrived i.e. May, the reservation issue was hot enough to make me write my opinion regarding it and send it to The Navhind Times. It was published. It was my first letter to editor. Numerous letters followed it in addition to one published in The Week and I got them added to my site. A poem: ‘On the Pavement He Lay’ was also published in the Sunday Magazine of The Navhind Times: Panorama.

If my creativity got its wings while staying at Fort Gloster Staff Quarter where my mood got much time and more space to develop and what followed is now seen in Goa where many of my work are published although those were without any payment. It will come when it has to, I believe. Now it is the time to develop more and more and reach where my creative power would lead me to. 

The computer has brought more development to my creativity. My experiment with HTML and Adobe Photoshop and ImageReady has to said noteworthy as it has given new dimension to my creativity.

Life in Goa

September 5, 2006

Happy Oman! I have taken leave and so has my father; both are working at the same place but different departments.

Life at Ponda in Goa is different from that at Medchal in Andhra Pradesh. If at Medchal, my poem was published in Woman’s Era and I created a site for my creative side of life. While at Ponda, I got the idea of starting writing letters to the editor on current topics in The Navhind Times. Sometimes I feel the left side, of my brain, where the whole seed to leaves and fruits of creativity resides is more active than the right one which is used to lead an ordinary life. Creativity is indeed the food for my soul whereas salary brings food for my stomach.

Weather too is different. Medchal, and the twin cities – Secunderabad and Hyderabad -  are hot and dry, with less humidity and less rain, while Ponda, Panaji or Panjim, Margao, etc. are the places where humidity is high with heavy rains during rainy season. I got the climate similar to Kerala.

O my nose!

O my nose! You must have heard people saying 'O my god!' But I say 'O my nose!', when my nose is cloudy and rains a million drops or more. This is where the whole nonsensical things begin to harvest and it becomes too much when it crawls upto my eyes which then have nothing on earth to do but rain, rain and rain.

And these occasional nasal eruptions, I think, can bring down a whole building. Soon it becomes sensibly unbearable that I feel like shaving my nose. 'Shave your nose! Shave your nose!,' shouting out to me, my anger, red as tomato, but never looking to be delicious as it should be, says, says and says.

Yes. Shave it now. And put it in a show-case under a caption 'Cold Nose - A ridiculous place where cold war will never say good-bye.'

Ready with a cheap but reputedly sharp knife, I stand on my both legs, thinking with a hairy head that if I shave it right or left, I have a great risk of feeling myself an incarnation of Shurpanaka.
O my nose!

Student Life: Syllabus, Examination & Tuition

I was never a bright student. I gave an admission test in an English medium school in West Bengal. My parents and I were called for an interview. The principal said somewhat like this: ‘Mathematics is okay but his English is poor.’

I was never a bright student, I repeat, since I could hardly learn anything by heart. Even for the I.C.S.E and I.S.C examinations, I read the text books and wrote mostly in my own words. With some difficulty and by reading and writing several times, I was successful in remembering some chosen definitions. Several times, I did not get any rank. Some students did suggest taking tuitions from the subject teachers. As I was not in favour of private coaching by the school teachers, I preferred external teachers.

Learning in class seven, I used to go to my friend’s house where a teacher would teach us almost all the subjects. Everything was excellent except for his technique of teaching English. He made us comprehend Bengali grammar and do translations from Bengali and Hindi (for me) to English almost daily before he started English, which I considered (and consider even now) was pointless and wastage of time. We then moved to some other place, which made it difficult for me to go to my friend’s house, so he came to our house and stopped coming before the final examination result. I do not know what he had in his mind, but I was promoted to the next class with a rank. I never got anybody to teach me English then, and to teach me Science and Mathematics, there was one who showed me the ways to improve my Mathematics and score good marks in Science.

A teacher would pick up my pen or something to explicate a transaction in Accountancy. His explanation was always extensive and would make a composition which I never liked especially when I was concerned about the syllabus for my examination. My friend who joined his tuition class after me was the first to quit, followed by me. I got another Accountancy teacher who did not get enough time to understand me.

