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Broken Trust

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We met, we parted Yet our hearts remained connected Trusting you, I lounged for a chance... To finally settle for a nuptial dance! Weaving dreams of dates worth remembering I thought practically, with my heart hammer ing With a lot of thought, I said "Yes" Believed, with you, fear too erases! Yet, there was a unsaid scare What if the world doesnt hear.... Will you be mine and I be your For a lifetime, loving from core?

BE WORD CONSCIOUS

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How many times have we been told by our teachers or parents to speak correctly? And every time they remind us of this, have we really paid heed to it? It is actually a very important practice to speak “correctly” – to use the correct words/phrases to refer to anything in a sentence. It might appear a little confusing now, so let’s see a small example here to understand this concept for clearly. Back in my PhD days in IIT Guwahati, I asked one of my seniors, “Will you have a chocolate?” When she replied in affirmative, I handed her a “Pulse chocolate”. She looked at me, flabbergasted, and said, “This is not a chocolate! It’s a candy! I don’t want this. I thought you meant chocolate – I really needed one now.” And she walked away. I stood there in bewilderment – I did give her “chocolate”. Why didn’t she take it if she needed one? But it was that small incident that taught me the importance of using the “correct” word. A google search made me understand a fact that we probably always ign

GROWING THROUGH BOOKS

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A very famous saying goes “A book is a gift that you can open again”. As a 90s kid, I used to read short stories, fairy tales, Aesop fables that I had been gifted by relatives or that I used to buy from our school on the day of Parent-Teacher Meet in August every year. But it was only in the year 2002 (age 11), when I was captivated by the idea of “reading” and that book was J.K Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone”. And that book opened many doors into the world of reading – from Harry Potter, to Nancy Drew, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five, Hardy Boys – it was a reading marathon or spree. I started to eagerly wait for December every year for the Annual Book fair of Guwahati. I wished my sister to say that she needed something from Pan bazar so that I could tag along with my mother and cajole her for a little indulgence in “Western Book Depot”. Years rolled, different books from the mentioned titles got exchanged between friends as my reading genre remained limited within that

A HOUSEBOATING EXPERIENCE

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  Travelling has never been my thing! As a person who suffers from major motion sickness since childhood, the travel or “journey” part was never a “fun” experience, rather it is more of an ordeal. However, after many years I decided to challenge myself (and my 68-year old mother) to make a trip to the beautiful valley of Kashmir! There is no doubt about the fact that Kashmir is beautiful – we have been reading about it in school and watching videos (and movies) from the place. But what we experienced was beyond our expectations – the valley was beautiful beyond words! Being blessed with a large no. of Kashmiri friends, I had received a suggestion to spend one night in a “houseboat” on the Dal Lake of Srinagar. So as planned, our tour guide dropped us in the Shikara of the “Nanga Parbat” houseboat – the place which was supposed to be our residence that night. My mother was initially a little apprehensive of the idea of spending a night in a houseboat. But her doubts all flew out of t

DON'T MISS OUT ON DOODHPATHRI

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The Mughal emperor Jahangir or Salim had once commented “ Agar Firdous bar ru-e-zamin ast, Hami ast o-hami ast o-hami ast ” (If there is heaven on earth, it is here) on the mesmerizing beauty of Kashmir. The vast expanse of land dotted with pines and maples (chinar), bubbling waters of Indus and Lidder provide a breathtaking view as soon as one lands in Srinagar. The most common places to visit on a trip to Kashmir are Pehelgam, Sonmarg, and Gulmarg (especially in winter). However, a place that very few tourists visit is Doodhtpathri, which literally means “Valley of milk”. Located in the Budgam district of Kashmir, this small, hilly region is located approximately 30-35 kms from Srinagar. As the location is at a higher altitude than Srinagar, the air and wind are chilly and fresh. Traveling on the curved roads of Doodhpathri, one can actually experience “Europe” in India – it is no less than any Bollywood movie shot in Switzerland. On both sides of the road are lush green valleys co

EASY TO BE HEALTHY??

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  Over the last few months, the country was devastated by the sudden demise of young people like Siddharth Shukla and KK, and even Raju Srivastav recently. There were similar tragedies closer to home too but they were not in the limelight. For instance, a resident of Zoo-road, Guwahati lost his businessman brother (aged 46) suddenly, a non-smoker, non-alcoholic fitness freak, while working out in the gym. Such news has managed to instill fear in the minds of young people because now, it is death of young people which seems to be in “trend.” If people who work out regularly in the gym are suffering from sudden cardiac arrests, what about the average “young” individual who is not very conscious of his health? As such, there is now a shift towards “healthy lifestyle choices” especially among young people. Gym registrations are increasing, along with the work pressure! YouTube is also helping to fuel this choice – fashion influencers like Komal Pandey, FitTuber and others releasing video

THAT FORGOTTEN FAT FRIEND

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Remember that heavy, fat book that used to be a constant in every household back in the 90s? The book that was the most difficult thing to carry if anyone at the house wanted to know the correct spelling of a word? Yes, I am referring to the house of huge no. of words “Dictionary” or “Obhidhaan”! Some assamese households even had the linguistic version of it, referred as “Hemkosh”, after the legendary Hem Baruah. Searching for new words and their meanings in an alphabetical order used to be such an exciting job then. With the passage of time, dictionaries started becoming compact and started to being available in pocket sizes; the first of its kind being provided by the Oxford house. English literature was incomplete without the use of dictionary, especially for poetry. In fact, there used to be a question for lower classes as “Write the meanings of the following words” – something that used to inculcate the habit of turning the pages of this fat book at a young age. Even writers of