MYRIAD COLOURS OF LIFE

  SPENDING THE LAST FEW DAYS OF 2020 IN THE ABODE OF THE CLOUDS Shillogre Godhuli... Shillongre Godhuli... Nami ahe kuwoli.. Shillongre Godhuli Nami ahe kuwoli.. Duyu hatote dhori Korisilu dhemali Juritire parot bohi Nijanote.. These are the lyrics from one of the popular Assamese songs. After staying at home for about 10 months due to extended lockdown, getting introduced to new terms like work from home, taking students online classes something that I needed the most was a break from this monotony of daily life. When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by World Health Organisation we were forced to leave Bhubaneswar for Assam. This trip to Meghalaya awaited the opening of interstate borders following COVID-19 protocols. When the situation became a little bit normal with sanitizers and masks we backpacked for this recluse-the hidden beauty of India. Papa would explain Megh + alaya= Meghalaya. That's how this word got introduced to me. The Abode of the Clouds. As I grew up I got to kn...

  I ndian classical dances starting from Sattriya, Kuchipudi, Bharatnatyam to Odissi have always fascinated me. When I visited Odisha for my higher studies I was lucky enough to get this opportunity to explore more about these dances which are associated with the very fabric of Indian culture and life. I first heard about Ileana Citaristi from my roommate. Padmashree Ileana Citaristi is an exponent of Odissi dance. The more I read about her surfing the pages on the internet the more inquisitive I was. Finally this an opportune moment to visit her came during the second year of my stay in the coastal state when I became part of Ekamra Walks. Founded in the year 1996 by Ileana Citaristi a renowned Odissi dancer this academy is located in Old Town, Bhubaneswar. When I reached it one early morning I found this old building and  I fell in love with it. The ambiance around, the beauty of Ekamra Van which is the medicinal garden, and the view of the Lingaraj Temple were enough to mak...

  NATIONAL EDUCATION DAY                                                Event participation-short speech O n February 22, 1958, Jawaharlal Nehru went on air to announce “Aaj hamara Mir-e-Karavan Chala gaya (today we have lost the leader of our caravan ).”Nehru was referring to India’s first Education Minister Maulana Azad. A freedom fighter, renowned writer, poet, educationist, freedom fighter, and journalist Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was awarded Bharat Ratna in the year 1922. November 11 marks the birth anniversary of this great visionary. It is also observed as National Education Day. He had firm faith in the fact that every individual should have the right to an education that would enable him to develop his faculties and live a fully human life. On the...

  A mitav Ghosh was born in Kolkata and grew up in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. He is the most acclaimed writer of all time. He studied in Delhi, Oxford and Alexandria. He is the author of a multitude of books starting from the Ibis trilogy-‘Sea of Smoke’ River of Poppies and ‘Flood of Fire. Apart from this, he is also the author of the Circle of Reason and Shadow Lines, In An Antique Land & Dancing in Cambodia. One of his book on climate change   The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable a work of nonfiction appeared in the year 2006. Some of his other books are The Calcutta Chromosome, The Glass Palace and The Hungry Tide. They are considered to be literary masterpieces and gems of Indian English literature. In the year 2007, this prolific writer was awarded Padma   Shri by the Government Of India. In 2019 Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the preceding decade. Taking note of his literary achievements...

  M y love for cherry blossoms is immense. The writings of one of my favorite writers Bond made me fall in love more with them. Added to this were the lines of Pablo Neruda  I want to do with you what spring does to the cherry trees. When I first read the poem 'Every  Day You Play'  I was mesmerized by the beauty of the last two lines. I envisioned a couple waiting under a cherry tree with the tree decked in pink cherry flowers. After  that I have read the same lines several times. There is so much beauty hidden in it. Here dear readers is one of my most loved poems written by the great poet Neruda. Every Day You Play Every day you play with the light of the universe. Subtle visitor, you arrive in the flower and the water. You are more than this white head that I hold tightly as a cluster of fruit, every day, between my hands. You are like nobody since I love you. Let me spread you out among yellow garlands. Who writes your name in letters of smoke among the sta...

Hey Hey Re Neeli Aasamaani Chhatri     Chhatri ka udan khatola,dole to laage hindola Chhatri ka udan khatola,dole to laage hindola 'The Blue Umbrella'  is a story written by my favouritre writer from the hills,one of India's most loved author Ruskin Bond.He has inspired me so much into writing. While in Bhubaneswar,I got to attend a storytelling session on a Sunday in 2018.A group of children listening with their ears fixed to a storyteller. It was Sunday.Saturday and Sunday are the two days in the week which I like to keep all for myself. My friends often get irritated when I say 'No' to their request to go to the shopping malls or to any other place like  market building or exhibition ground. I like to have the weekend for myself. I keep the evenings to read some books, finish writing a story, listen to the speeches of my favorite authors. On one such Sunday, my roommate came to me and said, Di, let's go and attend a storytelling session. Never had I attended ...

  W hen I was a child, once in a year we had buses packed with books of all kinds-short stories, general knowledge, riddles, autobiography, and a lot more-every type of book a bookworm would dream of. There was always a constraint. Papa could somehow manage our admission fees and our traveling fare. When one bus would reach our school I would ask for money from my mother. She never said 'No' yet I dared not ask for more money. In little ways, she had inspired me into doing great things. Whatever little money I had during my afternoon break,  I would run on hearing the school bell ring and surf amidst the books. Among the books, I brought one was the autobiography of the former President of India, a visionary and a great leader Dr.A P J Abdul Kalam. Once or twice I brought bookmarks as well. One of the bookmarks read   "Love cures people both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it". Our school library had a large collection of different sets of books-fairy ta...