Nashta Time

Have you seen the
link to https://www.facebook.com/anaajkanashta?

and https://www.youtube.com/user/kelloggindia.

You must. If you haven't already. Because the Gupta s have posted some yummy Kellogg's recipes there.
I especially liked the Sitaphal powered breakfast. Must try that at my end.

Any way I suppose better than trying them, one must just go to their home for Nashta party.

If I have to recall one such nashta party, I remember I had once gone for nashta to the house of a friend ironically called Ms D Gupta. We were little children and had never thought of a concept like having nashta at anyone's home except for parties.

So this aunty, my friend's mom invited us for a breakfast party of masala dosa, something that so far I had eaten only in restaurants.

My sister and I went to the friend's house and filled our tummies with multiple home cooked yummy and hot dosas filled with potatoes made using a yummy recipe.  We really savoured the dosas aNd I have lost count perhaps of the numbers we ate that day. Little did I imagine that years later I would be making dosas like a pro in my own home from my own batter though!


Cut to today we talk of healthy recipes and we are in dire straits when we think if how to make them. And if we have someone who makes these yummy Kellogg's healthy nashta we would love to go there and have a go at trying every recipe possible.

Ultimately if one has to lose weight I would recommend that we look at the Kellogg's philosophy and see how we can follow that to bring about weight loss.

The attempt should be to bring about a change in lifestyle rather than a short term change to last during the weight loss period only. If the aim is to restrict only during the weight loss phase, the tendency is to put back as much and more than what was lost. The overall idea is not to stop one from eating but educate and train the body to eat what is right and the right quantity.

1. Instead of 3 large meals, one should take 6 small meals.
-The body handles smaller amounts of food better than big meals at one go. If the quantity is limited, it is more likely to use the energy contained in the food, rather than store it as fat.
-Taking small meals provide fuel to keep the digestive system working and metabolism fired up throughout the day and prevents the body from slipping into fat storing mode
2. The objective is to get a good mix of carbs, protein, vitamins, fibre. A sample diet schedule -(for me- you need to check with your dietician)
Breakfast- cornflakes/ oats/ upma/ dosa without oil/ idly
Midmorning- tender coconut/ fruit/ vegetable juice
Lunch- 1-2 glasses of cold water, Cup of salad, 2 roti, vegetables, daal, buttermilk. The water, buttermilk and salad will help you control the food quantity to near ideal
Afternoon- milk/ coffee with 2 biscuits/ wheat rusk
Evening- fruit
Dinner- before 7.00- 7.30 pm- soup, salad, wheat bread- 2-3 slices/ roti & salad/ veggies/ oats

Ensure you take 12-15 glasses of water. Can also include the tender coconut, juice in the tally.

Non veg is restricted to twice a week and not in the night. Ayurveda mentions that non-veg takes 48 hours to digest. Also it has no fibre and high amount of fat. Proteins require much more energy than carbs to digest but since one sleeps after dinner the whole thing gets absorbed into the system as fat if eaten at night.

Fruits, salads, oats give fibre.
Sugar free/ cholesterol free does not necessarily mean fat free so be careful of such products.
Tetrapack juices are not always good- remember the sugar added
Everything counts- yes that small piece of chocolate too.
Attain your target and then allow yourself one treat day in the week- not before that.
Cut the vicious cycle – the more you weigh, the more you feel like eating junk food/ high fat food. The more you avoid fatty food, the faster you attain your target and the lesser you feel like eating junk food.

What Makes Me Happy

 Simple everyday happiness boosters.

It doesn't take too much to make me happy.

I list out some of the basic, simple, thrifty happiness boosters that I swear by.

Gardening- even watching every leaf and flower qualifies. Especially if a painstakingly readied plant takes root and thrives. I especially enjoyed figuring out how to root the mint in the pit. Simple. You prepare the roots in water first and then put in the soil when the fresh white roots emerge.

