TRAVEL. SOUTH ASIA

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.
- Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc

I have grown up in Bangladesh, and luckily I had the chance to visit the majority of the districts (divisional cities and towns). I have to say, if you see Bangladesh with open eyes, you will be able to experience some great places, unknown to many foreign visitors.

Let me share a couple of places that you can plan to visit whenever you have the chance. Although Bangladesh is a small country (1,44,570 square kilometers), there are numerous natural wonders. So, to cover the places…

TRAVEL. EUROPE

In 2018, after a long break from traveling, I wanted to visit some beautiful places outside to break my life’s monotonous routine in Canada. One of our friends also joined the excitement, and both our families started putting our travelers’ hat to sort out a detailed plan for traveling to some parts of Europe. We never thought that we would be visiting an Italian Rivera town that we were unknown of (unheard of).

“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” — Sir Richard Burton.

Camogli, located on Portofino’s west side, in the Ligurian Riviera…

“Plants cry their gratitude for the sun in green joy.” — Terri Guillemets

I spent my childhood mostly in rural parts, which made me connected more to nature. In the later part of my life, when I moved to the cities, I felt like losing its touch due to the concrete structures of development, removing nature from the human-made civilized world.

Now, clasped within the city embraced buildings and surroundings, I look for the same. Luckily, my partner also feels the same about nature. …

I’m putting my place in the universe into perspective. I’m stardust. I’m golden brown. I’m just one small bit in a vast expanse.
— Holly Goldberg Sloan

When I thought of writing about myself, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I’m stardust (or, probably, a sprinkling bit of it), just like others on the vast horizon of the ignited Universe. I’m the earth’s resident, residing on a tiny part of the Milky Way galaxy, just another amongst the billions of that kind. …

Literary Impulse & Paper Poetry ‘Eudaimonia’ Prompt Submission

“… wellbeing is not so much an outcome, or end state as it is a process of fulfilling or realizing one’s daimon or true nature — that is, of fulfilling one’s virtuous potentials and living as one was inherently intended to live.” — Deci and Ryan.

Eudaimonia is a complicated thing to explain if you are analyzing it for providing some guidelines. Or, perhaps it is a simple thing we are making more complex to understand in our current reality.

Eudaimonia might contain virtue; it might encompass moral happiness. …

‘Trust in God,
but don’t question his words’,
directives in ironic holiness,
brief
to remain silent
on the unjust and inequality
some holy scriptures still causing today.

Suntonu Bhadra ▪ February, 2021

Thoughts: I do not have any quarrel with religions. There are great lessons and directives mentioned in many scriptures (and strangely, great human virtues remain almost identical to most beliefs) that can help humans help and support each other. However, when I came across instructions, notes, and quotes on some holy books (including the one in my religion) about not questioning anything directed by the holiness, there were…

A Chessboard

We sat down
a chessboard in between
You made your move
I made mine
It ended in a stalemate
we shook our hands
And like proud non-defeated players
we left
the ground
and from each other’s life.

Bond

When our pain soured,
we embraced us to calm
gradually, the sorrows disappeared
and, our embraced bond cheered for lifetime.

Letters & Card

Valentine’s day card
your handwritten words
love-touched
that dried out ages ago
yet uttering what we could become
that we couldn’t be.

Ask

We asked ‘Do you love me?’ to two different persons one said ‘no’, you…

Once the school days passed over
there came a time of unrestricted madness
my university days

I took the steps onward
on that unknown space, with
hopes in my heart,
dreams in my eyes,
unchartered territory in front
crowds and strange faces around

a graceful wind touched me
I found myself in the motions of madness.

course-works, professors, assignments, and reports
pop-quiz moments
midterms and the finals,
photocopying the handwritten notes
group work on chapters
class attendance to the lowest, teachers ask, our muted responses
the retakes, extra classes or not

and some eventual rewards attached to it, sports, fun-filled…