Balaka Basu's Blog, page 10

5 Movies on Netflix with Unique Story Line

Netflix has over 3,500 movies in India. It can get confusing to dig out good movies from the list. We often end up watching the movies from Netflix latest trends and miss out movies that may not feature in the ‘trending‘ section but are nevertheless great movies.

Recently, when I posted about few good movies on my Facebook page, many of my friends and followers requested that it would be great if I curate a list of movies for them.

Here are the list of 5 movies that have unique story line and are undoubtedly ‘out of the box‘ movies.

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The Boy who Harnessed the wind : This is based on a true story based on the life of William Kamkwamba, a thirteen year old Malawi boy who goes against all odds to build his family an electricity-generating windmill from spare parts, working from rough plans he found in a library book. He built this primarily to provide water to his drought stricken village. If you have ever read novels by Chinua Achebe or any other African writer you would relate to it. William’s work was recognised by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Kamkwamba also delivered a TEDTalk. I would advice that you show this movie to your kids.

2. Lion: This Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman starer movie is about a small boy called Saroo who gets lost in a train in India. He is later adopted by an Australian family from an Indian orphanage. The movie revolves around adult Saroo’s quest to find his biological family in India using Google Earth as his main tool.

3. Roma: A story that chronicles a tumultuous year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s. The movie primarily follows the life Cleo, a live-in housekeeper who help Antonio and Sofía take care of their four children. Complications arise when Antonio suddenly runs away with his mistress and Cleo finds out that she’s pregnant.

4. Begin Again: This one is my personal favourite. I am a huge fan of Mark Ruffalo and this is one of his best movies. Gretta (Keira Knightley) and her songwriting partner/lover Dave (Adam Levine) head for New York when he lands a record deal with a major label. However, Gretta is suddenly left on her own when Dave gives in to the temptations that come with his newfound success. Things take a turn for the better for her when Dan (Mark Ruffalo), a disgraced record executive, discovers Gretta performing in a club. A mutually life-changing bond forms between the pair as they work together on Gretta’s first album that they shoot live on streets.

5. Julie and Julia: A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life in this movie, the true stories of how Julia Child’s (Meryl Streep) life and cookbook inspired fledgling writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams) to whip up 524 recipes in 365 days and blog about it every single day . Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) co-stars in director Nora Ephron’s delicious comedy about joy, obsession and butter. Bon appétit!

This movie is a ‘must watch’ for all food bloggers.

Hope you enjoy these movies. Do let me know, how you liked them. I would be posting more movie recommendations soon. Stay Tuned!!! Till then, Happy Watching Netflix!!!!

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How to Write a Memoir using different Fiction Genres

Memoir is a type of creative non-fiction. Unlike the autobiography, which focuses on the entire life of the writer, the memoir takes place during a particular period of time. Essentially, it is a slice of life. Thus, memoir in itself is a genre. However, you can write a memoir using the technique of a fiction genre like romance, tragedy, thriller or comedy.

A large section of bloggers write some or the other type of memoir. Travel bloggers share their travel stories, parent blogger narrate their parenting journey, food blogger tell stories around food, and few even write confessional memoirs or talk about some dark part of their lives. Some discuss about their diseases. They do this to release the trauma. In a nutshell, memoir is not uncommon as it may sound and bloggers have been using various blogging niche to write them.

If you are a blogger who is exploring on some ideas to write your own memoir then you should first select the incident that you want to write about. Then analyse in which genre you can fit it. If the incident is related to your first love then try to write it as a romantic genre, if it was something exciting then write it as a thriller, if you ever saw a ghost then choose the horror genre, so on and so forth. Our life itself is sometimes tragic, sometimes comic, sometimes romantic then why can’t our memoirs be such? Therefore, we should see the different colours of a rainbow in our life. No wonder, I named my book of memoirs “Golden Rainbow“.

If you wish to buy my book to get inspired to write a memoir then please click here. Also available here.

Following are few examples to help you see how you can write a memoir using various genres. I would discuss in detail in my following post.

Examples of different G enres of Memoirs:

When we found a dead body on the terrace was written using the thriller/suspense genre. Even though it had a Scooby Doo ending (sorry for the spoiler) it was kept as a suspense in the beginning. If you have encountered any such scary or suspicious incident in your life then try writing it down using this genre.