Having a loooooooong chat across continents with school friend. Just start off from where you last left and the best part is you can just be yourself- we both know what we were in school!! ;)

Morning Walk with the cool breeze hitting your face, smelling new smells, looking at new plants and vegetation, seeing the birds fly...everything

Also a clear night sky when every constellation is clear. I am especially enamoured by the sight of the Scorpio constellation that rises in the early morning hours

 Planning for and gearing up for the next projects - could be simple stuff like hosting dinner or revamping the garden or experimenting to perfect the cake or tough ones like clearing the kitchen shelves!!

Baking. Always. Especially the cup cakes in my cute silicone moulds that the children love. And watching them devour it is the larger part of the fun.

Playing badminton with the spouse or children or friends on weekend evenings. Especially rallies and especially watching the kids play better than me.

Being with the children and especially getting them to do non home work study. I love making them do puzzles or mathematical problems or write a creative page.

Reading late in bed or spending a holiday with lazy reading or managing to read the entire duration of the flight.

An Anuja Chauhan or a Moni Mohsin or a Sophie Kinsella book.

Writing after a long writer's block, that scene that was evading you or that concept that was not falling into place. Of course writing anytime is a happiness booster. Even the articles.

Hearing from publishers after a manuscript submission. The positive ones of course. I relish every phase of the book making including the edits believe me.

Shopping with free vouchers ;) ...can't even begin to express the pleasure that I feel

Plotting, planning and executing my next purchases. I have a bedsheet fetish!

Talking to mom.

Finding something interesting on the net.

Lots of sunlight

Rain, the variety that comes with a rainbow or in the early evening. Rain reminds me of the day we got our babies home. So it has a special. Place any case.
Reading impeccable English gives me the greatest pleasure. Especially the PG Wodehouse variety

Check happiness at http://cokeurl.com/96jnc

Green Initiatives of 2015

And when we think we can't be further greener, there come some more avenues to go green.
Some of the initiatives we managed to take 

- moved to LED lights in most places of the home 

- started more of gardening with attempts to grow basic herbs like greens, basil, mint. Whatever is possible in my sun less garden

 

Placed an aloe Vera plant on my desk to use as a moisturiser

Started composting using kitchen waste and house dust. Even making the kids pee in it so that I save the water that would go for flushing and also give nutrients for the compost.

Almost completely moved over to steel bottles, steel snack boxes . Closely reading the plastic container numbers

- less of microwaving more of induction or gas stove

- moved over to wooden cutting board

- moved over to iron tawa for dosa from nonstick tawa 

- separated potatoes and onions and using natural baskets

Moving over to cows milk from Astra if all goes well. Will try to make own ghee and paneer henceforth with better quality milk 

Glass containers for spices

More natural like kora grass mats and grass baskets plus more of plants all around

Other initiatives to take

Perhaps move to cloth bags for keeping veggies in the fridge

Happiness Boosters

 Simple everyday happiness boosters.

It doesn't take too much to make me happy.

I list out some of the basic, simple, thrifty happiness boosters that I swear by.

Gardening- even watching every leaf and flower qualifies. Especially if a painstakingly readied plant takes root and thrives. I especially enjoyed figuring out how to root the mint in the pit. Simple. You prepare the roots in water first and then put in the soil when the fresh white roots emerge.

Having a loooooooong chat across continents with school friend. Just start off from where you last left and the best part is you can just be yourself- we both know what we were in school!! ;)

Morning Walk with the cool breeze hitting your face, smelling new smells, looking at new plants and vegetation, seeing the birds fly...everything

Also a clear night sky when every constellation is clear. I am especially enamoured by the sight of the Scorpio constellation that rises in the early morning hours

 Planning for and gearing up for the next projects - could be simple stuff like hosting dinner or revamping the garden or experimenting to perfect the cake or tough ones like clearing the kitchen shelves!!

Baking. Always. Especially the cup cakes in my cute silicone moulds that the children love. And watching them devour it is the larger part of the fun.

