Bangla vs English terms

 In the Bangla language, we have some additional words that don't exist in English. For example, in English, we call him uncle. In Bangla, we have chacha (father's brother), fufa (father's sister's husband), mama (mother's brother), khalu (mother's sister's husband), taloi (sister's father-in-law), etc. If we translate these into English, all of them would be called uncle.

In my childhood, I was very confused about all these relationships. So, sometimes I used to follow what my mother says. For example, I used to call Dula bhai (brother-in-law) to my Boro Khalu (uncle). Later, I figured out that my mother called him Dula bhai. One day, my older sister corrected me. I tried to remember that, but sometimes, by mistake, I used to call him Dula bhai.

Biography 333: She was stealing

 I was very young. During those days, my mom used to have a permanent housemaid. I mean, they had to live with us and work with my mom. If they couldn't prove their work to a high standard or commit any unforgivable mistake, my mom would send them back.

One woman started working in our house, but we were not happy with her work and behavior. So, Mom asked her to leave. She got ready and said goodbye to mom. She was sweating a lot. At that moment, my Boro Khalu (my mother's older sister's husband) was in our house. He told my mom to check her before she left.

My mom generally doesn't do that, but she checked her luggage and found some household items she was taking with her. Khalu also asked for a body check, but my mom wasn't ready for that. She said, 'Whatever you take, just give it to me; I won't punish you.' Then she brought out some sarees that were hidden in her body. Those belonged to my mom. Anyway, mom didn't take them back; let her take those.

I was thinking, my khalu was very experienced in this matter; he knew exactly what was going on here.

My mom's garden

 My mom's garden had lots of Aloe Vera plants, as you can see in the picture. My older sister tried to use those plants; as far as I know, she used them to improve her hair and promote glowing skin. However, the process looks very difficult, so I haven't tried anything with those plants.

The season is changing

 The season is changing. Winter to Spring. Seasonal changes can bring some diseases to your body, such as a light cough or a fever. Eat lots of fruits, especially those that contain vitamin C. It may help you feel better.

Missing dates in the calendar.

 Somebody thought the calendar didn't print some numbers by mistake, so they wrote it to help me out.

I liked this song, even without understanding its language.

I heard this song as background music on different reels. I liked it before I understood its language. Later, I learned it's in French. Listen to this song first.

Then I learned the story behind the song. Listen to this.

Now listen to the English translation

Biography 332: Sleeping issues.

 Once upon a time, I didn't have any problem sleeping. It's not that I could sleep anywhere, like in a chair or a new place. But if I had a good sleeping environment, I didn't have any trouble sleeping. After dinner, sometimes I wanted to watch TV, sometimes my parents let me, and sometimes not. But when I went to my bed, I could sleep.

Now things have changed. Sometimes I can manage to get to bed on time, but most of the time I can't sleep. I try to relax, but nothing works. Then I have to get up and start working without sleep. Again, I try at bedtime, but nothing works. Sometimes, after a few days, I can. I have accepted my new condition. I don't always have to be perfect. I might have some trouble in my life.

Wanting someone and loving someone aren't the same.

 Wanting someone and loving someone aren't the same. When you want someone, you want them for yourself. You want to be physically and mentally benefited, to have kids with them, to have a good life because you expect they will help or provide that to you, etc. You don't consider what they might want, what their likes are, what their expectations are, or what will make them happy.

Let me give you an example. You may like or want chicken to eat. You will feed them properly and keep them in a good place so that one day you will eat them. You don't make a house for them to give them comfort or happiness, and you don't let them live the way they want to live, open and free to go anywhere they want. You may protect them from outside danger, but not for their sake; you do so for your own benefit.

Now think about what you think of your partner. Do you want them or do you love them? Be honest!

Kid's plate for cooking

 

It's my nature to prepare all the ingredients before I start cooking and keep them nearby. Here, I was using a kid's plate to keep ingredients for different curries.

Biography 331: Removed the phone number

 When I get angry at someone, I decide I won't communicate with that person anymore. After a while, my anger goes down, and I start thinking, what's the point? Everybody has problems. I can just ignore the issue and keep communicating. When I start communicating again, that person does the same thing to me again, and make me think I shouldn't have changed my mind and let them hurt me again.

When I was in school, we had a landline only. I used to keep a phone book and write all my classmates' phone numbers in it. If I decided not to call a person again for any reason, I used to cut the phone number out and mark it so dark that I couldn't figure it out again.

Because I knew I would change my mind after some time, I tried to recover the phone number and call that person again. I really tried, but because I had marked it as dark, I couldn't. I was thinking, why did I do that? I couldn't call that person anymore.

But I was right the first time. So I always try to follow my first decision. I know that if I change it, I might regret it more.