A Peek into my Life

My daughter has her birthday in October. This year she had a double whammy on her birthday with half yearly exam and Navratri. So we decided to have a birthday party after the exams and also after Navratri. The first order of business while planning any birthday party is the cake. My daughter is 100% into slime these days. This phase started almost 2 years ago and is going stronger than ever. All she thinks about is making slime, watching slime videos on youtube and playing with slime. So naturally, I thought of doing a slime themed cake. A quick search on google images led me to my inspiration image . Slime cake I made a four-layered eggless vanilla cake using this recipe. Eggless because some of the children do not eat eggs. I made 1.5 times the recipe and got 3 round cakes and a small square cake. I would have got 4 round cakes if I had filled the first batch a little less. Tastewise, the cake was good but it was not structurally strong. Almost all the cakes cracked at diffe...

In my previous post , I talked about how I designed storage in my house. In this post, I want to talk about the storage organizers that I used around the house. I bought almost all of them on Amazon. Browsing Amazon was my favorite activity in those days. :) I have included links (affiliate links) to the products on Amazon, in case some of you might want to buy them. You might have noticed that I did not mention anything about bathroom storage in my previous post . The bathrooms were given to us ready with all the fittings. As per our carpenter, in one of the bathrooms (guest bathroom), it was not possible to make an under-sink storage due to the sink shape. I needed something there to store cleaning supplies and a space for guest toothbrushes etc. There was a perfect narrow space between the sink and the bathroom wall where I could fit in a four-level sliding trolley . The only other thing we bought for the guest bathroom was an expandable tension shower rod and a shower ...

We bought an apartment a few years ago while the project was in nascent stage. Towards the end of last year, we moved into this completed apartment. The apartment, being newly constructed, was a blank slate. We did not hire an interior designer and decided to design the built-ins, closets, and the rest ourselves. Our apartment, being in Mumbai, had to make the best use of the space available to us. The apartment was still a great size for Mumbai because it was in a somewhat remote location. We took things very slowly and took nearly 6 months to complete the interiors to a livable state. We started with the known - We knew what stuff we owned and wanted to fit into the apartment. We knew how much space we have to fit all our stuff. So, even before there was a single thing in the house, I was organizing stuff in the house in my brain. What should go where and what kind of storage would need to be built in that place for the stuff that would go there? This was the starting point fo...

In this short article, I present my take on what "Food for life" means to me. You might have heard that there are two types of people in this world : those who live to eat and those who eat to live. These two types are not as mutually exclusive as they seem. Infact, I consider myself as both of those types. I love to eat and food is a big part of my life but at the same time, I believe it is important to eat food which supports life; food that helps the body to function at its best. I look at it as thanking the body for all it does for me. We and our children see food all around us. The children are bombarded with cola blasts and soupy noodles everytime they turn on their favourite cartoon, which usually is Chota Bheem :) This constant food imagery makes it hard, even for adults, to cue in on their hunger. If we can learn to listen to your body, it can really tell us what, when and how much food it wants. Yesterday, my body was ravenous. I needed bits of food all th...

I am trying my hand at writing articles on specific topics. These posts are going to be a little different from my earlier posts which are recipe or craft based. Feel free to skip if they do not interest you. It seems like the whole world is looking for that “perfect” weight loss formula. If you were to ask any random person on the street whether they would like to lose weight, odds are that almost everyone would be willing to change their weight. Although for some people it is in their mind, a greater percentage of people really are overweight. There is a whole weight loss industry, valued at around $60 million, built around this need for losing weight. People, eager for weight loss, are faced with a wide variety of choices : from pills, supplements, shakes, powders, belts to small machines which work on vibration. Most of these products have little to no evidence supporting their claim to weight loss, leave alone their potential side effects. Surgeons have also done their bi...

Last week I had my first surgery for removing my gall bladder. This is apparently a very common surgery and it has been made real simple these days. Single incision, little to no scarring and you are back home in half a day. I had a really good team of doctors and nurses at Charlotte Medical Clinic and I am recovering quite well. I first found out about my bad gall bladder while on my India trip in September. Maybe all the "eat all you can" attitude caused the gall bladder attack :) I am glad I got time to come to terms with it before losing one of my organs. I had time to adjust my diet and really think about the food that I eat and serve my family. I always thought we eat healthy food and it was reasonably true. But anyone who has tried to understand food and what is healthy, what is not, knows that information out there is so conflicting in nature. What was seen as absolute truth a few years ago is now a very questionable truth. There were times when I didn't kno...

Calling myself a real housewife, I thought I should do a "Day in the life of a housewife" kind of post. This Monday I could get a lot done and cut down on screen time. Maybe it was the start of the week enthusiasm. The most important thing I did was get an hour of exercise, first thing in the morning. I intend to do that everyday but the intentions do not always translate to action. The exercise gave me a refreshing jolt of energy and reminded me to stick with it, if only for the energy. My day in a list form. Exercised an hour. Get the daughter to brush, change and all of that morning routine. This takes at least half an hour with all the running and "I dont want to brush". Washed the garbage cans Breakfast time. Laundry time. A whites load, a colored load, drying, folding and putting it away. Takes atleast an hour. I let the daughter help with this.  Made chapati dough with the daughter mixing her own in a smaller bowl. Bath time and dealing with ...

