Nupur Chowdhury's Blog, page 2

Poetry: Of Public Buses and Rainy Days

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Lightning split the sky and thundered,Electric blue the gray clouds sundered;The rickety minibus skidded on wet concrete,Weaving through rush-hour traffic on city streets.
It smelt like wet leather and misery,Dripping seats and handholds slippery;The crowd converged as the tires screeched,They pushed and they clawed till the door was reached.
The rain beat down on fatigue-bent shoulders,The burnt out faces of overtaxed householders;Boots stepped on sandals and cheap heels broke,The...

Rainbow Poetry #1

Poetry: Bleeding Through the Year in Verse

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It’s been a difficult year,You wrote me a song and told me it’s over.It’s been a treacherous year,Every conversation’s been feeling like a hostile takeover.
Having dinner on the frontlines,Sharing a drink across enemy lines;Across the dining table I fire a shotThe bullet ricochets, your sigh an afterthought. 
An unforgiving year, ‘cause you won’t tell me what’s wrong;What to forgive and where to start.Won’t sing me a melody, won’t write me a song,That doesn’t end with your pen...

Fatigue, Failure, and Burnout: A Crash Course in Adulting

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Burned out. That word pretty much summarizes my state of mind right now.
I don’t even know why I feel this way, really. I don’t have the most leisurely life on earth, but my life’s far from being unmanageable.
I have a pretty stable job with a relaxed work environment, and a reasonably supportive family to come home to. So why am I feeling like a drowned rat?
Well, information overload should certainly shoulder part of the blame.
Over the past year, I’ve been reading every book a...

An Excess of Romance: Why We Need More Focus on Platonic Relationships in Fiction

Romance. I don’t think there’s much that I can say about it that hasn’t been said already.
Stories, poems, blogs and books about romance are hardly in short supply. Anything you want to know about the subject (and much that you don’t), somebody has already written about somewhere. So, you might ask, why am I writing ANOTHER blog post about romance?
Well, the answer to that question is that I’m not. In fact, I’m writing something that’s the exact opposite.
Heh. I suppose that’s not...

Of Shitty Bosses and Long Commutes – Busting the Myth of a Perfect Career

Life is what happens to us while we’re busy making other plans.
And it isn’t just ourselves for whom we make plans, either. We make them for others too. And no one does this more than parents.
Mine certainly did. Good school – better college – elite university – high end job. That was the plan.
And if you cribbed about any of the steps in the process? If you didn’t like the curriculum at school or hated the professors at college? Well, you see, there’s a reason for all the pain you’re going thro...

Human + X: Creating Believable Aliens in Fiction

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So today I want to talk about aliens. More accurately, I want to talk about a subset of aliens.
The fictional variety.
The type of aliens that appear on the pages of science fiction novels, and in the episodes of space operas.
If real aliens exist, Hola to them too! Hope we see you guys soon. But for now, I’m gonna limit myself to the aliens created for our entertainment. AKA book and movie aliens.
In fact, now that I think about it, the points I’m about to discuss can apply to an...

Cultural Narratives: Building an Identity Upon Fairy Tales

It was a tiny article published on one of the inner pages of the morning paper that first made me think about the idea of cultural narratives, which came to be one of the major themes underlying my second novel. The story was so inconsequential, I don’t even remember any of the details anymore. And neither, I suspect, do the people who wrote it over two years ago. Essentially, the piece talked about some kind of disagreement between India and Pakistan in the UN. (Surprise surprise)!
The detail...

Book Review: Holiday Love by Joni Martins

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars
This is the story of Joshua and Freya, a young couple who have known each other since they were children. The story takes off when they meet each other unexpectedly during a camping holiday. Neither of them had expected to meet the other during the much anticipated holiday. However, once they do meet, sparks begin to fly and despite numerous hurdles, they find love, solace, and happiness in each other's arms.
What I loved I loved both the protagonists of the story, as they...

Poetry: She Sat Beside Me On the Minibus

Clad in tattered white and a toothy smileShe huddled beside me on the rickety minibusI didn’t say hello, never asked whyShe told me anyway, her destination was the Ultadanga Terminus.
The Transport Department were pussies, she said,In terms more colorful than I can in decency conveyThe municipality? A bunch of thieves!Sprayed diluted pesticide, never swept the leaves.
Her husband, she said, had been an officer,Might’ve been a peon or an auditor.Either way, he showed ‘em their placeFought the go...