Worshop is for learning

After today’s workshop I finally came to know that workshop is really for learning. Although it was about giving comments on others’ papers, I had learnt a lot from their papers. Discovering others’ experiences and relating all those experiences through our own judgment innovates our level of thinking, skills of writing. This experience was really new for me and greatly encouraging. While I was giving the comments on my classmates’ papers, I was not only providing feedbacks but also exploring many ideas that I will need to improve in my paper. At the beginning I felt a little bit nervous whether my comments would be effective for my partner or not. But gradually I found it interesting by giving comments and gaining knowledge from them.

Although it was not easy for me to give comments on others’ papers, I tried my best to give effective feedback that would help them. I found the most difficult experience was to explore the self analysis of my class mates’ papers. Oh, god. I forgot to analyze me and my food which is the most important element of the personal essay. I assumed. While commenting the papers I found it difficult to relate their experiences, their relationships between them and their foods, why they enjoy it, why they do not enjoy it like those stuffs made me tensed that do they really exist in their papers or not. As soon as I read and commented the papers, I discovered same problem in my paper. After the class discussion I got to know that how can I really deeply involve me into the food memory.

Reading others’ writing greatly helps to evaluate one’s own writing. By this workshop, we got the chance to read our classmates’ papers and it is rewarding to me that it truly affects our way of thinking, helps to trace out our own flaws by pointing out others’ flaws and enrich our ideas, experiences by knowing and encouraging their creative writing and experiences. Over all for being a good writer, this kind of workshop is very helpful.

Yes, joining in this workshop is a valuable experience for me as because it teaches me how to write a unique personal essay. Although, it is very hard to apply all those knowledge in the practical field, but at least we will try to do for the best. And this workshop is especially helpful for giving comments on our peers’ papers. To evaluate others’ papers one has to study more that he or she did in her paper.

I think the workshop was successful in a way. However, it could be improved by doing some practices before. For example, we can give comments on some famous writers’ personal essays. Moreover, I want to mention one thing that giving feedback personally is better than giving it in front of others because everybody’s writing quality is not equal. Somebody may feel embarrass when anyone castigate their papers, may lose their confidences. It will affect their writing and so it should be personal conversation. Overall, the workshop is successful for our prof. Evans’s great support to make us triumphant writer.

 

Shingara……Shingara…..!

Sometimes we got contented feeling by savoring our favorite food and I am also going to share such a food memory which gave me a contented feeling.

It was Thursday morning and just five to ten. I was eagerly waiting when the hour hand of the clock will touch ten as the math class would be finished at ten. My mind was not in class and it was roaming around somewhere. I was staring again and again at the clock hanging on the wall above our math teacher’s head.

“Papun, have you completed number twenty five?” asked Mr. Noman.

“No, sir. I am doing” answered with a pale face.

 “What is happened? You should do hurry. Now guys, I am starting a new chapter” said Mr. Noman elevated his voice with a great enthusiasm.

But a loud scream from the students faded his eagerness. “No, sir. There is only five minutes left. We will start it from next class” shouted most of the students. At that moment, I thanked all those students by heart.

“Guys, we can use five minutes in a way” implied sir.

But our refuse made it possible to finish the class five minutes ago.

Taking my bag I just got out from class and walked down the stairs with a quick run. At that moment, I was supposed to be like that nobody in the world was so busy like me. When I stepped in the brick road in front of the university, I just took breath in the open air like I got relief from a prison. At that moment, I wished to fly at large like a bird in the sky. In fact, I had a lot of pressure all over week. At the end of the day, I was waiting to enjoy for such a moment which could be able to take me away from this stressful life to relaxing life.

“Ding….Dong…..Papun, give me something ambrosial to eat” my tummy tickled me as I did not have breakfast that day. On such a day, I desired to go outside for having a different taste of breakfast. For that reason, I thought TMT could be a best option for me as it is not so far from university. Moreover, my mind danced with great appeal thinking about the famous “shingara” of TMT.

As I need company to go to restaurant, I asked one of my friends to go with me.           

 “Sara, let’s go to TMT” I asked her with a charismatic voice.

“No, I have submission at 4 pm today” said making a wry mouthed.

I became upset for a while but after sometimes the charming tendency to savor the “shingara” enthused over me going TMT alone.

Within five minutes I reached there although I walked along the road in an easeful mood. As TMT is a small cafeteria, it is crowded with local people. Although its service will not satisfy you, its palatable dishes will give you a mouth watering taste. And for that reason, the decoration, the small wooden chairs and table will not matter. Especially TMT’s famous item is “Shingara” and it is very demandable that all the “Shingaras” are bought by 11 am.

