Sudakshina Bhattacharjee's Blog, page 5
April 28, 2012
My First Venture as an Author!
Greetings Blogworms- Old and New!
Pray listen, for I have some news for you!
Since September 2011, I have been co-writing a book with Fiona Talbot- a global leading author and expert in Business English!
The book is called Improving Your Global Business English: The Essential Toolkit for Writing and Communicating Across Borders and is by Kogan Page; http://www.koganpageusa.com/product/Improve-Your-Global-Business-English,2112.aspx
Brief Description:
Intercultural business communications is a minefield of cultural expectations, where English is almost universal currency. Brochures, reports, manuals, and all other documents – both print and digital – intended for a global audience need to accommodate readers who are unfamiliar with American [or British, Australian, Indian, etc] idioms.
To communicate across borders with customers, suppliers and colleagues, business people – native and non-native speakers alike – need to learn how to streamline their syntax, adjust their choice of words and free their message from references that are particular to their own culture.
Improve Your Global Business English defines the differences between local and global English. We show you how to profile prospective readers, customers and audiences, understand sub cultures and make an impact through written English. We also elucidate on how to best understand and write for different media as well as provide punctuation and grammar tips.
About the Authors:
Fiona Talbot runs TQI Word Power Skills, a Business Writing Skills consulting company. She runs workshops and delivers individual coaching at all levels in all sizes of business. She is the author of the Better English series, published by Kogan Page.
Sudakshina Bhattacharjee has worked as a lecturer of journalism at The London College and a lecturer of psychology at Kingston College of Further Education. You can read my work and know more about me on this site.
The book officially hit s the shops -including select airports – worldwide in November 2012 and you can pre-order it from any of the following links:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Improve-Your-Global-Business-English/dp/0749466138
http://www.amazon.com/Improve-Your-Global-Business-English/dp/0749466138
These are the main links I have found so far and I will obviously update you as and when I find more.
I would like to thank you all for visiting this site, reading my blog posts, articles and poems and taking out the time to share your comments (both on here as well as in person). Your support is priceless and keeps me on my toes to write better and better. 
Filed under: Expression, Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions Tagged: business management, communications, Global Business English, Kogan Page, textbook 
March 26, 2012
Values.com
Hello to all my Blogworms from good ol’ London!
Yes, after 11 months, I’m back in London for a few weeks and it has been great so far.
Yet, much like the avid blogger, I haven’t forgotten that my post for this month is due and have been pondering on what to write for it.
So, here is a poem on, what I call ’global values’, which I penned for your reading and pondering pleasure.
Enjoy!
Values.com
Reaching out to a cry of help
Is called Kindness-
Overdoing this is not.
Crying out for help
Is called Desperation-
Brewing it up is for what?
Feeling Happy for someone else
Is called Enjoyment-
Envying others is not.
Smiling for someone, while your innards ache
Is called Lust-
Expressing your Love, Unconditionally,
Is not!
Liking Something Special about someone
Is called Admiration-
Snatching that Something from that Someone
Is not!
Disliking the Good Things about someone
Is called Resentment-
Appreciating these is not.
Spelling these Values out
Is called Explaining-
Looking down on someone
Is not!
Explaining these Values without Applying them
Is called Hypocrisy-
Practising Good Values is not!
Filed under: Expression, Poems By Sudakshina, Psychology, Social Cultures, Soul & Spiritual Philosophy 
February 22, 2012
Ironing Out Our Creases!
Dear Blogworms,
Following the positive feedback I’ve been getting from my articles on Motivation and Success (see http://sudakshinakina.wordpress.com/sudakshinas-articles-and-academic-essays/ for their links),
I’ve composed a poem similar to the theme of self-reflection ultimately leads to the path of true Success.
If I sound like philosophical mush here, it is purely unintended, as you know what I’m like! 
So, here goes:-
Ironing out Our Creases
When it comes to Ironing out our Creases
Why do we flop, plop and stop?
We wag our fingers
Our nagging lingers
We don’t call a spade a spade;
We’re always looking for an escapade-
When it comes to owning up the mistakes we made.
If someone looks like a lump,
They’re overweight-not pleasantly plump!
If someone’s outlook is rather hazy,
They need to be told-Stop Being So Lazy!
Forgive my harshness, if you may-
I just wonder why we go astray
From Ironing out our own creases;
Much before we say what pleases!
Blaming others is just so easy-
It’s taking the shame that makes us queasy!
Why does this happen-I don’t understand
If we take matters into our own hands,
To see where we’re wrong and where we’re right too,
What’s there to be afraid of-it’s only You?
Isn’t it only human to care too much?
Of what other’s think, do and touch?
If we care about others, why don’t we care for ourselves?
To bother-not smother-our Mind’s limited shelves;
I wonder why we go astray
From Ironing out our creases,
Pray, there must be a way
To say hypocrisy ceases!
Filed under: Expression, Poems By Sudakshina, Psychology, Social Cultures 
January 24, 2012
Big Sister!
Hello Blogworms!
Thank you for your kind words about the poem, Let’s Do Things Right, that I posted here last month.
Here’s another one called Big Sister!
As always, let me know what you think!
Big Sister!
Reality could never be more constructed,
Created, striated and too faceted!
Oh when will we wake up and smell the coffee-
Reality TV is icky, sticky toffee!
At first it’s sweet, a delight, a pleasure,
But as the story unfolds, it’s more than leisure.
Oddballs are laughed at-
They’re ridiculed for a kick;
The untalented are measured
On a very flimsy yardstick!
We devour and consume all this readily,
We judge, and point, and lose our minds steadily!
