On Saturday I wrote about Kolkata the city I was thankful for.That was a food trip down memory lane and won the WOW badge from Blogadda!Entire July I have recollected the food which has helped me grow and become who I am today.
They deserve a thank you.
One
A fish Hilsa or Ilish. It’s more than a fish it’s like a cult!
If you are a Bengali and don’t like Ilish you may be put under a genetic scanner.
Bengali s love it adores it and makes it a part of every special occasion.
Ilish bhaja with Ilisher tel (the fish oil)
Ilish bhaja
Sorshe diye Ilish.
Ilish bhapa (steamed with mustard paste green chilies)
Ilish begun kumro kaccha lonkar jhol.
Doi Ilish(curd based dish)
Ilish Paturi(Steamed in banana leaves or sweet pumpkin leaves)
All these made my brain have enough omega 3 fatty acids to read through tons of books to clear my medical exams.I am deeply grateful for this fish which helped my brain process the difficult terrains of nonstop studying!
I enjoy Hilsa. Deep fried shallow fried or steamed. It’s delicious with steaming hot rice and an afternoon stretching lazily in front of you.The fine bones in this fish make the eating as much of an art as the cooking is.
I like it cooked in a rich mustard and green chili gravy or a light fragrant gravy with sweet pumpkin, brinjals and generously spiced with green chilies.Any way you serve it, makes me happy.
Two
Dark chocolate and Cadbury’s Silk.
The wiser I grow I am living the bitter undertones of dark chocolate.
Thankful for Chocolate:Thankful Thursdays Favourite Food
But I still can’t give up the gooey richness of Silk.Remember the Silk ad where the woman didn’t share with her hubby?That’s me too!Now my hubby hides chocolateS my daughter is gifted.He doesn’t hide it from Rai He is hiding them from me.On good days I don’t look for chocolates.On not so great days I have chocolate cravings.That’s when I can have an entire bar!Chocolates make me feel good any day.
Nowadays I am participating in a #TeaWithWriteTribe tribe contest and what can I say I love tea.Green Black White, gingery tea, masala tea.anything!
3 Favorite foods I am thankful for
Hot or chilled, tea is a childhood love.
When mom used to come back from office.My sister was in charge of making the perfect cup of tea.
Boil the water just right.Put in a few tea spoons of Darjeeling tea!Wait for 4 minutes.Stir it once.See if the color is just so.
Strain it.
3 spoons of milk or less and sugar.
Home made jhaalmuri (puffed rice lightly spiced, with onions and cucumber diced finely )and chai with TV watching! That was tea time!
In Dilli, I fell in love with the gingery milk tea and the occasional masala chai the canteen wala bhaiya served.
Over cups of it, we used to discuss work load, politics, the party on the weekend or the next mad trip to the hills.
Tea has innumerable memories.Life without tea would be sad.
This Thankful Thursdays remembering my favorite foods have put the midweek blues right out of the window.Absolutely loved this.
What are your favorite food s that make you thankful?Comment below to let me know.Or you can write and link up right here.Just click the big blue button at the end of the post and submit your link.
Thankful Thursdays prompt this week:(open for 2weeks now!)
Thankful Thursday prompt :3 Favourite Food you are Thankful for
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I grew up in Kolkata.Rather still Calcutta to many of us.My memories of Kolkata has para cricket, picnics, and the pandal hopping during Pujo.
From having phuchka religiously every evening, to visiting the neighborhood temple.Childhood memories are wrapped in myriad sounds and tastes.
My home in South Kolkata has some of the most tree lined houses you will find in this city.With old and new houses jostling for space, this part of Kolkata still has its green lungs.
First Anniversary mocktail mommies celebration contest.Light Sunday: Winning post
The lake nearby and the well-paved footpaths, made for pleasant evening strolls with friends We still heeded all the warnings about wandering too far and strangers but the neighborhood was safe.
Shopping for household necessities, the best fruits veggies or my favorite fish, Lake market was a stone throws away.
Lake market now has a mall, The Lake mall. It’s cool, swanky with its own multiplex and BigBazaar..But the grocery shops in the main market, the fish market, and the local shops have survived.Because they too have learned the art of selling from the big businesses.It’s a beautiful amalgam of the old and new making a social tapestry.
The Gariahat market is where I went with my sister, for buying all the goodies for sale just before Nabo Barsho(Bengali New Year). I remember the many times we walked back home chatting and licking an ice cream cone, as the line at the auto stand was too long !.