The Homeless Man in Budapest was also written with a bit of suspense in it.

Kalyan Da, the outcast lover was written using the Romance genre. This memoir was about someone else I knew and I loved their ‘love-story’ therefore decided to write about it.

Mona, the girl who was traded was about a girl who was sold. Her tragic story would affect anyone. It was written using the genre of tragedy.

How I met your Father was written spoofing the name of a popular sitcom to create comic effect.

How Staying Away from Social Media and The Art of Pause were written using the ‘Self-Help’ genre. One was written as a guide to help others stay away from social media. The other was written to help others control their anger. Unlike other self-help books here I used my own example.

Paris Sightseeing is a typical example of a travelogue. How Bengali helped me in Europe was also a travelogue where I wrote in a more focused manner. When our car broke down at Bhimashanker was also a travelogue with a pinch of Horror in it.

I hope these examples helped.

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Summer Flowers in Mumbai

In India, especially in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, we do not get to get to see colourful flowers throughout the year. It is the summer months when the city come out in full bloom. This is due to Lockdwon, there is less pollution and probably that it making the plants bloom even better.

I clicked these two following images during my morning walk inside the society. We are not going out of the society and within the society we are maintaining social distancing during our walks and also wearing masks and gloves.

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We might think, we are nurturing our garden, but of course it’s our garden that is nurturing us

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Linking this post to #ThursdayTreeLove hosted by my lovely blogger friend Parul. Also linking with #WordlessWednesday hosted by two beautiful ladies Esha and Natasha.

8 Tips to Help you Write a Great and Engaging Memoir

I often wonder, why do I blog memoirs? Is anyone interested in reading my memoirs? I am not a celebrity, then why would anyone be willing to read my memoirs?

However, when I look at my blog, I do realize that there are indeed readers who love to read my memoirs. In between, when I was blogging less frequently, I received messages from my readers asking if everything was fine with me.

I love it when readers share my posts. But the thing that I love the most is reading ‘meaningful‘ comments from my readers. I hate when they just drop an one liner like ‘nice post’ or ‘nice article’. I love when they relate to my memoirs and narrate a similar incident from their lives. That is when I feel the true connection with my readers.

In 2018, I published my first book ‘Golden Rainbow’, I was apprehensive that nobody would be interested to read my 26 memoirs. However, after two years, I can safely say that there are indeed readers for my memoirs. The reviews on Amazon assure that my ‘labor of love’ did’t get wasted.

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Writing memoir may seem easy but writing an ‘engaging’ memoir is difficult. Many writers think that writing memoir means simply narrating incidents or feelings from the past. However, that may become boring for the readers. No wonder, many biographies fail to catch the attention

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I created this blog to primarily write memoirs and travelogues (Well, travelogues are also a kind of memoir). After writing for more than three years, I have observed few things about writing a good and engaging memoir. Let me share those with you.

Write in first person

Ideally a memoir should be written in first person. As you are the narrator and one of the characters in the narrative, it is best to write in first person. However, there are memoirs written in second person and third person, e.g. Roland Barthes on Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes was a memoir written in third person.

A Memoir should tell a Story

An engaging memoir is one that tells a story. People love to read stories and memoirs are a form of ‘true stories‘ and people love to read about the interesting things that happened in someone else’s life.

Use Fiction Writing technique

A memoir should adopt the style of fiction writing. So use concepts like in medias res or other narrative style to capture the attention of your reader. Nobody likes to read a memoir that starts like ‘I woke up, brushed my teeth, had breakfast, went to office…’ It should have some story, suspense, humour, tragedy etc to make it interesting for the readers

A Memoir is not a diary so focus on the incident

As mentioned in the earlier point, a memoir is not like a diary when you just jot down what you did. Well, there are diaries that are hugely popular because they tell a story. Famous example being Anne Frank’s Diary. Therefore, try to focus on incidents rather than on routine stuff.

Be respectful to the people you are writing about in your memoir

Writing a memoir is tricky because unlike fiction you are dealing with real people. Therefore, try to be respectful to the people you mention in your memoir. Ideally, take their consent before writing. I personally change names of people to protect their identity. I may not like a person in real life but when I write about them I try to be respectful and not bash them through my writing.

