Bangladesh Experience Images (2018)

Hey Guys!

You will probably see this post once I return from my current social media break. It is a long story and I will definitely dedicate a separate blog post with full details of my experience. You may thank the challenge of temporarily going off social media that I am able to produce this blog post.

As you may see in the title, it is another Bangladesh post!

Recently, I asked my Instagram followers in a poll whether they wanted a blog post dedicated to a compilation of images I captured while I was in Bangladesh last summer. The majority said "YES" (maybe one may have said NO but who cares). So... I listened to you and here it is! These are snippets of my tour with a variety of my favourite and special places and moments, and maybe some are just general images to show you how my "mother country" (for a lack of better term) looks like Not here to keep you reading for long... Anyway enjoy!

This is what I have grown up to seeing my whole life, which is my grandparents' house

This is the building I keep on raving about to everyone, which was made by my parents over 10 years ago

This is what exactly my city looks like at night. To clear the misunderstanding, I am not from Dhaka and there isn't only 2 cities in Bangladesh. My city is called Khulna and it's the second well established city in Bangladesh, after Dhaka. To be exact, it is on the South West, almost next to Kolkata (West Bengal, India)

I was fortunate enough to experience Eid-ul Adha this year in Bangladesh after 10 or so years and it is absolutely different from what we experience in the UK or other European countries (wherever you are from in the West). These are our cows that were sacrificed for Qurbani.

If you are unfamiliar, this is an Islamic festival where families with enough wealth sacrifice cattle or sheep/goat and divide everything in 3 even sections: one to keep for themselves, one to distribute within family and one to distribute for the poor who cannot afford meat. In Bangladesh, everything is done in front of your eyes and it is your responsibility to make the 3 divisions and distribute them yourself.

Views of sunrise/sunset at different days from the balcony of the flat I was provided to stay

Without fail, as a family we have to go our village and capture the best moments. My village is called Gopalgonj and as I like to describe it, the PM of Bangladesh and I share villages since we are from the same place. This is more or less how it looks like

These are still part of the village. However, this site specifically is the newly built train station and railway connecting paths with majority of Bangladesh and apparently parts of India. It's called Gopalgonj Railway Station. More than that, it has become one of the most common site of attraction for the locals to visit and pass time with a variety of stalls and sightseeing

It's never enough when it comes down to appreciating the beauty of the sky from anywhere in the world!

They had Korean Aloe Vera canned drinks in a restaurant within the village!

Maybe it's just me but I found that amusing as it was the last place I could think of that had foreign objects

There were multiple weddings going on at the time we went to visit Gopalgonj and coincidentally one of them appeared to be the neighbourhood behind where we were staying. I've been told by my cousin that this particular girl's family were too poor to have any proper wedding functions and my uncle was apparently kind enough to let them use his space to hold some functions which are part of the wedding. So... I got dragged forcefully to this one. They are celebrating the turmeric ceremony or what we call the "gaye holud" or "haldi" in Hindi/Urdu. Gaye holud is basically smearing turmeric (yellow substance used in curry) on the bride or the groom and feeding them some sweet along with it, preferably being dressed nicely in yellow/red/orange. This event came with the music festival, where family and friends blast music and everyone dance for fun and celebrate joy.

I had to face Dhaka one day or another since it is the only place that has an international airport and your girl had to return to the UK at some point to continue living her standard life. These are just parts of Dhaka, maybe around Savar, which is mainly the edge of Dhaka. Dhaka is basically the capital of Bangladesh if you were unaware (unlikely) and it is the well populated city and super congested with a high rating of pollution.

And lastly... Here is a glimpse of one of the famous hotels in Dhaka, where apparently well-known international guests come to stay over. It is also an appreciated place to gather rich people for their societies as it is one of the best places, providing the highest quality of service. I will keep the name anonymous due to some risk I was told of sharing images online. 

I hope you enjoyed the images. I would kindly like to request to give some credit if you intend to use any of the images above, especially the last couple of images.

Let me know what you would like to read and hold tight for my next exciting post (hints around this post).

Till next time!

Yours, Nafiza

Healthy Vegetable Stew Recipe + Personal Health Tips

Hey guys!

Yeah long time no chat even though I keep making fake promises 😂. Anyways, let's continue.

A little note I wanted to share is that this post was written on air and God knows where I am right now and if you don't believe me then here you go...

But of course it will be uploaded once I'm safe and sound back on Earth.

Some of you may know I was away for the holidays back home and being in an Asian country while you're on a diet is not easy at all, especially when their main source of food is RICE and all them CARBS. I'm currently pretty anti-carbs and actually feel better from inside with the benefits like losing a fair amount of weight over the last 2 months (how much I lost is personal but it is a lot).