Playing badminton with the spouse or children or friends on weekend evenings. Especially rallies and especially watching the kids play better than me.

Being with the children and especially getting them to do non home work study. I love making them do puzzles or mathematical problems or write a creative page.

Reading late in bed or spending a holiday with lazy reading or managing to read the entire duration of the flight.

An Anuja Chauhan or a Moni Mohsin or a Sophie Kinsella book.

Writing after a long writer's block, that scene that was evading you or that concept that was not falling into place. Of course writing anytime is a happiness booster. Even the articles.

Hearing from publishers after a manuscript submission. The positive ones of course. I relish every phase of the book making including the edits believe me.

Shopping with free vouchers ;) ...can't even begin to express the pleasure that I feel

Plotting, planning and executing my next purchases. I have a bedsheet fetish!

Talking to mom.

Finding something interesting on the net.

Lots of sunlight

Rain, the variety that comes with a rainbow or in the early evening. Rain reminds me of the day we got our babies home. So it has a special. Place any case.
Reading impeccable English gives me the greatest pleasure. Especially the PG Wodehouse variety

Check happiness at http://cokeurl.com/96jnc

Running to Win

It was sports day in school and my sons were ready to be winners in their team game.

The son had practiced for the race the entire weekend.

He would run up to the bandage, pick the bandage up and then run up to his doll and tie the bandage, slowly and laboriously to the podgy leg of the teddy bear and t hen pick himself and the teddy bear up and race to the finish line.

I whistled and clapped and nudged him to do it faster, however he focused on doing it right.

My ambidextrous child, who can write and colour with both hands was having immense problem with the simple act of tying a bandage because of orientation issues and confusion of the hands. Hence he focused more and more on getting it write while I played my part in nudging him to go faster. 

On the day of the sports day, the clouds were covering the sky owing to the long week of rains and the school was apprehensive about the sports day as anytime the rain gods could play spoil sport and shower us with their blessings that is the torrential sudden rains which would wet the grassy ground and spoil the sports day for us.

So with great apprehension and trepidation the sports day was declared open and the children started competing in their sports day event one by one.

The theme was profession and the race was based on various professions like pizza delivery for which Tejas' team got the first prize, brick house building, postman etc.

Ojas' class represented the medical guy who would put the bandage on an injured leg.

As he stood in line preparing for his race, my heart raced much more because the pressure of performance would be immense considering the twin had won his race.

The whistle blew and mys on rushed towards the bandage, picked it up and settled himself to tie the bandage to the leg of the teddy bear.

He struggled with both hands, and was all fingers yet focused on doing the bandage correctly. He did manage to secure it and rushed to the finish line. 

However he finished neither first nor second not third. But the school was nice enough to award him a participation medal.

My heart beat fast as I went up to his class to collect him back after the sports day, wondering what tears I will have to encounter. 

I prepared myself to hug his tears away and as he came out of the class he showed me his consolation prize medal and said simply, "Mamma, I won." 

The clouds parted and the sun shone bright and clear and with that it gave me a burst of pride optimism. My son had won because he had managed to tie the bandage well and truly. His race was only with himself and not with anyone else.

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Paranoia about Hygiene

While I always had a mild OCD about cleanliness I have taken it to the next level after reading up more on how much one must clean.

KITCHEN

I have separate colour coded towels for surface wiping, hand wiping and vessels wiping to prevent transfer of germs. I read that wiping with messy kitchen towels spread more germs on the counter than not wiping at all.
Also wet towels attract more germs than dry ones.
So every night I spread out and bin my used towels in a basket and leave them outside to dry. The same are washed with a little bit of synthetic vinegar added to hot water.

Kitchen surfaces are wiped down with dish soap to kill germs. I wonder if I need ISO Propyl alcohol to do a thorough job?

Meat is washed in the sink that is outside and I hope all germs run away somewhere.