Be objective

When writing a memoir try to be objective. Do not indulge in self pity and turn yourself into a tragedy king or queen. Similarly, do not turn yourself into a ‘knight in shining armor’. Do not boast about yourself. Try to be as objective as possible. Be self deprecating. Trust me readers love when you can laugh at yourself. Most of my popular posts are those where I have been self deprecating.

Exclude unnecessary details

It is important to be crisp in your writing and avoid unnecessary details. Your readers do not know you personally so they would like to get to the story fast. Unnecessary details and descriptions would bore them and they may skip reading your memoir.

Connect with your readers

Last but not the least is your ability to connect to your audience. As I mentioned earlier in this post that I love when audience can connect with my story. That is when they read and come back for more. The readers love to find a slice of their lives in your memoir. If they can relate they would be able to laugh or cry. And that would bring them back to your post.

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Story of an Uprooted Mango Tree during Cyclone Amphan #prayforbengal

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Today, early in the morning, my cousin brother sent me this picture. This is the picture of our ancestral home in the suburbs of Kolkata. This one image depicts the damage and devastation my home state West Bengal went through in one evening due to cyclone Amphan. It was hard to recognise my own home, the home I grew up, from this image.

Looking at the uprooted mango tree, I suddenly felt as if someone in the family have died. Tears welled up in my eyes.This mango tree was not just a tree, it was a part of my childhood. I used to swing from the branches of this tree.  Me and my younger cousin brother used to play ‘hide and seek’ behind this tree. This tree used to bloom with the sweetest mangoes during the summer season. Most afternoon were spent eating mangoes. In the beginning of spring, the fragrance of raw mango pickle used to be all over the house. Later on, during the scorchy summer it used to get replaced by the smell of ripe mangoes. We used to have mango for our breakfast, lunch and dinner. Even after distributing to the neighbours there used to be so many that the women in the house used to feel overwhelmed on what to do with it. I remember, my mom making aam sattwa or aam papad  in the afternoon and letting it dry on the terrace. Aam pora sherbat was a cool drink that we offered to whoever came to visit us.  So many memories of childhood are linked to this one tree that it is hard to recollect all of them. 

Our house used to be full of people back then. Over the years, my grandparents passed away followed by my parents, my uncle and two aunts. Most of us left that house and migrated to different parts of the world and country. However, the mango tree never went anywhere and stood like an old guard to the house. It was a reminder of the ‘good times’ we spent in that house. It reminded us of all the laughter and chattering that once reigned over the house. It stood there silently like the old man who inhabits dilapidated houses. But yesterday it left us. The cyclone took away an old friend. I wish a new plant grow from the seeds left behind by our dear friend. 

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Linking this post to Wordless Wednesday hosted by Esha and Natasha and also Thursday Tree Love hosted by Parul. 

Shampoo Bottle- #ShortStory

The guy was handsome!!!

Let me put it this way, he was not the average Hindi serial type handsome. He was Hollywood films type handsome. His chiseled jaw could give Brad Pitt a run for his money. And his demeanor resembled Justin Trudeau. He was as suave as George Clooney. I hope by now you have got a hang of things, or do I give more comparisons?

Obviously, I was gaping at him. If someone had captured the moment in ‘Tom and Jerry’ style cinematography then they could have shown two red hearts popping out of my eyes and my heart throbbing in and out of my chest like a cuckoo alarm clock.

He turned around and looked at me.

Did he smile?

He did not smile exactly  but displayed a “hashi hashi mukh” as we Bengalis would put it, which means a face that is in a dilemma of ‘to smile or not to smile’. That smiley face exhibited the dimple he had on his left cheek. My heart started throbbing faster. The guy now flipped his hair with his fingers and I was feeling my heart in my throat. I could almost hear music from Karan Johar’s movie playing behind.

Then, I composed myself. I was on a mission and this guy was no less than a honey-trap. I have to remain focused on my target object or else I would lose it. I cannot afford that. This guy was surely using his charm to divert my attention from the object. I should not get distracted by his dimple. The country was going on a lockdown in four hours and I desperately needed this.