We thought we were strong enough to tackle a few roadside Romeos.
I remember the time we all went for the late night show at Priya. Then scared to walk back home at one at night.Our home is 10 minutes away from Priya, but one am is not safe for walking!
Luckily we survived our stupidity.
Summer holidays meant going to moms office near Newmarket.The highlight was mom took us shopping and restaurant hopping.Some of my best memories are full of window shopping activities.That’s when I knew I have a shopaholics heart.Not having extra money helped me learn to rein it in and save for things that really mattered.I now window shop online too!It’s one of the best way to lift up my mood.
Thankful for Kolkata
Visits to Nahoums in Newmarket, Mamma Mia the gelato heaven at Ballygunge circular road.The Biriyani at Arsalan, Golbarir Kashamangsho, prawn cocktail at Mocambo, Chelo kabab at Peter Cat, breakfast at Flurys and picnics at Victoria! That’s the food map of Kolkata.
While in Calcutta Medical College we used to haunt the Coffee house, Paramount (delicious coco malai sarbot, a mix of milk, malai, cashews, ice, cocoa and God knows what .But it was lip smackingly delicious).Don’t ask about calories or nutrition facts though.Some things are beyond that.
The famous sweet shop Putiram had crisply fried karaishootir kachori (Puri stuffed with peas) and an array of Sandesh and fried sweets which made snacking as important as dissection classes.
Having daab(green coconut) from the kaku in front of the college or cooling down with an ice lolly all was part of days work.
The cityscape has changed.People are grappling with air and sound pollution .joblessness and increasing immigration problems.The education and healthcare system is being challenged by exploding population, lawlessness and violence every other day I left Kolkata in 2007 for Delhi.Then came back again.Left again.
Kolkata is where I got married and my darling daughter was born.Kolkata is witness to many joys and heartbreaks.It’s still my city.Wherever I go my heart will always beat for this city of joy.
Now living with my hubby and baby in a small town, but a Kolkata girl at heart.Show me the phuchka and promise a good adda and I will forget everything else.
Writing this for Write over weekends by Blogadda.
I am Thankful for being a Kolkata girl forever.
Linking this post with #MondayMusings
Update .This post won two awards,
One: The WOW badge by Blogadda
I won the wow badge by Blogadda
Second: mocktailmommies celebration contest.Light Sunday: Winning post .
I am thankful for Hostgator’s headache free migration service to https. But isn’t everyone is giving a free SSL certificate? Don’t know about everyone, but Hostgator just did it for me. This makes July my favorite month till now in 2018. I was worrying so bad about this, that I had a weekly headache on this topic. Yes, I tend to schedule worrying too. It’s not productive, but the worrying acts as a type of highly concentrated prayer or mindfulness exercise. Whichever way you look at it, this helps me find solutions or get gifted solutions.
Let me tell you the story. I was worried about the tech stuff associated with redirecting my entire website after the https migration, July was busy with two of my books being published back to back.I was pushing this torture to August. A very big risk, what with Google threatening to downrank sites. But you have only one head and two hands. Juggling everything and traveling made July the wrong month for this activity.
But God is kind. He magically inspired Hostagtor to give free SSL certificate to all plans irrespective of everything. You have to do nothing except redirect your website content. When I talked to Hostgator support about finding two versions of my blog, like Cinderella’s stepsister, one which Google will love and the older one which Google wants to ignore, this is my exact experience. I am not exaggerating at all.
The story :
First, the customer service person couldn’t find my https blog. Yes, that surprised me too! I had to tell him to type it on the browser separately Guess what, he found https://healthwealthbridge.com after a step by step instruction 2)All through this, he was polite and helpful. But not well-informed.
3)He then asked for my cpanel password, on checking which he confirmed my answer. Good news. A free SSL certificate was installed on my site. I was so happy that my headache disappeare d.His ignorance failed to make me irritated. My next query was, whether they had some resource for redirecting the pages and posts since I didn’t want two version of my blog. It gives faulty traffic numbers, can cause havoc with your rankings.
He politely informed me that no they had no such resources. Guess what I did? I typed the same question to Google and found all the Hostgator resources to help you do everything yourself with zero irritation.
Good news
Hostgator has a great Blog.
Hostgator has a polite support staff.
Bad News
Hostgator need to have more aware support staff. If I could Google and find it in less than ten seconds. I am sure he could too. This could have meant a lot of a headache for some people. Also looking at the blog I realized many faced similar complaints about misinformed support staff. Unusual problem, considering they have one of the best hosting services.
