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Princess Sundrella and the Disney effect

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So the summer holidays are here. We are not headed to either naani's house and we have time to spill. After a couple of days in this spilling I realised that Netra should now be introduced to the princesses. Who else is good at bringing those countless princesses to life than Mr Disney. So I downloaded all the princess movies that have been made under the Disney banner. Starting with Cinderella to the current rebel and if I may say, my fav, Brave's Princess Merida. There were some after effects that I knew of and expected to occur after so much royalty being doled out to my 5 year old. But there were some more, which nothing could have prepared me for. Her Highness had been insisting on being called Princess for some time now but after seeing Cinderella, she responds only when addressed as Princess Cinderella. When I told her that Cinderella was not even a princess to begin with, I was told "Ban gayi na wo, jaise main ban gayi" (She turned in to one, like I did)

Dawn of realisation

writing is a strange thing. it gives you wings.  it lets you soar or lie flat on your back all day long it lets you lose the structure it allows you to dream it allows you to give meaning of your own to events, situations ----------------- This post was supposed to be many posts that should have been written over a period of time when I did not even open my blog. Horrible ain't I?  But as is usual, I made plans as well as in some corner of my mind made lists of tasks that I would finish and then get down to writing the blog entry on the topic that has been bothering me for a while or that interesting episode with my daughter. Alas! that time never came and I realise that it will also not ever come, waiting as I do. I also read, early in the morning, an article by a successful journalist-turned-momee-cum-domestic goddess (yes! it seems that even amongst journalists a species extraordinaire does exist. There goes my excuse for doing everything wrong or not indulging in T

The Feast- In celebration of being alive

A party is on cards. The date has been finialised. A theme has been set. The guest have been invited.  So what are we celebrating, you may ask. Well, what better than the occasion of life! And hence the theme of the party 'The joy of being alive'. The party is going to take place in a huge colonial house in the Dagshai cantonment. The gathering is cosy and comprising of about 12 people.  Let me tell you more about my party.  Winters are on the verge and the mountain wind is enveloped in the sweet fragrance of the greenest grass and loveliest songs.  Invites were sent written on parchment with a quill, informing the guests about the venue, theme, date and time, setting the mood for the occasion. In accordance with my theme, celebrating life, a lunch instead of a dinner was planned as the intent was to let the guests savour the food and surroundings to the maximum.  The beautiful  house has a blooming garden. A table is set in a corner. It has been stocked well with le

Healthy power-packed vitamins

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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

Book review- The Diary of a social butterfly

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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

Product Review: Sunsilk Perfect Straight

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 differe

The goodness of your garden on your plate

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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

So...... Oh! Kolkata

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

Eating your words

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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

Storehouse of Nutrients

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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

Our Moon has Blood Clots- A review

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In t h e year 1990 I was probably running down the tea gardens outside my house in gay abandon. In the year 1990 a 14 year old boy and his community were forced in to an exile which they have still not managed to come out of. ‘Our Moon Has Blood Clots, The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits’ is a memoir written by Rahul Pandita, a Kashmiri Pandit and a journalist. The 256 pages of the book and the timeline at the end of the book tell a tale that many of us are familiar with but vaguely. In ‘us’ I refer to people who have known that Kashmir has faced problem (s), thanks to TV and the newspapers and that a certain Pandit community faced exodus years ago.   The memoirs are moving and it is not just in the way they have been written. The stories of brutality, atrocities on men, women and children, episodes and incidents that have been narrated are gut wrenching and heart pulling. There is kindness also but largely there is blood and hunger and loss. This sense of loss that t

Winds of taste from the sandy desert

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The ethnic group of people from the princely Marwar region of Rajasthan is called Marwari. Though the term is used to refer to all the people from Rajasthan or those having roots in Rajasthan, the term specifically refers to the bania or trading community of Rajasthan. You might wonder why instead of writing about food in my column I have shifted my attention towards anthropology. Worry not, this detour will only lead us to the destined land of tastes and slurrrps. As you might have figured  by now, today we are going to discuss Rajasthani cuisine, which has been spread far and wide by the travelling business community, the Marwaris. Dal baati churma is the most common name amongst the dishes ladled out of this desert region that you might already be aware of. Let us take a look at what else is on offer. The Marwari traders used to travel far and wide on the Ganga-Yamuna trade route for business. Not much of their food was influenced by their travels though the people of t

The school question

I am back at it. Though on second thoughts I haven't really had to do it uptil now. She would go to the best montessori right across my office was decided the day I started work with the Chandigarh Administration. When the husband got transferred to Kolkata he found a school for her that was willing to take her and was closer to a residential complex that met our 'must-have' list After a year that she has been going to this school, I am looking at others for Netra and I have no qualms at accepting that I am lost. So I am taking my father's advice and putting down things on paper. (I realise that there is an e in paper here) To apprise you of the situation. Netra is 5 years old (OMG I have been a mommy for this long...hmm no option but to grow up now). She currently goes to a school where there are 60 children in her section. (I sent chocolates for her birthday). To top it all there is only 1 teacher for those 60 princesses. Now on to why I am all worked up about