He moved closer towards the object that was sitting lonely on a shelf inside the grocery store. He took out his hand from the pocket to grab it. I did not waste any more time and in a blink ran and put my hand on it. The shampoo bottle was now in my firm grip.

The guy looked at me disheartened. He even tried a puppy face but nothing could shake me. I was not going to let go of the shampoo bottle. I have long hair and obviously needed shampooing it more than this guy. I was not feeling any guilt. Mission Accomplished!!

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Maidless India #Corona #Lockdown

Last week, I wrote a post on 5 Things to be Grateful for during Lockdown where I mentioned how my husband is mopping and cooking. It seems my husband is not alone. Finally, Indian men have left their mom’s apron/pallu/dupatta and risen to the occasion to do household chores. Thanks to maids being absent.

In India, most middle-class households have one or more than one maids. The mopping and cleaning dishes are done by maids in the majority of houses. Most houses also have a cook. Now, due to the lockdown all homes are maidless, with exceptions of houses with live-in maids. The women are now coping with kids, bosses, laundry, cleaning, dusting, home-schooling, cooking, dishes and so many other things. The men are for the first time in a situation where they have very little choice.

There are few men who have been doing household chores and this phase is just an extension. There are second types of men who are not used to household chores but they have a conscience and it is inhuman to watch your wife do so many things alone while you Netflix and Chill. The third types are those who perhaps always thought that household chores are a ‘woman’s work’ but now they see that it gets done better and faster if both pitch in and working together is fun. And, of course, there is the fourth typical misogynist and patriarchal ‘Indian men’ who think that household chores and kids are a woman’s job, these men neither have conscience nor humanity and they do not hesitate to resort to violence when they don’t get food on time. But, today let us not focus on these monsters and look at the  ‘new age’ Indian men who have finally realized that their machismo doesn’t diminish if they do chores, rather they earn the love of their wife.

Photo credit: Poster of Ki and Ka

Before blaming the men, I would like to blame the moms of these men. These men were taught by their moms that ‘cooking’ and ‘kids’ are a woman’s job. Similarly, the moms of the girls taught them that ‘home’ is your domain and ‘way to a man’s heart is through his belly’ so you better learn to cook. However, without the maids not only the wife but even his mom is in no mood to indulge him, because even the mother is getting bulldozed by loads of work.

This ‘lockdown’ proved to be a great unlearning for Indian men. I am happy to see so many of them are now cooking and cleaning. My college friend called me and said “I don’t want this Lockdown to end because my husband is doing so much of work.” Another friend said, “I wish I had five husbands like Draupadi, then I could have delegated one work to each of them.”

Many women are also putting their foot down and asking the husband to do some work. Finally women also have stopped pampering the men. Either you do or else face the music. This lockdown took away the privilege of Indian men. The moms of many men have also realised their mistake in raising the boys. They acknowledge that it was unwise to not teach the boys household work.

Here I would like to give an instance. In one of the groups where we are helping the elderly, sick, poor, and disabled people during this lockdown one mother of a 23-year-old boy wrote that she needs help for her son. He is living alone in Bangalore and he doesn’t know how to cook and clean and she would be grateful if someone gives him some homecooked food. The mother probably never imagined that she would get badly trolled for this. Almost everyone in the group unanimously said that the mother should have taught the boy all this when he was a kid. It was her fault to raise a son who knew nothing. Poor lady received no sympathy and many said that the son should learn to cook and clean during this lockdown. The best part is within a week, the same mother posted a video of her son cooking rice and chicken. He saw recipes on Youtube and made his first food.

Indian men, these days most women share the financial responsibilities so it is time you start doing household chores. It is your house as well. Take care of your kids, she didn’t bring the kid as part of her trousseau, both of you brought it together. I would like to see all of you cooking and cleaning even after the lockdown is over and maids are back. This is your moment of glory, make us proud.

Red Roses for Proposal #ShortStory

“I don’t like red roses,” she replied with a smirk.

Anish felt like an idiot with a bouquet of roses in his hands and a ring in his pocket while the woman he intended to propose was half-twirling with her left toe raised and heel firmly digging the ground. The smirk and amusement was still conspicuous on her face while he stood there like a weary statue.

She added, “Actually I don’t like roses. They are overrated.”