What did I do next?
Signed into my cpanel. Did a virus scan.
Took a full site backup.
Checked the SSL certificate myself again.
Downloaded and activated Really simple SSL plugin for activating SSL on my WordPress setup.
One click activation, no headache, and all my blog links were redirected.
Changed my WordPress login URL for my blog.
This you can check in settings>General on your WP dashboard.
Then I set up my new GA property. I am set.
Welcome, August. Thankful Thursdays are the best time to say Thank you to Hostgator, for making a painless transition to https possible.
News Flash:Hostgator is giving a free https migration to all their accounts irrespective of the plan.
[bctt tweet=”Did you know @Hostgator is giving a free https migration to all their accounts irrespective of the plan?” username=”misra_amrita”]
Warning: Before making any changes you should have a backup present and have some idea about blog tech stuff
Why I wanted to share my experience.
1)Don’t believe everything you hear from support. Support is often outsourced with controversial quality.I am proof of that.
2)You still have a great resource to fall back on, if the service has a blog. Most businesses write about the good news related to their biz on the blog.
3)Never lose hope, when a difficult problem arises. Sometimes the answer is a simple click away.
Affiliate disclaimer: The following link is an affiliate link. I only recommend products I use and find useful. Your support means a lot to me.
Takeaway:
I still like Hostgator and the service they provide. I honestly wish they gave more training to their customer support . In case support is outsourced you must check its quality. The only reason I have managed to do everything for my blog myself is because of the outstanding support I had received from Hostgator.
Get my books on blogging too, while Amazon is offering them at a special prize!
Disclaimer: This is my personal experience. Kindly do all plugin activation at own personal risk.Healthwealthbridge is in no way responsible for your decision to buy, download and install the plugins on your site or any issue that may or may not arise out of it.
Childhood memories are our happiness balance.Those that are kept inside the labyrinth of our memories.They nourish us, guide us, support us and make us happy each time we take them out of their silk wraps, to have a look.
What exactly is a memory?
It is a miracle of God, wonder of science, work of our neurons where sight, sound, textures, tastes, all come together. It creates a vibrant audio-visual, which entirely plays in our brain and can transport us back in time.
First Anniversary mocktail mommies: celebration contest
I have beautiful memories of summer holidays, spent lazily reading all day and drinking cups of chai, taking only the very necessary breaks.
Sleeping curled up with a book is the best way to get transported into the parallel story world, the author talks about.I remember the times I went for midnight picnic with the Malory Tower girls.I remember the Land of Birthdays, which I visited with Jo, Fanny, and Beth (I think!), on top of the Faraway tree.I remember the summers spent solving mysteries with Fatty and the Five find outers, of rowing to George’s Island, with the Famous Five.
Sometimes these memories are food memories.
The first strawberry cheesecake my sister baked.The delicious fried sweet she made, which accidentally became garlic flavored.Strangely enough, even the garlicky sweet dish, found several fans!But I can never forget the look on my aunt’s face, when she was offered another after she volubly praised the dish.This was before any of us had tasted it.In all fairness, my darling sis was totally unaware that the cook had used her favorite container for making a garlic paste!Now we all know better than to keep our bakeware in front of our cooks and maids!Lesson learned with a food memory.
ThankfulThursdays:Childhood Memories
During our exams, my sister always woke up early in the morning.We took turns to make tea to get started studying.Guess what?After having my first cup of tea I used to fall asleep.Again .This time with the book covering my face.
When I was caught, I always insisted I was using the ether to transfer, what’s on the pages into my head.For that book to face contact, is important.Always in supine position, with eyes closes. A very high level of mindful meditation. Till date, I have researched it diligently and I can never forget the taste of the tea and the look of surprise on my sisters face when I told her theses theories.
Thankfully I am traveling to the cooler climate today. Luckily my blog goes on working, even when I am not. That’s something I am always thankful for.
The kindest thing done by someone that I am thankful for, makes me misty-eyed.
The hardest thing in this world history overcome self-interest. If there is one thing we need to learn to practice on a daily basis, its kindness I will be honest yeah sometimes my tongue get the better of me and my words are anything but kind.
Kindness like thankfulness needs to be practiced daily.It’s not really second nature for anyone.
