MellowDrama

For our body to function properly and grow well we need many things. Among them vitamins and minerals play a significant role. Let us find out today what they are, where we get them and the benefit of some of the important ones. Vitamins are organic substances that are manufactured by plants and animals within their bodies. Minerals are inorganic substances that are found abundantly in nature. We humans get these various minerals from the plants which absorb them from natural elements like soil and water. Can you think of some vitamins and minerals that are important for the growth of our bodies? I am sure you must have come up with a long list of vitamins such as A, B, C, D and K. Amongst the minerals were you able to think of sodium, calcium and iron? The most wonderful thing about vitamins and minerals is that they are available in all the foods we eat. Be it curd, eggs, spinach, green peas, carrots, rice, vitamins and minerals are present everywhere. It is not that one foo...

I feel strongly about a line from Thomas Gray’s Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College. The poet writes ‘where Ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise’. In an idyllic setting I would associate this entire line with basking under the sun on a small hill top watching clouds float and sheep graze at a distance though in day to day life I often quote the half of it- ‘ignorance is bliss’. And I thought of this line very often while reading Moni Mohsin’s The Diary of a Social Butterfly (TDSB). Butterfly is a socialite and is blissfully ignorant about her own inanities. Moni Mohsin is a journalist who wrote a column by the same name in Pakistan’s Friday Times. This book is a selection of these very column entries. The 220 page book at Rs 199 is fully paisa vasool. The diary is set up in modern day Pakistan. It though records the social hits and misses of Butterfly, is a commentary, actually a satirical commentary, on the state of affairs in large. Butterfly has no clue about...

I have been blessed with striaght silky hair. I keep them at shoulder length for easy management. I prefer to let them loose. My bad hair days are often a result of my oily scalp. I have to tie them up and that is when they come to have a wavy impression that would stay if I do not use an optimum product. The purple bottles that arrived by courier looked and smelt beautiful so full marks to the packaging guys for it. Before writing ths revew I used the shampoo and the conditioner twice, so let me go wash by wash: First Wash: When I first used the shampoo, my scalp had begun to get slightly oily. I used the shampoo as I would use any other. I let the shampoo stay on for a couple of minutes before rinsing it off with luke warn water. Then squeesing out the water from the tips I applied the conditoner and let it stay for just a minute as the instruction on the pack advised. Again I washed it off with luke warm water. When my hair had begun to dry I did not notice anything dif...

Yes, you read the headline of this article correctly. And I am not just talking about a vegetable garden. I am talking about a garden where lovely flowers bloom in abundance. Flowers have been used in culinary practices for a long, long time. The first recorded mention of the usage of flowers dates back to 140 BC. Various cultures and cuisines have been inspired by flowers and people have used them for various purposes while cooking. Some use flowers to garnish a dish while some use them as a main ingredient. Can you imagine a dish garnished with lovely lavender and blooming roses? Flower petals have been extensively used in salads from time immemorial. Candied violets and sugared roses have always lured even those who claim not to have a sweet tooth. Flowers have been used in desserts such as ice cream and custards and are also found in baked goodies. The range of flavour that flowers impart to various dishes is astounding. Violets, lavender or roses generally lend a sweet ...

We came to Kolkata a year back. How and why we came to come here, still remains a bit hazy as everything happened so fast. No, it really did. In a time span of about ten days, I went from having a shining career with the PR department of the Chandigarh Administration and two helping hands to doing the cleaning,cooking and looking after my household to scrubbing floors, washing clothes and utensils and cooking meals by myself. Out of the Rajbhavan into Sarobana's bhavan (Sarobana = Landlady). When the husband was offered the posting alongside a promotion we decided to make the move. I did not give a thought about the ramifications in personal terms. In that sense I now realise that I am not much of a thinking person as it is. I do things and then often sit at side amused by all that happens to me. The only thing I remember thinking is this would mean change. So Kolkata happened in Nov 2011 after Diwali jubilations in the Sector 8 house to which we had barely moved three months ...

Have you ever had to avoid hot potatoes? Or have you finally found your gravy train? If that answer is a yes, then you must be the cream of the crop and will soon become big cheese and if the answer is a no, then I suggest that you use your noodle, chew the fat and ensure that you don’t jump out of the frying pan into the fire. So have you been able to guess what we are going to talk about today? I am sure you must have done so by now. We are stepping into the world of idioms inspired from food. Food occupies a major portion of our lives and it is no surprise that there are so many idioms inspired by food. Let us begin with the sweet example of the cake and see what some of the idioms using cake mean. The first one that comes to mind is a fairly common one. Can you venture a guess? Yes it is to ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too’. This refers to having the best of both the worlds. Interestingly the idiom is used with some variation in many languages all over the world. F...

Pulses are eaten in every part of the country. These are a major source of protein in our diet. But do we know anything else besides the fact that pulses are members of the legume family? Let us discover some facts about the world of pulses today. Try naming the pulses that you are familiar with. How many did you get? The word ‘pulse’ has its origin in the Latin word puls which in Greek means thick soup like porridge. Proof of cultivation of pulses has been found at the site of the Indus Valley Civilisation near the river Ravi in Punjab. Traces of these have also been found at the pyramids. Some dry pea seeds were discovered in a Swiss village which are believed to date back to the Stone Age. In general, the term pulses refers to crops that are harvested for their dry seeds. Have you guessed which part of the plant pulses are? Yes! You are right if your answer is seed. Now on to the basics- I mentioned that pulses belong to the legume family. Do you know what a legume is or w...