Some rubbish it and call it
‘What nonsense’, ‘what a waste of time!’
And yet we text our votes, spending dime after dime!
How has Big Brother become so big?
What if it were called ‘Big Sister’- or indeed, ‘Big Pig’?
Why are the helpless not given help?
Don’t we hear their cries when they yelp?
Oh when will we wake up and smell the coffee?
Reality TV is icky, sticky toffee!
Filed under: Expression, Poems By Sudakshina, Psychology, Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions 
January 1, 2012
2011 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,000 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 17 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
Filed under: Sudakshina's Opinions
December 26, 2011
Let’s Do Things Right!
Well and here we come to the end of the year. It seems like yesterday, I started this blog, but it’s been two whole years!
So, thanks for your ongoing support and feedback and keep it coming, otherwise this blog won’t work without you. (Well, it would, but then if nobody reads my posts, excepting me, then I don’t see the point, d’ya know what I mean?! )
As I’ve said on my Facebook status recently, I haven’t written a poem for a long while now. So, for the next few months (depending on how much you like it, of course), I’ll be penning poems in my posts to a) shake things up a bit and change the pace and tone of my posts and b) I feel I need to kick-start the poetic flow again, simply because I feel like it!
So, keeping the New Year, our current socio-psychological modes and economic situations in mind, here’s the first in my series of blog-poems for you.
Let’s Do It Right (But Things Go Wrong!)
We put our Thinking Caps on
And try this and that
But with a few days gone
Things go splat.
We say to ourselves-
“Let’s Do Things Right”-
But things go wrong
And hence our flight!
Let’s Do Things Right
Let’s Do Things Right
We don’t want this Plight,
Let’s Do Things Right!
If perfection is just a dream,
Why do we bother? Why do we scream?
But if we don’t make an Effort,
What’s the Point? Where’s the Comfort?
So we say to ourselves-
“Let’s Do Things Right”-
But things go wrong
And we lose the Light!
Let’s Do Things Right
Let’s Do Things Right
We don’t want this Plight,
Let’s Do Things Right!
We’ve got Good Intentions
It’s just we need the Support
From your words and gestures,
Your smiles and thought.
As we say to ourselves-
“Let’s Do Things Right”-
But things go wrong
And we need your Sight!
Let’s Do Things Right
Let’s Do Things Right
We don’t want this Plight
Let’s Do Things Right!
On this note, I would like to wish you all Season’s Greetings and a wonderful 2012 ahead!
Filed under: Expression, Poems By Sudakshina, Psychology, Social Cultures, Soul & Spiritual Philosophy, Sudakshina's Opinions
November 20, 2011
At One with Oneself
Hello there, my blogworms. How goes it with you all?
After a little thinking, my mind came up with the idea of basing this blog post on what it truly means to be at one with oneself- and what it means to be plain old lonely.
There is a clear difference between the two, you see, but whether the difference is a huge one or a fine-line is up to you.
Being at one with oneself is to be content when you are not in the presence of other human company or even the company of pet animals. You don’t mind the fact that nobody is around and you actually relish the peace and quiet. And yet, if someone or a group of people happened to come in, at any given moment, you wouldn’t mind that either and enjoy their company too.
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However, being lonely means you are not content in the absence of favourable company and you feel lost even when you’re in a crowd of strangers. When you feel lonely even among a crowd of people you know and like though, that means there are more issues than just loneliness that needs to be identified and dealt with.
I hate being lonely and hate having to wallow in self-pity, while some secretly enjoy this, I don’t. I don’t mind being in a crowd of strangers or people who I get along with either, but all this doesn’t mean I have not experienced feeling incomplete. Marriage and love filled in that hole in me, thankfully. It made me realise how important it is to have someone who know and cherish you for exactly what you are- warts and all!
But here comes another dilemma, what is this feeling of missing your spouse when he is not with you and then craving for some peace and quiet when he is around?!
Does this sound familiar to you? Is it true then that we really can’t have our cake and eat it too? How does this affect the meaning of being at one with oneself then?
Your thoughts on this are much welcomed…
Filed under: Expression, Psychology, Sudakshina's Opinions
October 20, 2011
En Vacances!
Ah, it’s the tail end of October, the month of much festivity, pomp and hocus-pocus in the Hindu Bengali calendar.
It’s also the month of your writer’s birth, hint hint, my blogworms.
[image error]It’s also been the month where I’ve sat my first French exams; yes I’ve been learning French for the past couple of months, you see, so don’t be too surprised if you suddenly find me chipping in a word of Francais now and then.
This October has also been the month where I spent the first half on holiday with my husband and his side of my family, which has been interesting to say the least.
I’ve always been curious when it comes to meeting and interacting with people, old and new, doesn’t matter to me much. But what is said and left unsaid,when you’re in a throng of people who you know and don’t really know and then don’t know at all is something that fascinates me a lot!
We all know that cultures vary, so much so that they vary from city to city, but this variation also meanders into one locale to another and that’s something I’ve noticed on this holiday.
Societies and the people that make them can be generous and misleading at the same time; I’ve found some values criss-cross and inter-lace so much that I’m left confused. For example, if wearing a sari (that reveals the midriff) is respected, how come wearing a maxi dress (that covers everything) is frowned upon when worn in public?
I’m not being judgmental here, or maybe I am a tad, but are my observations ‘Western’ or simply matter-of-fact?
We have standards and then we have double standards and then we have some people who just want to enjoy their holiday!
And what is wrong with that, may I ask?
Filed under: Social Cultures, Sudakshina's Opinions