“Uncle, give me one cup of tea with one Shingara” I asked the manager with an appetizing face.

“Ok, mam. Please take seat” requested the manager. Suddenly a small boy came with glass of water and rubbed the table with a cotton towel. Although the glass water was looked like clean, I did not dare to drink that water.

“Mam, here is your tea and shingrara” grasping my attention said the waiter with white shirt.

“Thank you, uncle” I responded with a mild smile. As it is spicy, it is served with tomato sauce.

The first bite reminded me the taste of potato smashed which my mother usually makes in home. In fact, the “shingrara” is made of different kinds of vegetables mostly potato diced, carrot diced, the onion leaves, cauliflower in tiny flowerets, green peas and so on. These cooked vegetables are cooked with turmeric powder, cumin powder, chili powder, sugar, salt, and ginger paste. This vegetable paste is covered with the cone which is made of ghee, and sieved flour. When it is fried with oil, its colour will be golden brown and it spreads the cumin flavor.

When I finished it, I desired to have one more and again I ordered. When I was eating “shingrara”, every bite was giving me satiable taste. The especial fragrance held my attention only in savoring “shingrara” at that moment. After finishing “shingrara” the milky tea gave me a cozy feeling. It seemed that after long days I ate something with my heart’s content.

Even though everybody in my house rebukes me for my tendency to oily food, junk food from outside, I cannot make me stop from enjoying all those ambrosial foods. As I went to TMT to taste “shingrara”, I was content with the whole day.           

“Shingara…..Shingara……!”

Sometimes we got contented feeling by savoring our favorite food and I am also going to share such a food memory which gave me a contented feeling.

It was Thursday morning and just five to ten. I was eagerly waiting when the hour hand of the clock will touch ten as the math class would be finished at ten. My mind was not in class and it was roaming around somewhere. I was staring again and again at the clock hanging on the wall above our math teacher’s head.

“Papun, have you completed number twenty five?” asked Mr. Noman.

“No, sir. I am doing” answered with a pale face.

 “What is happened? You should do hurry. Now guys, I am starting a new chapter” said Mr. Noman elevated his voice with a great enthusiasm.

But a loud scream from the students faded his eagerness. “No, sir. There is only five minutes left. We will start it from next class” shouted most of the students. At that moment, I thanked all those students by heart.

“Guys, we can use five minutes in a way” implied sir.

But our refuse made it possible to finish the class five minutes ago.

Taking my bag I just got out from class and walked down the stairs with a quick run. At that moment, I was supposed to be like that nobody in the world was so busy like me. When I stepped in the brick road in front of the university, I just took breath in the open air like I got relief from a prison. At that moment, I wished to fly at large like a bird in the sky. In fact, I had a lot of pressure all over week. At the end of the day, I was waiting to enjoy for such a moment which could be able to take me away from this stressful life to relaxing life.

“Ding….Dong…..Papun, give me something ambrosial to eat” my tummy tickled me as I did not have breakfast that day. On such a day, I desired to go outside for having a different taste of breakfast. For that reason, I thought TMT could be a best option for me as it is not so far from university. Moreover, my mind danced with great appeal thinking about the famous “shingara” of TMT.

As I need company to go to restaurant, I asked one of my friends to go with me.           

 “Sara, let’s go to TMT” I asked her with a charismatic voice.

“No, I have submission at 4 pm today” said making a wry mouthed.

I became upset for a while but after sometimes the charming tendency to savor the “shingara” enthused over me going TMT alone.

Within five minutes I reached there although I walked along the road in an easeful mood. As TMT is a small cafeteria, it is crowded with local people. Although its service will not satisfy you, its palatable dishes will give you a mouth watering taste. And for that reason, the decoration, the small wooden chairs and table will not matter. Especially TMT’s famous item is “Shingara” and it is very demandable that all the “Shingaras” are bought by 11 am.

“Uncle, give me one cup of tea with one Shingara” I asked the manager with an appetizing face.

“Ok, mam. Please take seat” requested the manager. Suddenly a small boy came with glass of water and rubbed the table with a cotton towel. Although the glass water was looked like clean, I did not dare to drink that water.

“Mam, here is your tea and shingrara” grasping my attention said the waiter with white shirt.

“Thank you, uncle” I responded with a mild smile. As it is spicy, it is served with tomato sauce.