First Anniversary mocktail mommies celebration contest:Day 6 Speechless Saturday
3 people who have been very kind to me are my maternal uncle or Choto mama, supported me throughout my childhood and adulthood .That’s how my dreams came true. In all Fairy tales, there are fairy godmothers. I had a fairy God uncle! The only thing he wanted, was me to study hard and do well. He always wanted me to remember to help those in need. .The last part he never actually said what is actions have left me with the powerful debt which cannot be repaid .But can only be passed onwards. He will probably never read this.But people who are helping children get educated are getting a “thank you” from me,
My friend Rukmini
It’s a long story. So I will cut it short .After my 12th standard boards, I wanted to tutor children for some extra cash. My BFF’s recommendation to tutor her sister helped me .By Gods grace, she did well and my tuition side hustle started .The part which I remember most was how nicely my friend did this !Gratitude is an inefficient word for what I felt and feel.
Mayuri
She’s the one who got my first e-book on Amazon even before I finished speaking about it to her .When I told her I will be sending her a complimentary copy, she said
I wanted to buy your first book Amrita!
That was the sweetest and kindest things to do for an online friend, of 8 months.whom she has never physically met in life!
Another special friend without mentioning whom I can’t finish this post is my husband.
Many instances daily kindness can only be learned from. I am a flawed person, but my saving Grace is I always try. I have realized the best way to have a good relationship and a good life is to work on myself. I really thought I was perfect until I looked inside. Until I can control my tongue and my unruly mind a lot needs to be done.But I learned about daily kindness from my husband.
Online and offline we all have angels around .At the end of the day when things are winding down reflecting on those blessings make me happy and thankful.Writing this for Thankful Thursdays .
Our Prompt this week
3 Kindest Things that you’re Thankful for !
Thankful Thursdays prompt June 22nd
Write on the prompt and Link Up. You can also link up other posts.Just comment on this post and my co-hosts post and any two of the posts in the link up.
We deeply believe in community spirit.Eagerly looking forward to visiting your blogs. Grab the badge
This is week 30 of Thankful Thursdays.That’s 30 times I have said thank you over 30 weeks.Did it make a difference?Absolutely it did.My health is better, happiness quotient is improved and I am coping better with weird people(to some extent)!It just might be I have become less weird or the universe saner.Whatever it is in spite of all the horrors in horrors in Kashmir, the potential situation in Darjeeling, Trump’s ignorance about the Global warning and Ayush advice to pregnant women about abstinence and animal protein, I am still thankful.
Thankful that we have the Indian Army to protect us while we sleep.That I still don’t need to get a gun license
Thankful for staying on course with my health goals inspite of my cook’s absence(The poor dear broke her wrist !)
I am glad my daughter is old enough to understand when moms cooking and doesn’t cry.
3 Things Guaranteed to Improve my Mood
Praying and practicing thankfulness
Gardening
Cuddling my daughter
Praying and Thankfulness
I have practiced thankfulness since 2016 November.Interestingly its 30 weeks now and definitely a habit.
I love counting blessings.Its the most positive thing to give a boost to my week and motivate me to do more.I have a habit of exhaustive overthinking.So much so that it can become anxiety provoking.Thankfulness has been like mindfulness practice.It has helped rewire my brain for more positive thinking and really focus on more productivity and creativity.I have written more, felt happier and more at peace.When you say thank you, weeds .you open up the universe secret door to happiness and a plenty.
Cuddling my daughter
This is mood elevation wrapped up in love.The best way to make any day look brighter is to give a hug and plenty of kisses to my darling daughter./Our time spent together often have quick cuddle breaks when she announces
Mommy put away your work I need a cuddling.
Who wouldn’t like to be cuddle in charge for 5-year-old little angels?I so wish this feeling of hers staysforever..I feel happy whenever I am kissed or hugged.Who does
Gardening
I must have been a bird or a bee in a previous life.I love flowers, trees, weeds.The green color transports me to a peaceful zone in my brain where it doesn’t matter how many long hours of exhaustive work I may have done.Trees and plants I feel have a way of embracing us.Mother nature is truly like a mother’s lap.Pottering about my garden lifts up my mood within 10 minutes.
Thankful Thursdays :3 Things you are Thankful for Improving your mood
The secret tool!
Reading .
I have written about my love of books and this post would be incomplete without mentioning them.my entire life has been charted and planned by books.Those I have read, imbibed and loved.The pages talk to me, I can feel the emotions of the authors and get wiser from their experience.A wonderful way to spend a few hours is to curl up with a cup of tea and a great mystery book.
Writing this for ThankfulThursdays.
The Thankful Thursdays team and our Books.Read all about us here.
