Posts

Durga Pujo: 2 years later!

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 Hello everyone!  Welcome back to month 27 of #faltufriday! For month 3 of #faltufriday, I had authored a post on ' The Fragrance of Pujo '. Nearly 2 years later, post Covid restrictions, I finally got to celebrate Durga Pujo with its quintessential pomp and show, and wanted to share my experience on the same with you all :) Without further ado, Let's get to it! The full week of Durga Pujo was definitely the highlight of this year. I left absolutely no stone unturned and made sure to check off everything from my list before I leave for college. Starting off with day 1 of celebrations (Maha-Panchami), I helped my mother in her Anondomala Stall. For my non- Bengali folks who are unaware of what Anondomala is: It's simply a 'Khushi Mela'- or 'Happiness Fest', except we all sell food.  My mom sells her iconic butter chicken and laccha paratha every year and if you're a non-vegetarian, I can tell you hands down, its the best one you will ever have. On...

Anger and Stress

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 Hello everyone and welcome! We might have observed at times when a person is stressed, they tend to get angry.  The person being shouted at may take it negatively and take it in a bad way. Unless you understand the reason behind it, you will let that get into head which further reduces your productivity. We've all heard of the hormone Adrenaline, right? More commonly called the 'fight or flight'.  In a stressful situation, these trigger an emotion in your body known as anger . Anger and Stress have a symbiotic relationship. Each of them feeds off of the other.  This post is not going to be one where I give "tips" on overcoming it rather one which explores how this affects us , from a teenagers point of view. Without further ado, let's get to it!  When I was preparing for my board exams last year, like any student would say, it was a really stressful period. There were times where I would be so burdened with deadlines that sometimes I would just blast.  So...

Encourage Mental Health Events!

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Hello everyone! Welcome back <3 We celebrated World Mental Health last week, on 10th of October.  Last week, I was also presented the opportunity to attend a ' Mental Health Fest'; by the students - for the students *History textbook flashback*. The event focussed on conveying various ideas on Mental Health using creativity as a medium such as music, dance, film making, street plays and more. Attending this amazing event sparked an inspiration in me to author a post on why we should encourage Mental Health Activities around us. Without further ado, let's get to it! Mental Health is a highly stigmatised topic all over the world. Therefore, promoting the idea of speaking up about it, through various expressions of creativity not only instills innovation but also helps the youth become more vocal on world issues. Nearly every person has had some experience with Mental health; it may not necessarily be a grave situation, but we've all had our ups and downs with it.  Men...

Social Media: A Reminder

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 Hey everyone!  If you're an ardent reader of my blog, you may have noticed that I've authored a few posts based on Social Media and its downsides on our mental health. (if you're not, don't worry, I'll be linking them all at the end!) This led me to thinking, what happens after you address a problem? Yes. You find solutions. So, in today's post I'll be writing about a few ways to combat the toxicity of social media(in a realistic way).  Without further ado, let's get to it :) Number 1 A lot of times, we may have come across posts of people hanging out in big groups and having a lot of fun whereas you're at home studying. Throughout 10th grade I had an excessive feeling of this but then I'd remind myself that my studying is going to get me somewhere. It doesn't mean that having fun is bad, just that I have it scheduled for some other time. Number 2 Reiterating, staring at the fun people are having at a social event you weren't invited to...

Life of a Probashi Bengali

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 Hello everyone! Welcome back to month 26 of #faltufriday! For most of you who don't know me, I am a 'Probashi Bengali', which literally means a Bengali living outside of Bengal in India. I grew up spending my initial years all over the world and finally settled down in India when I turned four. Over the years of growing up, I've experienced a lot of enjoyable moments and had various instances a lot of my fellow probashi Bengali's might relate to, so I figured I'd share a few with you guys :) Without further ado, let's get to a non-stereotypical life of a probashi!  Firstly, Boroline. Boroline is Bengali Bae. Go anywhere in the world, ask any Bengali for a boroline, you can count on them to have one in their bag. Always. Bengali's are not always about 'laal shaada'(Red and White) saari's, they're also about 'laal checked' gamchas(Towel). You will 100% find this in every probashi Bengali household. The endless struggle of choosing ...