Continuing my story from the previous post, I landed here in Charlotte with nothing particular to do. People had warned me "You will be bored out of your mind there, alone and jobless". Well, I am different. At least these 3 months have not had that effect on me. Does that mean I like being jobless and whiling away my time being lazy? Oh well. Bad question. Forget about it. Now the first month was gone in trying to arrange the house and search for furniture. Every weekend, there was a shopping list to tackle. Well, that is still the case but now it focuses more on groceries. In the second month, Harry Potter took over my life. I was with him day and night. That just means I read all the seven books. It was a crazy time as if I lived in another world. The author is one amazing woman. It was only after I read the books that I could understand why people used to go crazy when a new book was released. As always, the movies do not do anything for me, compared to the book. It br...

Its been a long long time since my last post. I have had such breaks many times but because I am now at home most of the time, many of my friends and I had expected myself to blog more frequently. But I always used to freeze each time I opened blogger :) Writer's block? Maybe if I am a writer at all ;) Today I am determined to write. So, lets see. I have come to the US for the first time. And now its been more than 2 months that I am here. I could have written about the flight. Everyone told me they think that my 17 hour Mumbai to New York direct flight would be quite difficult and boring as it is so long. They had taken flights with a stopover in Europe. But the flight was pretty cool. Well, literally too. I had to ask for 2 blankets :). I boarded the flight at 12:30 in the night and then we were served dinner after an hour I think. I had to wake up from sleep to have the dinner which wasn't really worth breaking my sleep for. Then I was mostly drifting on and off sleep. A...

I didn't know what title to give this post written in the middle of a Sunday night (if 11 o'clock can be called the middle of the night ;) ) It might be a depressing read so proceed at your own risk!! So, I gave the warning in the title :) Why is life full of difficulties? Well, it has its share of happiness too. But sometimes I think about this a lot: why life? I really cannot understand why millions of people exist on earth and each one goes through similar hardships and ups and downs, one birth after another, if the reincarnation theory is to be believed. It baffles me, why god, if there is one, wants not one or two but millions of people to go on living completely insignificant lives. I mean ok, some people have made history and all that, but fine, I fail to see the importance of all of this. I wonder why I am alive. It wouldn’t make any difference to anyone if I was not born. But now that I have already lived for a few years, some people would be sad if I am not here b...

Last week, we bought a new microwave oven. So, this weekend, I made complete use of it. I baked a brownie using this simple recipe . I didn't use the brown sugar and orange zest and forgot the salt. I also used the normal wheat flour instead of maida. It was good enough but slightly overbaked. First I baked them for 15 mins at 180C but it was slightly undercooked. Then I microwaved it for 3 mins and it got overcooked. Next time, I will try out the eggless brownie recipe by Tarla Dalal. I also made rice in the microwave and I think it is better than the pressure cooker for making rice. The grains puff nicely and are separate from each other. I boiled potatoes in it and also roasted peanuts. I made mint flavored peanut butter also for the first time. It is pretty simple. Just put peanuts, mint leaves, sugar, salt. I added a bit of chilli powder and run it in a mixie with little oil till it looks spreadable. Brownie Update (4/28/2008) : I did make the brownie using Tarla Dalal rec...

I know I am noticing a bit late that spring is here. But at least I am glad I noticed. On my walk between home and office, I see beautiful purple flowers in full bloom, leaves turning red on the trees. Everything looks so beautiful! I am making an attempt at being a more positive person and so it is nice when you encounter something beautiful in the daily grind and more importantly, you notice and appreciate it, without being lost in the humdrum of daily routine. I will try to keep my eyes open to notice more of such beauty even if it might be rare in the concrete jungle.

Yesterday we watched Jodha Akbar movie. The most heard statement about the movie is that, "It is too long". Yes, it is more than three and a half hours long. But I didn't feel bored at any point of time during the movie. I find it really funny to say that my most favorite part of the movie was the jewelry throughout the movie. The costumes were ok but the jewelry was amazing. Also, they shot some of the scenes in real palaces I believe. I completely failed to understand how this film could create controversies because no one is shown in a bad light in the film. I read up the internet and found that some people in Rajasthan find the story inaccurate. Some interesting reads about Akbar during my search: Akbar the great and Akbar the not so great . I think the controversy is only regarding the name of Akbar's wife. It is a quite common understanding that Akbar's favorite wife was a Hindu and that he had married several Rajput princesses. But at the end of the da...