NO WIPING HANDS ON THE DRESS!

Fridge deep cleaned every month.

Dish scrubs and sponge to be changed on the first of every month. I am trying to microwave thoroughly washed damp sponge every week to kill the germs but not happening regularly. However I insist that the sponges are kept separately and left on the outer sink to dry because the damp sponges harbour the germs. I hope it helps.


ROOMS

Bedsheets to be changed every 15 days

Towels to be washed twice a week.

No eating in bedrooms or living rooms. Worms occur when one eats crumbs fallen on the bed because bed may house pin worms that explore at nighttime plus there is sweat, saliva and grime and other bodily fluids on the sheets!

TOILETS

To be as usual cleaned everyday and deep cleaned every week.

Shower cubicles and walls to be wiped down after shower.

GENERAL

All surfaces to be wiped everyday.

Windows and grills deep cleaned every alternate week.

In The Lap of Nature

A trip to Singapore perhaps was needed for me to feel extremely proud of my boys.

They were happy troopers, enjoying the nature and animals more than the artificial universal studios

 

The tulipmania was on and was a riot of colours with various tulip bulbs planted all over the garden which the kids loved. Who says boys don't do flowers?

SEA Aquarium

The kids lived the 800 species of marine animals across 49 different habitats that were displayed, each one as fascinating as the next, it was an experience they did nit forget in a hurry,

They squealed in delight walking across a floor of glass and watching the o red actors and other ocean creatures swim right beneath our feet.

We saw the hammer head shark which is an endangered species swim across the glass dome right above our head and the dance of the richly coloured translucent jelly fish

Giant stingrays slowly moved across the aquarium Of exotic coral reefs 

In Singapore Zoo we saw various Zones like Wild africa

Australian section, Tree tops trail, Primate kingdom and reptile garden

We saw the feeding of white tiger - the keeper Kumar threw giant chinks of meat and the tiger swam from across and catch them expertly and snacked on them.

We also saw the malayian tapir a lovely symmetrical  black and white animal who fed on greens

And we also watched the feeding of the tall necked giraffes and saw a few kangaroos darting across the path. 

The squirrel monkeys were free ranging and they jumped across fences and walls and were very enthusiastic

The fragile forest  was the most exciting section with flying foxes, butterflies that one could touch and other little animals that darted across the small covered dome. 

We then went to the River Safari- Asia's first and only river themed park highlighting aquatic life from  major rivers of the world like 

Missisipi, Ganges, Nile, congo, Murray, Mekong, Yangtze 

Also has Amazon flooded forest with simulation of amazon forest trees submerged during flood. 

We went for a boat safari and saw flaming red and pink flamingoes free ranging in the forest

and various ducks swimming nearby

Giant Panda Forest - China's gift to Singapore, giant pandas Kai Kai and Jia Jia. Also sharing this climate-controlled biodome are the rare red pandas and elegant golden pheasants.

At the end of it all, I felt truly proud that my children love nature and observed each and every detail in the aquarium, river safari and the zoo. They read up each and every detail and watched. Each animal with interest.

It gives me a lot of hope and optimism that I am doing my parenting right as they preferred nature rather than anything artificial

Buy a home in style at https://housing.com/

Revisiting the 40 point plan

http://itchingtowriteblogs.blogspot.in/2008/09/40-point-plan.html

Happened to chance upon this page from sept 2008 which was 6 years ago and turning forty seems a distant dream.

