Distinctiveness - Travel and Lifestyle Blog

  Durga Ma is on her way, and Messi cannot contain his excitement. Sometimes, the wait for an event is almost as enticing as the actual occasion. The hours before a crucial football match. The final days ahead of a long-pending vacation. The morning of an eagerly awaited arrival. Quite similar to the drumroll - rapid beats on a drum, increasing in intensity by the second - before the extravagant ending. This drumroll is supposed to build up to the main event and often gets sidelined in the dazzling lights of the main event. However, I often find this anticipation, this wait, to be an endearing adventure as well.  I have been indulging in such thoughts of late. Perhaps there’s something in the air, or maybe it’s the season itself. Because, folks, it’s that time of the year again. The buildup to the grand occasion that gets Bengalis world over supercharged.  Durga Puja is less than a month away.  While others may indulge in the religious intricacies of the oc...

Laxmi Puja Prasad You might be tempted to question the source of motivation in a post about Festivals and Gorging, but in my opinion, there is no motivation greater than good food in this world. At least for me there isn't. I have gone to great lengths for good food in my life, but I shall not delve into that now. Let me start with a disclaimer: the rites and rituals of a traditional Puja has never interested me. But that doesn't mean I have never prayed in my life. Even though I embraced the ideologies of my strictly atheist Father at a very young age, I was taught the value of respecting others' views and opinions. And so, I remember praying when my first dog fell ill. Unfortunately, no one listened to a little boy crouching at a corner of his room, with tears in his eyes. From then on, the only times I prayed was to ask the Almighty not to take away a loved one, however, it seldom worked. Bitter and dejected, in my later years, I started praying to my own God...