Anish was utterly confused, he tried to come up with a suitable reply but in this moment of crisis nothing came up. She was enjoying his flabbergasted look but tried to maintain a stoic face.

She asked,” Tell me, why is rose considered romantic and not bougainvillea or tulips? I like tulips”. She emphasised on the word ‘like’ with a strong conviction. She took a small breath and added, “More so, why only red rose and not yellow rose?”

Anish had no answer. One part of him wanted to throw the red roses and run away as far as possible. He fumbled for an answer but only a faint stammer came out of his mouth.

She felt amused at his helplessness and said “Anish, if you want to impress me then stop being a cliche.”

Anish muttered under his breath, ” I am sorry, I didn’t know that you dislike roses.”

She frowned at him and made a ‘tut-tut’ sound with her tongue and said, ” I also don’t like men who can not stand up for themselves.”

Anish knew she was a difficult woman and impressing her would not be easy but he never thought that he would get stuck at the first hurdle itself. So far, forget asking her hand, he has not even been able to transfer the roses from his hand to her’s. The ring was yet to come out of the pocket. Judging by the situation the ring may never come out of the pocket and see the light of day.

While a lot of things were crossing his mind, she chuckled and said, ” You can take out the ring from the pocket. I just hope that it is an emerald ring and not a cliched diamond one. I don’t like diamond ring.”

Anish understood that life would be difficult but never boring with this ‘unconventional’ woman. He said, “Diamond and roses and cliche will become unconventional with your smile.”

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5 Things to be Grateful for during Lockdown #GratitudeCircle

The lockdown may seem like a depressing time and you may feel there is nothing to be grateful for. However, trying times are our best teachers and we have a lot to learn from these times. Firstly, we should be grateful that we are alive while millions have died all over the world. Secondly, we should be grateful for the roof above our head and the food on our plate. There are so many people who are homeless and hungry during this pandemic. Let me list down the few things that I was grateful for in April.

[image error]Completed A-Z Challenge 2020: At the beginning of March, I thought of  ‘love stories’ as my theme for the A-Z Challenge. I even wrote a few stories but on 12th March, Lockdown was declared in my city and from the 26th of March the entire country was under strict lockdown. I felt overwhelmed and I was not being able to concentrate on my ‘love stories’ because my mind was too full of the pandemic. Therefore I decided to change my theme to ‘Life in the times of Corona’ because that was what my mind was occupied off.

I started writing about my emotions and feeling during this stressful period. As they say ‘writing is therapeutic’ so gradually I started to feel better. My initial posts were full of anger and anxiety but later on, I wrote a few funny posts like ‘romance during lockdown‘ and ‘ugly, untidy,  and unclean‘.

I was happy to connect with so many amazing bloggers during this challenge. I confess, this time I visited fewer posts than previous times but the ones I visited regularly were completely worth my time. I absolutely loved reading them. 

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Webinars: The year 2020 proved to be good for my patient forum. During this lockdown, most patients are finding it hard to reach to their doctors or procure medicines. Therefore, I decided to organize a few webinars where the patients could directly interact with the doctors. We organized five webinars, and I was happy that patients from not only India but also countries like Canada, Holland, Israel, Hungary, and Nepal took part. I honestly feel proud.

Family Time: The biggest blessing of this lockdown is the ‘family time’ we are getting to spend. My husband is a busy man. Before the lockdown, he used to travel minimum thrice a week, and on the remaining days he hardly spent time with us. He used to spend 9-10 hours in office, 2 hours exercising outdoors, 7-8hours sleeping and remaining hours in bath, calls, and watching videos.

This lockdown gave us the opportunity to spend time together. He and I are an extrovert and introvert respectively. He likes to stay away from the home while I love to stay indoors, this lockdown has forced him to stay home and therefore after many years we are cooking, eating, talking and watching television together. He is also in charge of mopping the floor, which is a big task for me. It feels good to have him around.

Cooking with son: I decided to use this time to teach my son an important life skill, cooking. I am happy to see that he is absolutely enjoying it. Kids these days need some incentives and so I also created a cooking Youtube channel for him and he is absolutely enjoying cooking, shooting, editing, and uploading the videos.  I also see that many more people are nurturing the hobbies of their kids.