Since I was away I had to find strategies to be on a no carb diet but also not starve myself to death which is something anyone should NEVER do. It harms you more on a long term. I took help from a trained health and beauty specialist and she said that some things had to be removed from my diet and some to be kept. To remove was the obvious carbs, fats & oils, sweets & SUGAR, chips, meats, confectionery and all that crap. To be kept was definitely a lot of WATER, eggs, milk, low sugar fruits, vegetables, tea (standard or green tea but no sugar) and certain legumes. Basically it's all about making sure you are tricking your mind that your belly is full but with foods that are low in calories. You need to keep your belly full and not starve because when you starve or feel hungry, certain neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) are triggered and then released which changes your body into survival mode. When your body is in survival mode, it tries to retain as much energy as possible hence minimal energy is released and you don't end up losing the fat. Therefore when you do eat you pile up more energy, converted into fats.

A little bit of diet science for you but that's not what this post was about so apologies hahahahaha. Back to the main point once again. Following the lady's advice I had to come up with healthy but tasty meals to make sure it wasn't your plain steamed or blanched veg which would make me cry more than wanting to diet my life out.

Here's a really tasty one for you to try...

Cooking time: 30 mins approx.

Ingredients:
1/2 Carrot
3-4 Cauliflower Florets
1/4 Aubergine
1/3 Cup Lentils (Preferably Red)
Salt to taste
1/2 Tsp Cumin Powder
2-3 Garlic Cloves
1/2 Small Onion
1/2 Tomato
1-2 Cups Water
Pinch of Turmeric
1-3 Green chillies (if you want a bit of heat otherwise forget it)
*If you really want a bit of meat or seafood add a tiny tiny bit but once in a while, like once in a few days. Options can be chicken, prawn, fish, beef, etc.

Method:
1. Wash the lentils thoroughly and leave it to soak in clean water till it takes you to prepare the remaining of the ingredients.
2. Cut all your veg into medium edible sizes and give it a thorough wash. If you're back home wash them thrice to get all those chemicals out of your food.
3. Cut your onion and garlic as small as possible so they act as spices and don't end up biting into them.
4. In a pot throw ALL your ingredients together and let it cook over medium fire of your stove. You may close the lid if you want as closing lids tend to retain more water and moisture than no lids as it evaporates the water.
5. Once the lentils are cooked and the vegetables are boiled, removed from the stove and enjoy on its own or some salad.

I hope the recipe was helpful for you and you give it a try at home. I personally like the taste of it which is why I suggest you try it too and I would not encourage something if I did not like or enjoy it generally.

Thank you for taking out your time to read the post and keep an eye for future posts soon 😅

Till next time

Yours, Nafiza

Food for Thought: Maturity

Hello

I hope you are all doing well. I do realise the quality of my blogs have gone down from when I started back 2 years ago. I can tell myself because I read those ones and I can tell it was much better before because the passion and effort were greater. All I can say is that I will try to improve them, if not then apologies in advance.

I have a new food for thought today after so long. It is a subject that is quite important for everyone, but it is overlooked, or it is avoided because nothing can be done about it.

It is an unspoken matter in my opinion and we may use it for jokes every now and then. It is also something that nothing can be done as it is part of the human nature.

That’s right as it says above I am going to talk about maturity. If you try to find in Google the definition of mature or maturity, it will actually tell you that it’s “fully grown or developed” without any context or explanation. It can also tell you that maturity is something to do with insurance policies which I don’t know what that means and that is definitely not what I mean in here.

I am talking about the mentality or the personality characteristic in a human being and this can be broadly discussed. This time I am not by myself. I will be honest and say that I asked around a couple of my fellow friends and some very special people. By special people I mean young people. I got my friends to ask their siblings for a definition of maturity and the results are rather very interesting as you will see in a bit.

When I asked around, I got answers like maturity is the end of childhood, realising what is right and what is wrong which you can tell the differences from inside. Some people told me that maturity is ending your wishes and thinking of settling down and building a bright future. I have also received answers such as being in a state of mind when you are in uncomfortable position situations and you contribute to the best choice, not to running away from hard things in life and that maturity is more to do with outlook than actions and appearances. Surprisingly a response I received was that “Full maturity doesn't exist because nobody can actually say they're mature all the time. Everyone acts stupid makes decisions but are there people who can make good thought out decision in particular circumstances…? Yes. It varies on life, not in age but it is an attribute and dependent on the situation. Often times the youngest child or the child who does the least is the least mature because they're not burdened with the responsibility the other siblings have”.