Types of Procrastinators

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 Hi everyone and welcome back! If you have been following me since the beginning of my journey, you may have noticed that I have thrown limelight procrastination by basing a few posts on them. Today's post is yet another super demanded post, however, is only slightly linked to 'teenage mental health' - the niche of my blog. Nevertheless, hope y'all enjoy reading it and without further ado, let's get to it! Procrastinators can broadly be classified under 3 groups. If you google them the results look something like this: 1. The Perfectionist These are the type of people who tend to spend so much time thinking over their task or solving one minute issue that they end up wasting the entire time dedicated to the task. They ideally procrastinate when they are overwhelmed with the fear of producing work of a low standard, or fear of failing, and in a few cases victims of OCD. 2. The Avoider Or whom I like to call, the 'ho jayega' one's. These constitute the peo...

Cyber Bullying

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 Hello everyone and welcome back! I had authored a post titled  Social Media Is Bad For Your Mental Health!  which led me to ponder over one of the most common ill effects of it - the effect of Cyber Bullying on our mental health. A lot of us are probably well acquainted with the term "Cyber Bullying"; but for some who aren't, here's a basic overview of it: What is Cyber Bullying?  When you google this term, the first sentence that pops up reads, " The use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature. " In simpler words, a person (mostly adolescents) is bullied, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed, or targeted in some way by another person. It is similar to real life physical bullying except it is done by both known as well as unknown people on the internet. They tend to name call, troll and threaten the other person.  This brings us to the next, and the most important part of this post...

Importance of "Mental Health Days"

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 Hey everyone! Welcome back!! In all honesty, I was not well acquainted with the term "Mental Health Days" until I saw it in a TV show . This led me to thinking if something like this actually exists, and if so, how can it benefit us? So, I did my research, started implementing it in my personal life and wanted to share with you the importance of the same :) Without further ado, let's get to it! Starting off with the obvious, What is a "Mental Health Day" If your first thought was something related to taking a break, you would be correct. A Mental Health Day is one where you absolutely cut off from your rat race life and take a step back to rejuvenate yourself. It’s a day to relax, decompress and take care of yourself overall. For example, if you've just finished with your exams and sacrificed on your sleep schedule a lot, its regaining that. If you've burnt yourself out with various stressors, its taking a pause from it.  It's taking time out to rel...

Video Games and Mental Health

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 Hello everyone and welcome back to a fresh new month! Video Games and Mental Health - Are They Related? Perhaps every teen's obsession at some point of their lives was playing these games.  Be it Fortnite, PubG or Minecraft, no one has ever given it a thought if in reality it has any links to your mental health. I was acquainted with this topic during my time at Harvard and thought it would be a great idea to throw some limelight on this topic :) So without further ado, let's get to it! While most parents might argue that the influence of video games has been negative, recent studies show that playing video games in fact has also had a positive impact on a person's mind. A lot of us must be familiar with the fact that it improves hand and eye coordination, helps you focus better and even learn better. But did you know, it also simultaneously increases as well as decreases your social resilience ?  There has been a steep rise in the level of social anxiety sufferers ev...

HAPPY 2 YEARS!!

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(Face reveal part II!)  HELLO EVERYONE!! Welcome to MY TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #faltufriday BLOG POST!! (okay enough with the screaming now) Thank you so so much to literally everyone out there who has supported me these past 2 years - couldn't have reached here without y'all <3 I took a short poll on my Instagram asking what you all would want for a 2 year special and majority of y'all voted for  My reflections and learnings over the past 2 years   (without further ado, let's get to it!) To be frank, I actually did not imagine myself writing a blog post for a 2 year special. Not that I didn't see this as a long term project; just didn't hit me 2 years ago when I started out that I would come this far so fast. I know it sounds clichéd, but the first thing I'd say that I learnt from blogging would be perseverance . I'd had both good and bad days, some posts took off and some didn't - but I wouldn't let the ones that didn't break throug...