Thank You BongMom #writebravely #WTFOW2018

Dear Bong Mom,

As you are also a blogger you would know how tedious blogging challenges are. My initial plan was to write on the prompt-“No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.” – Cinderella- however, I changed my mind and started writing a letter to you.

Bong Mom, you have no idea what a huge influence you have been in my blogging career. Back in 2008, I had no idea what blogging was-Thankfully those were the happy days of blogging when it was all about creativity and expressing oneself and not selling baby products – One day, I accidentally bumped into your blog. Ever since there have been no looking back. You came like a baton of light and initiated me to the mystical world of blogging.

I met you while looking for a recipe. As I grew up motherless and my dad never insisted to learn cooking, I never mastered the art of cooking. However, after marriage, I started feeling inadequate. The women in the new family were super-efficient in terms of cooking and domestic activities. They could cook for 30 people in a wink whereas I was struggling to make one omelette. A sense of inadequacy and inferiority started gripping me.

The worst day was when I invited few relatives for dinner. I toiled the whole day and cooked managing a baby on my lap yet in the evening when they sat down for dinner I heard not a single word of appreciation. In fact, one of them said: “We had made such an amazing chicken last week, it was A-plus.” I understood it was a polite way of telling me that my food was not good enough. That night I locked myself in the bathroom and cried a lot.

I called my dad, and he in his usual nonchalant tone said that cooking is not a difficult job and any Ina, Meena, Dika (Female version of Tom, Dick, Harry) can do it and I should not lose my heart. Energised by his pep talk, I started Googling for various Bengali recipes, I was determined to show the world that I can cook. While searching, I came across your blog Bong Mom’s CookBook. Any Bengali man or woman who has ever looked for Bengali recipes online would be familiar with your blog. This is so far the best Bengali recipe blog that I have come across in last 10 years.

Let me confess I learnt most of my recipes from you, however, what I also learnt was the art of storytelling. The way you narrated stories from your childhood, or the way you used humour to express yourself always kept me hooked till the end. Your stories inspired me to tell my own stories.

Encouraged by you, I took a baby step and started my first blog. It was a recipe blog (ROFL!!!). When I look back at that blog I often feel like spanking myself. Why on earth did I start a recipe blog? It was almost like Mamata Banerjee starting a Spoken Hindi class or Rahul Gandhi starting a class on ‘how to improve IQ’.

Thankfully, I got bored and stopped posting. However, I was still itching to blog but was not sure what or how to. Finally, I realised that I want to do blogging but that need not be a food blog. There are other genres too. Thus my first blog Wanderful was born. I successfully blogged there for 6 years and then shifted to WordPress, as I was having issues with Blogger.

Today, after successfully and consistently blogging for 8 years I think I deserve to give you a Guru Dakshina. You are my Dronacharya and I am your Ekalavya. You couldn’t teach me cooking but you taught me blogging and I shall always remain grateful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You gave me a dream, and even though I was grieving I kept believing in my dream and my wish to become a blogger came true.

Regards

Trina


Write Tribe

Prompt 1: Write a letter to a person who supported your writing career, whether that be a friend, a family member, a teacher (even one that supported you at a very young age before you knew that it would blossom into a writing career), an author you’ve never met but have been inspired…

Prompt 2:“No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.” – Cinderella

46 thoughts on “Thank You BongMom #writebravely #WTFOW2018”

  1. the bespectacled mother says:
    Reply

    This is such a noble thing to dedicate your blogging journey to the person/blog which inspired you in ways more than one. I didn’t know about Bong Mom but then I neither I am Bong nor was I ever looking for Bengali recipes. Your cooking story is same as mine. I have never had the guts to invite anyone home for meal. Those whom I fed food cooked by me, accidentally or incidentally, were not generous enough to keep their mouth shut about the taste of my food 😭 The only person who has eaten ‘mere haath Ka khaana’ and never ever let that awful experience come in our way of friendship is Esha. Before that day, she was a friend. Since that day, my respects for her increased manifolds. I always wanted to say this. Thanks to your decision to write this post that it became possible.
    Baby products, Rahul Gandhi starting IQ improvement classes – sarcasm koot koot ke bhara hai. 😎

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Akshata Ram says:
    Reply

    Thats such a sweet gesture Balaka.. I am not a fan of cooking but would check out Bong Moms blog for the other stuff.. I could almost imagine you cooking a meal for so many and the effort involved and expectations.. I do wish they would have said a kind word even if it was false. But you know people around.. they can never be happy

    Liked by 1 person

  11. syncwithdeep says:
    Reply

    lovely dedication to bong mom. I follow her vegetarian recipes as I still carve for Bengali dishes. Its good to know she has been your Inspiration. I hope to see some recipe posts too as your guru dakshina 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Mayuri6 says:
    Reply

    I am getting hooked to your blog, Balaka. Your writing is so honest and straight from the heart. I loved this dedication and can so resonate with it, as I learnt cooking by following online blogs too.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Sonia Chatterjee says:
    Reply

    I just came across Bong Mom’s cook book and was stunned. I hate cooking and barely mange to even make a decent omelet till date but it really started from the basics. This is a beautiful tribute to your mentor.

    I wrote a non fiction personal piece today. You might like it (also it’s shorter than my usual posts)

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Aesha says:
    Reply

    Dear Trina,
    Since we are writing letters today, let me post my comment in form of a letter to you. (see, your creativity inspired me so much as well)
    So coming to your cooking experience, you won’t believe me if I say this but the one thing which made me worry before my marriage was because of my cooking skills. So basically my mother in law and sister in law are super when it comes to cooking skills. It’s like you name it and they can make it. Though I had a love marriage and kept visiting them years before I got married I was always worried about how will I ever cook. Thankfully before I got married my mil got a cook as I was pursuing B.Ed at that time. But only after 1.5 years of my marriage, we had to shift to Kolkata. Now I didn’t know to cook anything. And I had to feed my husband, just imagine my plight. But I did it and now when we have the potluck I will get you some authentic Gujarati food. I could so relate to your story.
    But what amazes me from your tale is that you got inspiration from a Bengali food blog to start your own. Inspiration can come from anywhere.
    So let’s meet up soon and discuss some more about ourselves.
    Have a great weekend.

    Much love,
    Aesha

    Liked by 1 person

  17. Amrita Basu says:
    Reply

    It was almost like Mamata Banerjee starting a Spoken Hindi class or Rahul Gandhi starting a class on ‘how to improve IQ!!! This is too funny!
    But seriously I didn’t cook at all before marriage and the inlaws not complementing happened once and then I always took them to restaurants, Luckily my hubby and my daughter love whatever I cook. So I am happy.I love bong mom by the way.She is great.

    Liked by 1 person

  19. writershilpa says:
    Reply

    That was such a warm and loving letter to your Bong Mom!
    I also loved the way your dad encouraged you and lifted your morale. I know how horrid it feels when your cooking finds no admirers, esp when you have toiled all by yourself to serve a decent meal.

    You sure have come a long way, Balaka! Am so proud of you!
    And, yes, most of all, I love your sense of humour. Stay the way you are!
    Bless you!

    Liked by 1 person

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