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I am really proud of my son because, at the onset of the lockdown, I thought he would bother me a lot but to my surprise he is the most well-behaved boy that I could have asked for. He is not disturbing me a bit and is being a great helping hand.

Environment: I have been a silent climate crusader for long. I am a huge fan of Greta Thunberg and it gives me relief to see that the Earth is finally healing, even though we are paying a heavy price for that healing. The air seems so much cleaner, there seem to be more birds and butterflies and wild animals are getting a free run.

P.S. I am also on a digital detox. My mobile phone broke down and in this situation neither could I repair it nor buy a new one. Therefore, automatically I am using lot less internet and enjoying a digital detox.

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Linking this post to Vidya’s Gratitude Circle.

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5 Things to be Grateful for during Lockdown #GartitudeCircle

The lockdown may seem like a depressing time and you may feel there is nothing to be grateful for. However, trying times are our best teachers and we have a lot to learn from these times. Firstly, we should be grateful that we are alive while millions have died all over the world. Secondly, we should be grateful for the roof above our head and the food on our plate. There are so many people who are homeless and hungry during this pandemic. Let me list down the few things that I was grateful for in April.

[image error]Completed A-Z Challenge 2020: At the beginning of March, I thought of  ‘love stories’ as my theme for the A-Z Challenge. I even wrote a few stories but on 12th March, Lockdown was declared in my city and from the 26th of March the entire country was under strict lockdown. I felt overwhelmed and I was not being able to concentrate on my ‘love stories’ because my mind was too full of the pandemic. Therefore I decided to change my theme to ‘Life in the times of Corona’ because that was what my mind was occupied off.

I started writing about my emotions and feeling during this stressful period. As they say ‘writing is therapeutic’ so gradually I started to feel better. My initial posts were full of anger and anxiety but later on, I wrote a few funny posts like ‘romance during lockdown‘ and ‘ugly, untidy,  and unclean‘.

I was happy to connect with so many amazing bloggers during this challenge. I confess, this time I visited fewer posts than previous times but the ones I visited regularly were completely worth my time. I absolutely loved reading them. 

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Webinars: The year 2020 proved to be good for my patient forum. During this lockdown, most patients are finding it hard to reach to their doctors or procure medicines. Therefore, I decided to organize a few webinars where the patients could directly interact with the doctors. We organized five webinars, and I was happy that patients from not only India but also countries like Canada, Holland, Israel, Hungary, and Nepal took part. I honestly feel proud.

Family Time: The biggest blessing of this lockdown is the ‘family time’ we are getting to spend. My husband is a busy man. Before the lockdown, he used to travel minimum thrice a week, and on the remaining days he hardly spent time with us. He used to spend 9-10 hours in office, 2 hours exercising outdoors, 7-8hours sleeping and remaining hours in bath, calls, and watching videos.

This lockdown gave us the opportunity to spend time together. He and I are an extrovert and introvert respectively. He likes to stay away from the home while I love to stay indoors, this lockdown has forced him to stay home and therefore after many years we are cooking, eating, talking and watching television together. He is also in charge of mopping the floor, which is a big task for me. It feels good to have him around.

Cooking with son: I decided to use this time to teach my son an important life skill, cooking. I am happy to see that he is absolutely enjoying it. Kids these days need some incentives and so I also created a cooking Youtube channel for him and he is absolutely enjoying cooking, shooting, editing, and uploading the videos.  I also see that many more people are nurturing the hobbies of their kids.

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I am really proud of my son because, at the onset of the lockdown, I thought he would bother me a lot but to my surprise he is the most well-behaved boy that I could have asked for. He is not disturbing me a bit and is being a great helping hand.

Environment: I have been a silent climate crusader for long. I am a huge fan of Greta Thunberg and it gives me relief to see that the Earth is finally healing, even though we are paying a heavy price for that healing. The air seems so much cleaner, there seem to be more birds and butterflies and wild animals are getting a free run.

P.S. I am also on a digital detox. My mobile phone broke down and in this situation neither could I repair it nor buy a new one. Therefore, automatically I am using lot less internet and enjoying a digital detox.

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Linking this post to Vidya’s Gratitude Circle.

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