পূজো পূজো গন্ধ

পূজো আসছে 

বাঙালিদের জন্য দূর্গা পূজো একটা অনুভূতি।  যার ব্যাখ্যা করা মোটেই সহজ না।  বছরের ওই কটি দিন শুধু না, দূর্গা পূজো  আমাদের  মন আবরণ করে থাকে ৩৬৫ দিন। যখনি হৃদ মাঝারে মেঘের সঞ্চার হয়, গর্জনে কেঁপে ওঠে সত্তা, মায়ের ঘরে ফেরার আশাই বাঁচিয়ে রাখে জীবনের দ্রুত প্রবাহকে। অদ্ভুত এই উন্মাদনা, অদ্ভুত এই ভালোবাসা যা এক উৎসব কে কেন্দ্র করে উত্পন্ন হয়ে, এক হৃদয় থেকে অন্য হৃদয়ে পৌঁছে যায়। এই ধরুণ, অফিসার কাজে আজ যখন মত্ত ছিলাম, কোথাও থেকে ঢাকের বাধ্য ভেসে এসে, মন টাকে অস্থির করে তুললো। না চাইতেই , এক রাস প্রসন্নতা আলিঙ্গন করলো মনটাকে। 

কিন্তু এই সুখ তো একার না, তাই তো ভালাম "এই পূজো পূজো গন্ধটা" সকলের মাঝে ছড়িয়ে দি। তাই তো এই কবিতা।...   

নতুন জামা, নতুন জুতো, নতুন অনুভূতি,
পূজো মানে খাঁটি হর্ষ, শুভ প্রতিশ্রুতি। 
শঙ্খ ধ্বনি, ঢাকের বাদ্দি, সেকি রম্য কল্লোল,
উৎসবের ছোঁয়ায় মাতোয়ারা মন, হৃদ পরিপূর্তি। 

দূরে কোন মন্দিরে, বাজছে যেন ঘন্টা,
আকাশ ময় ভাসছে যে মেঘ, একটু অনাবিষ্ট। 
কাশঁফুলেতে দিয়েছে দোলা বাতাস আবেগ পূর্ণ,
তুমি, আমি খুশির খোঁজে ডুবেছি যথেষ্ট। 

পূজো মানে আড্ডা মারা, পূজো স্মৃতিচারণ,
পূজো মানে নিজেকে খোঁজা,একটু অন্য রকম। 
পূজো মানে চিকেন রোল, পূজো ফুচ্কা খাওয়া,
পূজো মানে উদ্দীপনায় গা ভাসিয়ে দেওয়া। 

নাটকের মহলা, ডায়ালগ হলো কি মুখস্ত?
উত্তেজনা, উদ্দীপনা মিশ্রিত এক বাক্স।
তাই পূজো মানে অন্য আমি, অন্য আমার সজ্জা,
সেই আমি কে অনাবৃত করে, এই "পূজো পূজো গন্ধ" 

অরিত্রা চক্রবর্তী সেনগুপ্ত

Penning down thoughts...don't read it!!!

It is raining. Outside and inside. Outside it is water, but inside it is emotions, emptiness and unanswered questions that is raining heavily. And it often happens to me, but somehow I never write about it. Probably the story that goes inside is difficult to trap and portray in words. So I did never try. But today is another day and let tonight be a good night for my literary genius, that has just peeped out of the cocoon it had encrusted itself into. Long back in a conference some famous author had said "there is no writer's block that exist in reality." I had believed her and I still do. But now I know it does not hold good for all and now I also know what a writer's block is. And it is nothing but lack of encouragement. When you find that you are actually moving away from your dream, when you understand that you have thrusted on yourself too much work that hardly interest you and when you realise that passing days are not adding on to your experience as a human being, you do entire into a noncreative oblivion, which may be termed as "writer's block."

When I was a kid, I used to think that life is a movie and I was the heroine. But as candles got added to my birthday cake each year, I understood how ordinary a life I was living. I appreciated the fact that I was not exploring the world around me and I was not even exploring my deep seated aspirations. Unfortunately I never had the guts to be a rebel and break the cliches. I never could break out of the societal analogies of success, goodness etc. So quite unaware of what I wanted from myself, I became a chemical engineer. And with the kind of academic brains I was born with, I survived and emerged victorious. I even got a good job. But was I mentally prepared to be chemical engineer throughout my life? Was that all my heart was beating for? Those are the unanswered questions that rang and still rings in my mind.

I loved to dance, I loved act in plays. Today nobody will believe that I had done great kathak steps for a dance show without a formal training in the dance form. Confidence of execution reduces with reduction of practice,until it vanishes, as it has for me today. Now I cannot take to stage and do dance moves as I once did. For acting, I am still good at it and am comfortable in my skin on the stage. Blogging came to me few years back, but I knew I couldn't make a career out of it, because I write for myself, forced topics never excite me and hence I am kind of nonsalable. I couldn't be a slave to consumerism. But my aspiration to become a novelist increased with every passing day. With no knowledge of how the publishing business goes I plunged into writing my first novel. Slowly realising that without any godfather or without any connection it was tough to reach out to any publishing house, leave alone the famous ones. During the course of time, which is still on, I came in contact with one famous literary agent too. I would not name her, but she stained my thoughts on the distinction between creativity and money making.

Anyways my search for a publisher is on...and I don't know if it will ever end. But I am glad that I have not quit yet and I will never do. I will keep writing, whenever discouraging remarks and attitudes around fail to push me to oblivion..I will continue and continue and continue. With all my unanswered questions, with all my gauging of myself I continue to seek excellence in whatever I undertake. I am a chemical engineer, intoxicated at the thought of creativity. I am a traveler in my mind, both literally and metaphorically.

let the world be liberated of all preconceived notions!!

