These are a few of my favourite things ...

Reading - I started when I was two. Ma says I'd spend hours reading a piece of paper handed to me ... upside down. Later, I'd look for places to hide, from insisting cousins at play times ... below the beds and nooks between the almirahs and walls, to read in peace.
Even today, when reading, I have no sense of what is happening around me ... a person might stand in front of me, say something ... and I'll have no recollection of it.
I lap up a book in 1 or 2 days ... and spend 1 whole day sulking.
Why? The book was finished ... that's why. :-) And yes, I am the only student in my school who was allowed two books from the school library in a week.

Singing or listening to music - Started training in Hindustani classical (vocal) when I was eight. Dadu's evenings were spent listening ... with silent pride ... to his grandchildren singing. The madur or the mat would be laid, harmonium and the tanpura set and we cousins would sing Dadu's favorite songs.
Today, my days are always accompanied with music. While I love good compositions, old or new, it always Rabindra Sangeet that I go back to. In happiness, sadness, sickness, despair, Gurudev's music and words have always guided me. When I sing, it is like I'm in prayer.
The sounds of the piano and the guitar are some of my favorite sounds.

A small part of my collection

Collecting sea shells - I love sea shells. I love beaches. And I love beaches that have sea shells strewn all over in the early mornings ... waiting to be picked up. Today, it is impossible to get beaches where you can see sea shells ... but we usually visit remote places and so I get lucky most times.
I have been collecting shells ever since I was a child ... growing up near a beach helped ... and now have a nice, big collection. I can sit and go through my collection, for hours, marveling at nature's artistic creations.

Writing poetry - I've been writing poetry from std.VI. Many of them have been published in the school magazine almost every year in senior school.
Later I moved on to writing in Bangla and Oriya too, other than the usual English.
I still write. And have a compilation here too. It is not open to public, so please don't feel offended if you can't view it.

From my window

Spending time with old people - I love sitting and listening to old people talk. They are a treasure trove of  memories and wonderful anecdotes and tales.
First hand witnesses  to times gone by, times I can never be a part of, ever, they take me to unknown places and introduce me to unknown yet very interesting people.
I used to sit for hours with Dadu, a freedom fighter, and listen to his memories of those turbulent  times. And I loved spending long, winter evenings, sitting quietly beside Dida, hands warming inside her shawl ... and listening to her soft voice, remiscising about the beautiful days in her maternal home and old times.

On my balcony railing after a downpour

Rains - I love the rain. I can sit and watch it for hours. Sometimes raging, pouring pellmell ... sometimes light, almost with a hesitation.
I can sit listening to it for hours. The changing patterns in the sound of rain ... sometime soft, sometime loud. With thunder playing on the side.
I love to listen to the quiet after the rains. You get to hear the very light drip drip from the leaves or the hush with which they fall on the dried leaves below.
I love the rain.

Traveling - visiting new places as in old time places. Especially those relevant to Ancient Indian history. Forts are my obsession. As are structures of Mughal architecture. I have gone lengths to actually see and feel the Pietra dura works just as I've explored Rajasthan and have climbed numerous forts ... just to be able to touch the ancient canons atop them.
And beaches. I love the sea and would go to any extent ... read distance ... to be on a sea beach.
I try to maintain a travelogue too, here. 

 Knitting - I love knitting wool. I cannot live without knitting something ... anything.
Starting while still in school,I have knitted for numerous people ... parents, cousins, grandparents, friends, their children ..... the list is endless.
I've recently compiled a few of my handiworks here.

Clicked during my early blogging days

Photography - My first camera was a simple aim and click gifted to me by Bapi on my nineteenth birthday.
And I have not looked back ever since.
I click photos because I love to. To hold on to something or a moment that I know I'll love to look back again and again. I do not click under pressure. And usually I love to click natural, random shots and not created ones.
After I started my food blog, I have been clicking to my fill.
Though my hands and shoulder do not allow me to wield a heavy camera anymore, I still try to catch a shot that I know will never come back for me again.

Cooking -  I had no idea what it actually takes to put those platefuls of nutritious lunches or dinners or tasty, favourite snacks that I had taken so much for granted before I got married.
Guided by the man and my cousins here, and after numerous fiascos like putting the pressure cooker on without putting in enough water, leaving a curry or milk unattended on the stove, etc. I finally could serve a decent a plateful of meal.
Now I do enjoy cooking. And love to share my efforts too.


After my injury and persisting pain, most of the above things like reading a book, knitting, travelling and cooking have become impossible for me.
But I hope to get back to them someday.

A few other favourite things  : -

 - I love to laugh. I am usually quiet by nature and not an extrovert, but I love to laugh a lot.

- I love  Ma's old saris, with her smell on them.
Everytime I come back from home, I would bring a couple of her saris that stayed with me till my next visit.

- I love puppies. And birds.

- I love to walk with my eyes closed.

- I love waking up very very early in the morning and  listen to the quiet around me.... a world so different from the one after daylight starts.

- I love to shut  the sounds around me and just sit back and watch a roomful of talking and laughing people and their gestures, from a different plane.



Colour - White
Flower - Carnations
Book  - Wuthering Heights
Song - Aguner poroshmoni chowao praaney (A Rabindrasangeet, prayer)
Person - Thamma (Grandmom) 
Food - Dal, bhaat, aloo bhate


A dear blogger friend Vani, of the beautiful Mysoorean, had once made a post on her favourite things.
I had said I'd take a page out of her book and make a similar post too ... but a whirlwind of things kept me away from it.
I finally have compiled a list and posting it.
It is not enough if you are trying to know me, but is indeed a little peek into my own self.