Let us see what I have achieved

1. Lose excess kilos- I know it is not a SMART goal but then we don't want to announce our weight in public right! NOT
2. Travel - atleast 1 country in each continent, Europe  Managed Europe 
3. Try my hand at entrepreneurship- culminating the ideas I have in mind like .....*****censored**** NO
4. Write a book/ story/ publish something atleast and make money out of it YES two children's books, 1 anthology and three counting so far.
5. Drive something other than a small car, like, err, a bigger car YES Innova 
6. Become an ace interior decorator for my home and change it's look from its current state of storm ravaged wasteland homely look and get the garden shipshape YES. Not the ace interior decorator but the home and garden dream achieved
7. Teach/atleast do guest lectures NO 
8. Take a sabbatical NO. Decided that I can't 
9. Highlight/ Streak my hair NO, no hair left to experiment 
10. Take a holiday with my husband (yes, it is a rarity for me- only 1 so far and I am in the 5th year of my marriage) (sob) NO . And I do not mind doing it with kids, 
11. Become an expert cook rather than a random, tentative, no frills cook- develop a fairly extensive repertoire of recipes and menu items (again goal not SMART enough because I really don't know how many I can do but I will know when I am fairly equipped to cross out this item from my list) NO, hired s cook! Never thought six years ago I would do that,
12. Experiment with different cuisines and continue to make them on a regular basis rather than one off kinds NO. The cook makes it
13. Visit my birth place (Scotland) NO, 
14. Start celebrating festivals the way it has to be done setting a good example to the kids . NOT so much. no pressure
15. Buy jewelry for myself (on a regular basis instead of just doing gold coins). YES. Too many
16. Start wearing sari on a regular basis to work. NO. No blouses  fit.
17. Go to theatre/ concert (never done it) (shame). NO. 
18. Learn Western dance NO
19. Re start music lessons (?) YES. Keyboard
20. Have our own house rather than a poky flat. NO but the house got bigger, so ok. 
21. Change my furniture YES
22. Institute 5-S in my home - already started the Seiri (Sort & Throw) YES . Almost
23. Go to atleast 1 or 2 non English speaking country after learning the (basic/ functional) language. Went but never learned the language.
24. Go in a helicopter. NO
25. Learn to Control my Temper. Oh yes. A lot
26. Job related ******censored******. Yes yes 
27. See the Himalayas. No
28. Go for a couple massage with Hubby off course . No. 
29. Send my parents abroad.  They are going on their own, they are too independent to be be sent 
30. See the Taj with Hubby & Kids. No
31. Travel in Palace on Wheels. no
32. Learn to bake 5 - 10 varieties of cakes. A few yes.
33. Learn 5 different chicken recipes and make them on a regular basis. Yes but the cook makes it, 
34. Restart playing kalaeidoscope. Did a bit, but stopped again
35. Do combined puzzles with the kids (as soon as they are old enough- incl crossword, jumble, kalaiedoscope, jigsaw). Not so much. 
36. Start playing Monopoly & Scrabble with the kids also Carrom (though I am lousy at it). The kids do.
37. Read more authors than the usual (already started). Yes.
38. Visit all the Indian States esp North East, and North- done with Bihar, UP, MP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Gujarat, Orissa, West Bengal, Andhra, Goa...a loooong way to go but kya kare bad luck hi kharab hai. no but took holidays 
digression- I always though I would be taking annual dream holidays post marriage but that has never happened!
39. Get a makeover done and do it regularly- basically be an aunty "maal" - learn how to do a proper make up - get funky glasses, multiple ear rings, no made up look, hair style, eye shadows, eye liners, the works added to my just lipstick look.. Eye liner yes, 
40. Turn 40 in style. Let us see. Doesn't seem to be so much on the agenda now, 

A Bold Decision

Everyday he would come home late as he was working for his employer till late in the night. He would be up at odd hours because he was working for markets that were in different time zones. He would work so hard that everyone thought he had a partnership in the company or a lot of shares, but no, he was a mere employee. But he was the face of the company and every customer he met would treat him as the ultimate authority.

He brought in new clients and helped the company grow but did they appreciate him a little more than everyone else? No. Because he was a mere employee doing his duty.

His wife would tell him. Leave the job. Start on your own. If you are so good and if you have such a good network, you will manage.

But he was waiting until he gained enough confidence to start on his own. For it required guts. It required one to be present all the time for the customers. And it meant never again looking back to never again leaving work at the office. 