The first bite reminded me the taste of potato smashed which my mother usually makes in home. In fact, the “shingrara” is made of different kinds of vegetables mostly potato diced, carrot diced, the onion leaves, cauliflower in tiny flowerets, green peas and so on. These cooked vegetables are cooked with turmeric powder, cumin powder, chili powder, sugar, salt, and ginger paste. This vegetable paste is covered with the cone which is made of ghee, and sieved flour. When it is fried with oil, its colour will be golden brown and it spreads the cumin flavor.

When I finished it, I desired to have one more and again I ordered. When I was eating “shingrara”, every bite was giving me satiable taste. The especial fragrance held my attention only in savoring “shingrara” at that moment. After finishing “shingrara” the milky tea gave me a cozy feeling. It seemed that after long days I ate something with my heart’s content.

Even though everybody in my house rebukes me for my tendency to oily food, junk food from outside, I cannot make me stop from enjoying all those ambrosial foods. As I went to TMT to taste “shingrara”, I was content with the whole day.           

 

 

   

       

 

Food memories tend to write about food

Do we eat food to live or do we live to eat food? The answer of this question will differ from each other which sometimes create debate among the people. In this world, some people only fight for the food for their livelihood and some people only eat food for the enjoyment. I think our experiences with food can give this answer clearly.

Some people have a bitter experience with food and some people have a good experience with the food. For that reason, the meaning of food is different from each other. If I think about myself, I have good experiences with food all the time. From my childhood I was foodie that I used to eat food from my pleasure not to satiate. Yes, it is definitely true that when we feel hunger, we suppose to eat food for satisfying our hunger. Although some people in the world is continuous fighting for satisfying their huger, I have not had to experience such kind of struggling in my life for food. When I want food, I have got it immediately. When I feel hunger, I could satisfy my hunger easily. Even though I had not to see the struggling side of the food, I have not considered food as the part of luxury and always keep myself from wasting. I consider food as the enjoyment, as a festive part and part of my culture. When I became grown up, I started feeling an intensive tendency for cooking by observing the cooking of my mom, aunt, and grandmother and I have a lot of colorful moments with them in the kitchen. From that time, food, cooking, and kitchen are related with my life deeply. Moreover, as I am Bangali and from Hindu religion, I have to celebrate many festivals regarding food celebrations. Food makes significant all those celebrations by bringing us united in a way. It makes everyone nearer and will gift you a special moment with your dearest and nearest one. In addition, food is represented in various ways in different cultures. For example, vegetables, puffed rice, fried grains are considered as sacred food in my culture. The system of cooking also differs from each culture to another culture. All of these kinds of memories, feelings, and celebrations make me so emotional about food.

And these emotions, experiences make me to write about food which introduces my own identity, my own feelings about food to the audience. When I write abut the food of my own culture, my expressions about particular food assist the readers to get to know from which culture I have come, and from which identity I belong to. In fact, food is the delegate of the identity and culture. Moreover, if the writers write about food relating his experiences, it will be helpful for the readers to know the exact taste, smell, and presentation of food. So, it is very important to relate real life experiences of food in writing. Moreover, the writers’ different types of cultural recipes release the readers from tedious food menu.

Finally, I will infer that food is our life’s excitement and food writings are our inspirations to enjoy all those excitements.

 

 

Luchi Curry!

As I am from Hindu religion, I have to celebrate a lot of religious festivals. All these festivals are intrinsically related with different types of home made foods as these festivals are generally observed in house. When any religious festival comes forward, we eagerly wait for savoring various traditional dishes which need to be made in home with the enjoyment of these celebrations. In our religion, we need to cook all those foods according to our religious rules and customs. If there is anything wrong in the system of cooking in these festivals, it is assumed that the host or worshippers will be castigated by the people and cursed by the god. Moreover, those religious festivals and foods bear a traditional image because of its significant flavor and fragrance.

And definitely I miss all those foods and festivals during staying in university because all these foods are filled with mother’s affection and cultural religious reflection which I do not get while staying outside. So, all of these festivals remain memorable for me all the time. What I mostly miss is the celebration of Lakshmi (goddess of wealth) and Sarasvati (goddess of wisdom) worship. These two worships are generally celebrated in my house with a great festive mood. On the day of these worships, we start fasting from the whole morning and break the whole morning fast after the end of worship.