Before being human, be yourself!!

Do you face similar problems with yourself? Do you have unanswered queries bombarding your mind? I guess all creative people go through this...write about it.

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta

Lost in hazing greens...

There wasn't a me, there wasn't a you,

There wasn't a moment of low.

There wasn't an iota of lingering sour,

There was no friend, no foe.

It was just the fog to keep us company,

The showers, the greens and the exotic rainbow.

But it is a task to return to truth,

Though gladly the memories formed a delectable dough.

Aritra

It was early in the morning when we started off for our weekend indulgence, of sinking into the thirst quenching greens, of the countryside of Maharashtra, around the maddening city of Mumbai. It was overcast and the greens were in pure glory, we took the Mumbai-Nashik Highway. Looking out of the window of the car, gave a sense of being alive and breathing. To me the journey to the destination is a also an integral part of the vacation, so it is important to make it joyful. We drove, we giggled and off-course we let ourselves become the paparazzi for the self proclaimed celebrities in us. There was no end to clicking, posing and more smiles. We stopped for hearty breakfast midway, but the fascinating stop for me was the tea break. The road was more than empty, the sideways were lined with lush greenery and tangible clouds. The wind whistled and fiendishly danced around, while the grey mountains exemplified dichotomy against the prolific greens. Oh! What a beauty and how opulent! And then to add to the surging pleasure were steaming cups of tea, from the road-side tea stall.

From left Avishek, me, Shalaka and Nilesh

Our Travel-diaries

and the cups of tea....

We reached Igatpuri in the afternoon and thanks to our friend Nilesh who arranged the resort in the extremely short notice of a day, the place was absolute serenity. Placed in a quantifiable distance from the main highway, or infact from any possible hamlet, "Jen Jon resort in Igatpuri" stands for peace. But mind you, there is no ATM around and internet/mobile networks are exceedingly poor, so if you ever plan to plunge into absolute seclusion, carry enough cash. Our rooms were literally made of glass, but strategically enough the transparency varied giving you adequate privacy and off course the curtains did the rest. View from the rooms was breathtaking with the "Vaitarna Lake and the luxuriant greens" to keep you company. The food and hospitality were warm, well warm goes with both right!! On a serious note I loved the "rotis and chicken curry". In the evening we drove down to the dam and lake, it was so refreshing. The tranquility of the water, the overcast sky and red soil around will remain with me. I recommend JenJon to all who aspire to have some raw piece of peace and experience alienation for sometime. Believe me it is worth it!!

Jen Jon, our glass rooms

View from our room

View from our room

Dip Dip into the waters of Lake Vaitarna

Next morning after breakfast we headed to Bhandardhara, completely unplanned, thanks to the technology that GPS guided us to our destination smoothly. But sadly after the soft serenity of Igatpuri, overcrowded Bhandardhara did not match our expectation. The natural beauty, the waterfalls, the grey mountains and opulent spread of green was somewhat upset by the mindless and arrogant crowd. They were littering, shouting and had parked their vehicles haywire creating traffic jam. However after visiting the famous Radha falls we decided to stop in a place which was in seclusion, and that we did. We stopped by a nascent waterfall, streaming on the stones, it started raining and we completely drenched ourselves and relieved from the impact of the head-splitting crowd. Here I request everyone reading my blog, even if the number is very small, please spread the word "STOP SPOILING the natural beauty of the places, do not litter, do not park inappropriately."

Radha Falls

Radha Falls

At last a place to relax

At the end we reached Mumbai but only after a wholesome Punjabi meal in a road side dhaba and off course oodles of tempting memoirs. Thanks to my companions Shalaka and Nilesh and my darling hubby Avishek for making a two day trip worth a lifetime....

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta

Hard Rock Cafe-Indulgence and more...

It been long since I wrote anything, or probably its been long since I got something good to write about. I believe a writer/ blogger/narrator's life should be full of vivid and awesome experiences, which serve as inspirations to live on, write on and breeze along the path. Probably that's the reason why all narrators love to travel. 

Work was keeping me busy for quite sometime now, which is a pity, as I believe life is too short and should be lived up to the mark. While the hectic schedule was sucking the life blood out of me, my hubby thoughtfully decided to give me some moments of interlude...and a much needed one. To me the idea of chilling out is dancing, boozing comes secondary to me...while the order reverses itself for my hubby. So we decided,and a last minute decision it was, that we will go to the Hard Rock Cafe, Worli, where both the orders are satisfied and to the  most fulfilling extent. 

Hard Rock Cafe, or HRC as they say is a chilling out paradise, with good music and reasonably good food. But then you may ask how is it different from the numerous lounges and pubs that mark to be important parts of the euphoric and effervescent Mumbai night life? Well, to answer that I can safely say, that its the staff. They are friendly and immediately make you feel warm and happy as you enter the place. Besides I was completely bowled over by their dancing talent, especially the sexy lady, unfortunately I missed to ask her name. They led the cheerful crowd through mesmerising and catchy moves in a way that even non-dancers won't be able to stop themselves from hitting the floor for long. I adored the spirit.

Coming to food, well when your main focus is dancing you hardly have any, yet we had fish and chips and buffalo wings in blue cheese sauce, they tasted good. For the drinks my hubby Avishek had beer and I had my favourite margarita. They were good too. The ambience of the place is also in accordance to the name and is intriguing to say the least. They also have a clothing line on the name of hard rock, with a store inside the pub premises. The rest of the decor had the essence of rock bands and things related to that. In totality I loved HRC and recommend it to people who wish to let loose, who are non-believers of holding back and who are wishing to destress work life pressure like me.

Keep up the spirit HRC!!!

Decked up for the night

And the dancing

Raise a toast

All smiles

Swing....

Aritra Chakrabarty Sengupta