It meant being responsible for the people whom he would hire and for the people who would trust him enough to leave their cushy jobs and join him. 

Yes it needed guts and a great deal of money to fund his venture.

One find day he sat himself down and thought hard. Was he happy doing this? Was he happy working so hard for someone else?

Was he happy having his hands tied down and not being able to take the bold step that he always wanted to take?

Was he happy being treated like a second class citizen because no matter how much ever he worked and how many new businesses he got, he would always be an employee never the owner, never the partner.

He never had the freedom to decide. He never could take the risks he wanted to because the decisions were governed by the establishment.

That day he decided. He would take the bold step. He would take the risk and he would start out on his own. He would take loans, empty his bank account, offer shares and probably mortgage his home that was so lovingly bought. But the risk he would take because the benefits and the lay offs would be far greater than the risk he would take now. He would be what he always dreamt to be all his life, an entrepreneur.

With a resolute nod to himself, he took out his laptop and typed out his resignation letter. 

Meet the husband, my husband, who took the bold step because he dared to dream. 

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Glorious Walk

Long months of inactivity had left me feeling disgusted and disappointed with my body that refused to be active.

I would despair at the time fifteen years ago when I was walking the entire neighbourhood, almost 5 km up and down without feeling the least bit exhausted. Given a chance I walked rather than took an auto and especially because I didn't have my own car, I would walk both the long distances and the short one. There would be an exhibition that I wanted to seem or a nursery that u wanted to visit, I would do everything walking as I was too cheap to pay the auto fare.

But after I started driving my own car, I became lazy. Also lack of time prompted me to take the car everywhere, even short distances because after all, time is money and it was more important for me to reach back home on time rather than walk and be healthy.

A few months ago, we went for an outbound workshop from our office. While I am very good at mental workshops, I am a little uncertain about physical workshops.
This workshop was not very tiring but still we had a short walk to a tree lined place and then we were given some endurance exercises.

One was making a person hover on a harness above a tub of balls and he had to throw the balls into a basket. We had harnessed him with ropes and it required superhuman strength to keep him floating.

The second was to make an A shape with bamboos and then control the shape with ropes and make the person mounted on the A to walk a short distance. For every step I would pull along with a colleague and it took immense strength to pull that off, pun intended. But I managed.

At the end of it all, different muscles and parts had been thoroughly exercised but I felt a sense of pride and happiness that I had achieved something that I had never done before.

Truly filled me with so much optimism that I decided to get back to my walking, playing and doing physical activities to feel better about myself yet again.

I don't know how much weight I will manage to lose, but I do know that I will not shy away from physical work.

I do not know how much thinner or nicer I will look, but I do plan to be able to walk a challenging distance easily.

And today, I walked a 5 kilometre distance in the afternoon sun with ease. It filled me with a sense of pride that perhaps it is not so difficult at all.

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To appreciate Togetherness and our Home

While we have done mini drives quite often, it was the first time the husband decided to do a longish drive which meant traveling from Chennai to Goa by car.

We had booked ourselves in the club Mahindra resort which was another first for us and it was for the first time we were driving across the eastern coast to the western coast.

Hilly terrains always give me the jitters so this was good because we would be close to sea level.

It had been a very long time since we had a proper break especially because kids were small and it is not so easy to take breaks. And add to that our own tardiness.

The drive was very present and we also stopped at a hotel midway so that we could break our joinery. It was more a case of liking the journey more than the destination.

We crossed a few states, braved inclement weather and finally reached the resort.

We were in for a pleasant surprise when we checked into the resort. I had never imagined that it would be such a comfortable place with two sets of beds, one for the children and one for us. The room was huge and the resort had a private beach.

We built sand castles on the beach and looked longingly at the parasailing crowd but of course we couldn't dare to really try it.

We experimented with mutton vindaloo and went to Martin's corner to have dinner.