Its a Friday afternoon and I am feeling so sleepy as if I have been drugged. Well actually...I think I am drugged. I am taking a drug (medicine!) for pain which the doc warned makes people drowsy. Or could it be because my house help has suddenly gone on leave and its been nearly a month now....hmm....not really..its been a little over two weeks but I am completely pulling out my hair. And to top it, my in-laws are coming tommorrow!!! So I have been working hard at home and office...maybe I am just tired. I am sleepy..............zzzzzzzzz

After removing the frustration in my previous post, I am back to my 'fun and food' self. Friday morning I won tickets for 'Sunday' movie on Fever 104 FM. Yesterday evening we went for the movie with virtually no expectations (not even expecting it to be bad). We thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Ajay Devgan, Arshad Warsi, and Irrfan Khan's performances stand out in the movie. Arshad Warsi pairs really well with male co-stars in comic roles. Ajay Devgan as a cop is impressive as he goes about solving the mystery of the missing Sunday from Ayesha Takia's life. She does need a new dress designer and a new personal trainer at her gym. I can hear my friends laughing at me giving out suggestions related to weight. But hey, I ain’t no Bollywood actress. And I try sometimes ;) to control my weight! It definitely is a good movie. Very well made and a nicely told story. There are a couple of illogical things like Arshad running a few days after getting shot on the backside a...

I should have rather said what’s India coming to? Just when we thought India is poised to become a great power, we hear news which is as disturbing as it is disappointing. If anyone watched the news channels yesterday, they would know what I am talking about. First, there are the Mumbai clashes. It was disgusting to see the so-called guardians of Maharashtrians in Mumbai go about beating poor hawkers and taxi-drivers. Just because they have come from some other state to earn their bread in Mumbai? What have these so-called guardians contributed to the growth of Mumbai that they think they own the city? It is an utterly childish and completely illogical behavior on display. They are doing a lot of harm to Mumbai rather than protect it if that’s what they feel they are doing. The image Mumbai had, of an accepting city where everyone can come and blend into the crowd, has taken a hard beating. Even Mr. Laluprasad said that why are they spoiling Mumbai and creating a divide across Mumbai...

It’s been two weeks since we had to go on an urgent visit to Mumbai. I had thought of writing about it but many times I just do not feel like writing. Now I have gathered up enough motivation to write. Just a week before we went to Mumbai, I was telling Anurag that I have really started liking Bangalore. Mumbai was never on my list of favorite cities. But another visit to the city and a week later, it miraculously appears on the list and that too very close to the top. It is not that this is my first visit but some things were different this time. The experience started at the airport itself. We take a pre-paid taxi. The person escorts us to the taxi and we are in an air-conditioned Honda city. Compare this with Bangalore airport where we take the pre-paid taxi slip and one of the cab drivers takes it from us and asks us to wait till he gets his cab. This takes 10 mins easily. Maybe the Mumbai cabs take more money but seemed ok to me considering the distances there. I also got to t...

I am writing after a long time but the incident I am going to write about happened around a month or two ago. I very rarely go to a beauty parlor. It is not that I am so beautiful that I don’t need to go there. ;) I am just plain lazy. I never find the motivation or the drive to go there and spend at least an hour. Getting a haircut is the maximum motivation I can draw. Anyways, the last time I had been to L’Oreal beauty salon was a month or two ago. An old lady had also come there. She had short hair and was nicely dressed. I was amazed to see her come for a hair cut and some other beauty treatments. I was thinking, at this age, she has the enthusiasm to walk to the parlor and sit through hour-long sessions. I admired her silently. But what I didn’t like was the attendants at the parlor were speaking of her in the manner of making fun of her. Old people need to be admired for not letting age come in the way of enjoying life. Older people also have a right to live the way they want t...

I am back after a long gap. Was not keeping too well in terms of health. Now I am fine or so I hope. Doc said the problems are due to stress. I would have been quite surprised to hear that but my mother (also a doc) had predicted the same cause. Stress has become such a common word, in fact, I should have been surprised to know I don’t experience stress. Looks like all people living in cities/metros are stressed. But still, people want to live in metros. To live a 'high' life. To enjoy malls, supermarkets, convenience goods, frozen food, just a minute meal. But do we get any free time in spite of having all the tools meant for saving time at our disposal? What are we saving time for? So that we can work more, earn more and buy more time-saving goods. Wow...what a vicious cycle. Of all the weekend options representing 'high life' (multiplexes, shopping malls, food courts and so on), my favorite weekend activity is going for long walks near the garden, better still ridin...

I am writing a post after a long time. I had gone home for a week. I had a great time and ate all the good food and relaxed a lot. I hope life could always be like that...eat, sleep and make merry. I know it cannot be and it is fine because I don’t have any major regrets about the way life is right now. On the flight home, an old man was sitting next to me. He had a bag full of papers. He was going through the papers and discarding some of them and putting some of them back...hopefully arranging it. He finished doing it about 15 mins before landing. But he was the most restless person I had seen, He couldn’t sit still for even the few minutes. He opened the tray table and started looking at the papers again and then writing something. The air hostess had to ask him to put up the table and sit straight. He looked really sad about sitting without doing anything. He must have been glad to get off the aircraft. I also had a nice time shopping there in Gujarat. It was a great experience ...