The food used in these worships are basically fruits, vegetables, some fried items made of grain and desserts. We also use all these elements to worship and satisfy god. After worshipping we distributed these foods to the people and eat them with a great homage. A very special and major dish on this day I miss a lot which is generally made in these worships is luchi made of flour with the special vegetable curry .This dish is prepared by my mother in my house with a soft touch. Although my mother starts fasting from the whole morning, she does not get tired or bored in doing this. Keeping a lot of patience, she tries to do everything by herself and does not want to bother anyone. The paste of flour mixed with darchini (spice) is baked with hot water and formed in a round flat shape. When the luchi is fried in oil, it sounds that a lot of kids are jumping in water and it spreads a savory fragrance everywhere. Generally, we do not cook any curry without onion but only on this day, the special vegetable curry is cooked in a normal way without onion because of our rules and customs but after cooking, its color seems to be mellow yellow and very colorful. Its scrumptious fragrance tempts you to savor it.

We are generally very hungry and sit together waiting for the dishes .When my mother brings this dish to the dining table, it seems that it is as divine as god’s blessings and as my mother’s affection. We ask mother to sit with us but she says “I will eat later, I am not so hungry and I can not eat properly without serving you”. She refuses and tends to serve everybody. I know she is so hungry but for that moment satisfying and serving us is main important thing to her rather than anything. When I start eating luchi with the curry, it seems like I am eating the heavenly food in a heaven.

My home and the food made by mother is paradise for me. I miss all these foods and religious festivals, specially the food made by mother filled with affection which I do not get in AUW. When I remember all those days, I feel nostalgic and get worried. I always wait, when I will get vacation? When I will savor all these palatable dishes made by my mother?

Food Celebration of Pahela Baishak

We can not think about observing any celebration without savoring succulent food. Different culture has different celebrations and relating all those celebrations there are enormous amount of traditional food. As I am from Bangladesh and Hindu religion, I have to pass all over the year in a festive mood. There is a proverb in Bengali saying that “Baro mashe tero parbon” means that there are thirteen festivals in twelve months. It is great to make you know that most of our celebrations are predominantly based on the traditional food. We are greatly hospitable in serving food and observing celebrations. In all of our celebrations, our main goal is to enjoy the festivals through satisfying people with the delicious conventional food and to bear our own culture for thousand years.

Pahela Baishak is a great festival for Bengali nation. It is the first day of Bangla New Year. In this carnival, our country is adorned with a unique and colorful combination. Getting up early in the morning, roaming different places by wearing red and white dresses, and specially eating panta rice, hilsha fish with a great pleasure we perform the whole day. In fact, the special food of this carnival is mainly focused on the traditional image. So for this carnival panta rice and hilsha fish are our cultural food celebration. This food will give you a sense of homey and warm feeling. You can take this food from your home but I think you will enjoy more rather than home if you have it from outside. There are so many stalls serving this food in this festival on this day.

Actually panta rice means having rice with water. Here panta means cool. The water can not be hot and the rice water should be very fresh. First of all you will have to cook rice in a normal way and after becoming fully cold you will have to pour that cooked rice into cold water but you will also need to give salt according to amount.

Now, hilsha fish, it is our national fish and generally it can be found in any market. Basically, it is the fish of rivers. At first, this fish needs to be washed clearly with water and cut into small pieces. Then these pieces need to be mixed with different kinds of spices like chilly, ginger which is light reddish yellow and salt. After mixing up you need to wait five to seven minutes. Next, you will have to fry these pieces of fish in oil with onion and garlic. When the color will turn into light brown, it will be ready for having. When it is cooked, the fragrance will make you appetizing. If you eat these two dishes together, then you will be able to savor its original taste.   For the decoration, you can serve this dish with the potato smash, fried brinjal smash with green chilly.

Although it is very easy to cook in home, everybody desires to have it from outside. It becomes a unique item for everyone especially on this carnival. In this way it becomes a traditional food for years after years. It can be a simple item in the aspect of cooking but it is very appealing in the aspect of its taste.

 

A Unique Experience!

It seemed that clouds were coming to touch and would soak me by the handful rain. But on such a gloomy day, all of my fears went away to have a unique experience and made me so vigorous that I feel incredible to think myself as a bird. I really cherished to fly in the open sky when I was at the world top revolving restaurant in Chittagong. Hey friends, what are you thinking? Am I talking about my dream? No, it is not dream. It is real and absolutely if you get there, you will also get that type of tremendous magical feeling and can enjoy an amazing and panoramic view of Chittagong.