Interesting fellows from abroad have mentioned that maturity is your norm of talking, sitting down, your thinking and more or less everything is linked to maturity, especially if you are thinking like an adult or a child. (Apologies if some of them do not make sense because I had to transliterate them from other languages).

The responses I received from my special young people have said thing like when you grow up and start acting sensible, acting good and not being stupid or not being neglected (sad; shockingly they even know words like melancholy). Others have said taking responsibility and learning from your mistakes, you would know when you make mistakes and you try to improve them also you try to improve yourself, when you are emotionally vulnerable and that it’s all about emotions. Funny reactions I got are like talking about periods and growing your chest.

I really loved all the responses and I received a lot more responses. Unfortunately, it’s hard to squeeze it all but I tried my best to add most of them. Thank you for all your responses.

Back to discussing about this matter… I want to point out some stuff from the responses and from what I face in my daily life.

First of all, why is it considered “immature” to buy or own plushies? (soft toys, not your urban dictionary definition). All it does is give me comfort and happiness. I cannot express enough how much this lovely soft stuffed animal has helped me recently when I hugged it when other human beings have done nothing but give me emotional pain. You will often hear about this “immaturity” in certain households. Little do they know their real effect on people like me.

The matter of maturity is very subjective, as you may have seen above with the great range of answers. Question is, why are some people called out to be “immature”? What may feel right to one person may not necessarily feel right to the other person and vice versa. What may feel wrong to you may feel right to someone like your friends. Following this point… do you handle this matter with enough maturity?

From a comment above, who said that maturity is when you end your wishes and you start thinking about securing a stable future for yourself. My point is… don’t you think a lot of children already do this? You may be wondering Nafiza what nonsense are you on about. Let me explain. Children from around the age of 5 (varies) start to go to school and attempt to excel in education. If you ask a lot of children, what do you want to become in the future? They may give you answers of professions like pilot, police, scientist, actor, etc. Hence, at this age they have an ambition and they want to become something successful in the future. However, they are often being pointed out to be “not mature enough”. I agree that a part of maturity may be thinking of building a future, but think about this conflict…

I may have some responses above mentioning that maturity may be about self-improvement. Again, I agree with the point. Have you ever thought how many people out there actually carry out self-reflection and attempt to improve themselves?

Yes, I understand that I am making contradictory points over other points… and this is mainly my aim. My food for thought posts should leave you thinking about the matter. You may be wondering what maturity may necessarily mean to me. This is what I think…

Maturity is taking full responsibility of your actions as long as you are old enough and are aware of your surroundings. Accepting the fact that something is right or wrong. Behaving sensibly at serious matters like societal issues as an example (and not end up laughing or making fun of such things). Ensuring or at least trying to make sure your words do not hurt other people, along with that ensuring you are not speaking insensibly towards someone or something because you really do not know what the second person is going through in their life. Respecting other people regardless of their differences and accepting people for who they are. Not distrusting other people regardless of their gender, race, religion, age, etc. (as sometimes parents can go a bit extreme “while thinking of their children’s safety). Finally, but not least… Having a balance between being selfish and selfless.

These are just some of my opinions and I could probably go on, but I won’t do so. Note out that I am fully aware that I may have mentioned it correctly or incorrectly, but this is totally subjective depending on the individual, so I will not necessarily bother seeking approval as these are my opinions… Could it be immature of me mentioning this last statement to you…?

You may have realised that I am highly interactive about such matters, trying to make sure not to spill out why I am randomly asking them “Hey, what is maturity?”. Since that was not enough for me, I went out and posted a poll on Instagram. I asked my Instagram followers the following question… “Do you consider yourself to be mature?” The results were rather interesting and left me thinking a lot… I had 57 viewers on this post. Only 20 answered my question. 75% of the voters said YES, while 25% of the voters said NO. As you can tell the others 37 viewers did not answer it… Why? Could it be that they were not bothered or simply ignoring me? Are they not sure or still questioning it? Could they be afraid of answering it wrongly? Although there is no set answer and there is no right or wrong. Think about it…

For those of you who did answer me, thank you so much for taking the time to answer me, I really appreciate it.

In conclusion, what is maturity? If needed re-read the points above and have a deep thinking.

I have thought about it a lot and I swear I can keep on thinking on it. I could keep on writing about this matter forever, but I won’t because it will be too long and believe or not… if you are reading till now, you read a 1.6k essay so congratulations! Again, what do you think on this matter and what are your thoughts and beliefs… Let me know as I love to hear other people’s answers more than thinking of my own.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post as I genuinely enjoyed writing it out. Till next time

Much love

Yours, Nafiza