The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

  Dugga Dugga  Subho Bijoya my loves.  May Maa bless us all with goodness and love and light.  Abar esho Maa ✨🤍🙏🏼🤍✨

 Hello October 🌾🍁🪷🍁🌾 Dugga Dugga ❤️ Started my month with some pandal hopping and praying to Maa Durga for better days and joy and hope.  Here is what today looked like: many pretty protimas and pandals. Feeling a little festive.  Pujo has been a little quiet this year because it’s hard to imagine Pujo without Maa. We’ve stayed home all these days and only ventured out today.  Felt good to be out and about in the world and go see Maa Durga and her kids.  Hoping and praying that the rest of the month is just as nice. 

  Subho Bijoya and Happy Dussehra 🙏 The end of Pujo always feels heavy and sad.  So we eat something good and bid Maa farewell and pray for her return and good tidings.  Come back soon Maa.  On Bijoya, in my family, we don't eat rice or non-vegetarian grubs. This used to bring me so much joy as a kid. We used to sit eating in bed and eat mishti and luchi.  Tonight I cooked some Kashmiri Dum Aloo and Boondi Kheer (since no rice).  A simple and yum dinner.  It was a quiet and almost solemn Pujo this year. I hope next year is brighter and better.  Watching an old classic tonight.  My first ever brush with Christie. And still one of my faves. 

 Hello October🪔  I am so happy you are here.  Happy for Pujo and Lokkhi Pujo and Diwali and Halloween🎃👻🍬  Be Good October 🪔 Be Kind.  Be Gentle and Festive.  October means Pujo and dhaak and joy. 

 Hello Loves!  Hope this Monday is bright and beautiful and not blue at all in your corner of the world.  :)  My Monday is off to a good, very good start! I got a new laptop in the mail first thing today, and it's come right in time for Blogmas season. I blog every single day in December and it's perfect timing to have a laptop and get serious about my blogging and writing again. Oh in case you were wondering I got a Chromebook from Asus. And this is my first post from it and it's quite a nifty little device.  Yay I am so happy!  :)  So here are some cozy and happy things in my world.  Well, the memory of Durga Puja is always more than enough to make me happy.  This year I am so glad I at least got to go out and see some pandals in my city.  This one was a new to us pandal.  And the protimaa was in a classic and simple style. Blooming beauties.  Our terrace garden is full of these aparajitas in full bloom.  There is nothin...

Subho Bijoya Loves.  May Maa Durga bless you and yours and keep you safe and well.  May Good always triumph over evil.  May all our troubles melt away.  :)  Happy Dussehra Loves.   Dugga Dugga!  Can't quite believe Pujo is over already.  A good Pujo it's been. It was nice to see people feel festive and go out and about and dress up and eat and spend time with their loved ones.  I hope everyone was safe and had a good Pujo. I did a spot of pandal hopping and a bit of dressing up and a lot of eating!  :) I also read a bit and watched a lot of stuff.  All good things! These are some beautiful pandals from my small town of Jalpaiguri. Pujo was a little subdued this year, not as grand as other years, a lot of Pujos didn't even happen.  I hope by next year things are A-OK and we all can go back to normal.  :)  Dugga Dugga. 

 Hello Loves!  And a Subho Ashtami to you.  Today is the most important day of the festival, the day we save our best outfits for.  However today is one HOT day in my corner of the world (41 degree Celsius) and I am hiding from the sun and reading, lazing around and planning dinner.  Spoiler Alert: It's Biryani!  :)  I did all of my Pandal Hopping on Shoshti, in a bid to avoid crowds and traffic and it was the best way to see the beautiful pandals and protimas.  For the rest of Pujo my plans have been quite sedate.  Eat good food.  Hide from the sun.  And of course, READ.  And each some stuff with the family.  First let's talk about the reading.  The Illuminated by Anindita Ghose: This is my current read. I am hanging out with Probashi Bengali  mother and daughter duo for Pujo this year. I recently bought this book, for a pretty good deal, even though I really wanted to hold out and get a physical copy because t...

  Hello everyone! Wishing you and yours a very Happy Durga Pujo! Shubho Sharadiya!  Have a wonderful pujo filled with fun, friends, family and FOOD!  May the Goddess bless us with all of the bright, good things! Lots of love, The Whimsy Bookworm (Pooja) and Sister Bookworm (Debs) P.S: Sharing a few pictures from a very quick, very safe (we were the ONLY people in totally empty pandals yesterday!) pandal hopping that we did yesterday (during the day and it was SO HOT!).  Tiny Maa Durga and her kids made by a talent school-going kid! How amazing is this?!  A beautiful sthal poddo in full bloom. These magical flowers start white and turn pink!  My sister carried this beautiful circle bag from Riddhi Pankaj, which is illustrated by Karubasona. Both of these are our favourite brands owned by women entrepreneurs.  Shubho Saptami! Have a lovely day! 

Hey everyone! Hope your weekend has gotten off to a good start! The festive season has arrived! Even though things are not fully "normal" right now, there is still a lot of festive cheer in the air. However, if you are someone, who (like us) is not going out a lot and celebrating at home, then we have a bunch of Pujo- themed movies and web series for you to watch this weekend!  Some of these are old favourites, some are a bit new, but they all have some connection or the other with Durga Pujo.  Let's get to the list, then, shall we?  1. Joy Baba Felunath: Feluda, Topshe and Lalmohan Babu are in Benares on a lovely little holiday, when an ancient Ganesha idol belonging to a local wealth Bengali family is stolen. Smack bang in the middle of Durga Pujo. Our master sleuth is on the job and what unfolds is a classic. Watch it, if you haven't already and if you have, watch it again! I said 'classic', didn't I?  2. Kahaani: Another classic, albeit a modern one. A...

Hello!  Subho Ashtami!  Today is supposed to be the biggest day of the festival. The day we reserve our best outfits for. The day we eat the best food. Offer Anjoli to the Goddess. It's basically the highpoint of the festival.  Of course, this was before.  Today was dramatically different. For one, I have stayed home. Didn't dress up.  But...I ate yum Ma made food.  The weather has been a thing of beauty.  I am home with my family and that is celebration enough.  :)  My local Pujo Pandal from two years ago.  Quiet afternoons in my small town by a pond.  Little balcony gardens.  I love that my parent's home has a terrace and its full of plants and a perfect spot to see the world go by. This whole isolation situation is made infinitely better by having a terrace and a small window to the rest of the world.  Evening coffee to sip while watching Pujo pandals on the News and some very strange Bengali TV shows.  As for what...

 Hello!  Subho Shoshti to my fellow Bengali readers.  Today is the sort of official beginning to Pujo.  We wear new clothes.  Welcome Maa Durga.  And get ready for a whirlwind 4 days that follow. Of course, all this was in the before times.  This year is whole other ball game.  I am still not sure if I'll be able to go to a pandal at all this year. Might just go to my local Pujo pandal on Ashtami, but for most part, I am staying home and away from the crowds.  Today has been slow and quietly festive.  All morning, I've seen people going by my home in brand new, bright and shiny clothes.  I wore something new too, at home, but still.  And I unboxed a package that has made me so happy.  Something handmade and absolutely gorgeous.  From Renaisa Official, an Instagram Shop that I found recently and I fell in love with her art and jewellery,  I cannot even with how utterly beautiful this is.  This is the Savitri...