This restaurant is situated in Chandgao which is very residential and commercial area in Chittagong. It is great to make you know that it is seventy one meters high and rotates once every ninety minutes. You will have to go at the top by the lift. Basically, this restaurant stands in a museum, Shahid Zia Sriti Complex which bears a traditional image of Bangladesh. When you will enter this museum, you will feel a patriotic feeling as the goal of this museum is to remind us the historical places of our country. As a result, it can be said that, if you go to the restaurant, you will get the chance to visit the nationalistic museum. In short, I will say it is a great place to know the history of Bangladesh. While visiting the restaurant you will have a great view of Chittagong and regarding all this things, it is called “Mini Bangladesh”.

As this restaurant is too expensive it is rarely crowded. In fact, there are two types of visitors. One proportion of the visitors only goes there to enjoy startling view of Chittagong and the historical image of Bangladesh in the museum. Another proportion of the visitors go there to get pleasure from all these entertaining things and as well to enjoy especially all kinds of traditional food of Bangladesh.

The inner image of this restaurant is totally different from other restaurants. Generally, most of the restaurant is based on foreign style but it is decorated in a traditional reflection, although it seems to be influential from outside. On the whole, there is a soothing environment in the restaurant and fully air- conditioned. In addition, there is a wonderful combination of lights, sometimes faint, sometimes vivid. A glowing and sparkling combination of light greatly mirrors a romantic flavor all around although it can be a great place for family and friends also. In fact, at night the great view of illuminating Chittagong portrays stunning beauty of this restaurant. Traditional Rabindra song and famous English song is mostly played with a relaxing mood. I feel implausible and sometimes scared when this restaurant rotates once every ninety minutes. Because of this rotation you will get a chance to have a view of Chittagong from all directions.

I was greatly delighted to know that there was Bangladeshi, Indian, Thai and Chinese food available. But Bangladeshi traditional food was mostly preferred as there was a cheap buffet package in that restaurant. I went with my friends and all of us desired to choose that buffet package. I really enjoyed special begun vorta, shutki vorta and chilly tanduri chicken. Actually, the delicious fragrance made us hungry. The waiters with white dress were so well behaved and friendly.

I enjoyed and spent a sweet time with my friends having a wonderful dish and getting panoramic view of Chittagong till night. Although it is too expensive, I will request you to get there to have such a unique experience. I am sure that you will love this exceptional revolving restaurant.

 

Food Crisis In Bangladesh

As I am a girl of a middle class family, I did not have to experience the struggle for food basically. But, I witnessed the extreme crisis for food in a hand to mouth family in my neighborhood. The single mother with her two children used to pass their days with a lot of sufferings. In fact, that single mother only strived for providing food to her children. She used to work as a domestic helper from house to house and sometimes she did not also get appropriate wage for her labor. In this regard, it was very difficult to give food regularly to her children. Besides, those children had to work as a flower seller while there was time to play and go to school and sometimes when they did not get the chance to sell the flowers they started begging only for food. Hunger snatches away all of their happiness like the black clouds covering the sky. One day, I was greatly shocked at observing one incident. When I was reading a story book, suddenly I heard the sound of crying from that single mother’s house which was really very devastating and pathetic. When I got there, I found the mother was beating her little child because he demanded rice and any way she could not make her child to eat the “rooti” which was made of wheat.

There are a lot of families facing such a food crisis in Bangladesh on the contrary there are also a lot of families for whom food is the part of luxury. They waste their foods without thinking this miserable condition of the poor class society of our country and they do not really think that they could be in that miserable position. In addition, our government is not so concerned about the intensive imbalance of supplying food.

In our country, the government gives a “ration card” to the poor mother who loses their husbands and poor children who lose their parents. By using this card they will only able to get the wheat and flour at free of cost. But our staple food is rice and without having rice, we generally can not satisfy our hunger properly. For the poor people, it really becomes difficult to buy rice as the price of rice is really increasing day by day in our country. But what kind of economical system the government imposes on the poor people? Why they will be deprived from eating rice? The higher class people misuses the food on the other hand the lower class people have to starve for days after days. Why the government is so ignorant about this matter? Why there is no equality among people?

Not only the government but also the higher class of the society should come forward to ensure at least the daily food for the poor people. As a human being, we should not forget the contribution of poor people because we are somehow dependant on their labor. Not only that we should avoid wasting food because the poor people even do not get that wasted food. So, avoiding the luxuries from life and raising awareness among people we can ensure the food for the poor people.