My school did give me the best grammar book and dictionary which are still helping me to develop my English.

Sri Ramkrishna Mission Ashram

Sri Ramkrishna Mission Ashram at Asansol is located at Vivekananda Sarani (Kanyapur Link Road) in Burdwan district of West Bengal, India.

In the ashram, you get the blessings of Sri Ramkrishna, Sarada Devi and his devoted disciple Sri Vivekananda.

There is a dispensary visited by the specialist doctors who give treatment to patients. 

Sri Kalathil Kavu

Sri Kalathil Kavu is located at Alavil, in Kannur district of Kerala State which is situated in the southern region of India.

THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA

Strolling alone down the Mahatma Gandhi Road at around ten p.m., I felt I was followed. I turned round and found none. Resuming towards my house, I thought of Shalini who had been the centre of attraction at the party I was returning from. Immediately, I heard someone saying, ‘Forget her’.

Again I twisted round and got nobody. It was just a fantasy I decided and continued to walk, after taking the narrow lane with the trees on either side of it.

A tree showed some movement. And I sensed that I was pursued. There I veered about, to spot there. I could not believe it. I saw a man vanishing behind a tree. He wore nothing more than the clothing that covered from waist to knee. And … And…. I concluded I saw two horns on his head.

Sensing some movement over my head, on the branches of the tree, I looked up to inquire and was successful in discovering what caused everything to draw my attention. It was only a monkey. Nodding my head in utter surprise that I could waste my valuable time in this trivial thing, I paced towards my sweet home, but heard: ‘Wait.’

Even though I felt it all nonsense, I waited I did not know why. There was my home, only a few meters away, but I stood there, waiting, waiting for…..

Once again I sighted a man with two horns. I was compelled to run, not into the house, but far away from it. I was successful in moving away from my house, but not away from the trees. I wanted to dash out of this narrow street to M.G.Road, but I could not get it.

‘You can’t run away like this,’ heard I and I came to a stand, only to spin about and locate that monkey watching me from a distant tree, and that the horned man was approaching me.

The only thing I could do was to distract his attention to the monkey, simply by pointing my index finger violently. I was convinced that it would be enough to save my life, and was stunned, when I fathomed that he was not at all paying attention to the animal and went on advancing towards me.

While endeavouring hard to hasten away, I stumbled to the ground.

‘You can’t run away,’ heard I, this time louder than before. It seemed to be my end, a very terrible end, reflected I and gave up any more effort to flee, and allowed him to draw near me.
‘Don’t be afraid of me,’ he said. ‘I intend no harm’.

‘So you have decided to eat the monkey.’

‘No, I eat no one and nothing.’

‘Then why are you after me? And this monkey?’ I received no answer.

‘Why are you both after me?’ I said, almost shouting.
‘Only I am after you, not it,’ he said, suddenly becoming solemn.

‘Why?’ I shouted, abhorring every part of this suspense.

‘Because this monkey is only the beginning of you’, after a brief pause, he continued, ‘and you are the end of yourself. I am not a man, not a demon, but the god of death. I have only come to take you.’

Knowledge of English

Nowadays, a working knowledge of English is a must. Speaking it correctly and fluently is considered as the prized asset. Therefore introduction of the language at the early stage would give enough time to students to master it even they communicate widely in mother tongue. 

Transformation of a sentence is easier to learn than its translation which needs familiarity with two languages and more practice. Additionally, the students must possess the habit of thinking in English and not in their mother tongue.

Preventing Drug Abuse

Drug abuse is an unyielding disease eating into our society for long time now. Even though scientists and science together are inventing vaccines and medicines to cure the dangerous diseases, Cocaine, Heroin and their corresponding items which have taken a more menacing appearance than cigarettes, are sucking the blood of youth. 

Furthermore it has become one of the most lucrative business to play with the emotion of young generation and destroy their future since one who is depressed or mentally weak to face the world or keeps bad company or for some other reasons gets addicted to drug and can cross any limits to acquire a pinch of it which may come in exchange of the most valued thing in one’s life.