We visited naturals ice cream parlour every day and had lots of tender coconut ice cream. Slurp.

We truly relaxed, read on the beach, took off cakes from the buffet table to have by the poolside and the children spent the entire day in the pool and the evening on the beach.

We spent the time just looking out of the balcony and generally did very touristy things like strolling the streets.

It was the much needed me time or rather us time that we needed as a family and it came right on time.

And no holiday is complete without seeing the animal kingdom. On the way back we stopped at Bangalore and we went to Banerghatta national park and took the bus safari. Thankfully the kids love nature and they were more than happy to be looking at the animals and enjoying the various species at the butterfly park.

The best part of the holiday is the food. While Goa did not have much to offer by way of local food, we freaked out in the sea food and vindaloo preparation. We ate a lot of salads, yes, and drank soup. And generally were laid back and without any agenda every day.

Sometimes, it pays to just not do anything, a fast vanishing thing. It recharged us and we went back to our world and our work with much gusto. We also learnt to appreciate our own home which is the best of all places and the most comfortable, no matter how hi fi the hotel and resorts are.

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belated Year end Update

 So the year 2015 is full of new beginnings. 
 
 But before that 2014 had not been very kind to us as much as I had hoped. 
 
 As a family - We lost my Nani and Nana in a space of five months. 
 One on 1st jan and the other in 28th July. 
 While Nani was suffering from illness I am still under shock about Nana. Didn't expect him to go away so suddenly. 
 
 Work wise the year was full of travels for both hubby and me and we also did manage a couple of holidays including Singapore and Coonoor. 
I also managed to take a break in December to oversee the renovation of our home. 

 Well so we ended the year feeling happy poor! 

> Especially after the inclusion of a library!

I also managed three publications with Mango Chutney, mathematics Fun fact and fictionhttp://www.mangobooks.net/book_details/8345/mathematics_fun,_facts_and_fiction

and folk tales from around the world. 
http://www.mangobooks.net/book_details/8428/folktales_from_around_the_world

Women's Web very kindly published my interview 

http://www.womensweb.in/2015/03/riti-kaunteya-life-as-an-author/

And now for the resolutions


- A general attempt to move over to more green less artificial 
- try to build in exercise
- write everyday 
- read more
- read more of HBR
- eat out even lesser. We already reduced to bare minimum
- healthy snacks for children. More fruits less processed
- follow 5 s system at home.
- teach children independence and make their own bed at least and maintain their own cupboards
- focus on kids ' studies better and make it more organised and regimental
- follow the keyboard course and be serious about it
- wake up on time on the alarm
- Reduce and remove iPad usage by children
- make children read more
- socialise more

- use more of flower decor 

Kiddy speak

Ojas is particular Tejas should not touch him with cough hand. Ie the hand in which he has coughed as it will transfer germs

They think it is ok to take leave of half day from school if mamma has a holiday. Guess what. They tried. They failed.

Apparently whisper is a sort of chuddy for soaking up the blue coloured susu.

On when told to pee in the compost bin just a bit Tejas asked how can I stop once I start

Metallica and medina are places of worship for Muslims

Apparently Donut practiced hard for race so that he can be like Ojas bhaiya and win medals

Floral Cheer

Taking the Bold Step

We were married for just a few months and had moved to a new rented place. Everyone advised us to buy a house rather than rent because at that time when the real estate had not boomed, it made more sense to buy rather than pay a high rent. Ultimately our EMI would be nearly equal or comparable to the rent and we would end up at least owning the house. We searched long and hard for the dream home that suited our requirements.
We went to new sites, looked at existing houses and scanned the property pages every weekend. At first we were willing to shift at any part of the town as long as it was towards the South for the purpose of convenience of commute to my work place.
Then, we started narrowing down choices, especially when we had to traverse narrow lanes and congested streets to reach the site.
We looked at houses, measured the built up area and realized to our dismay that the plinth area, built up area and actual square feet that we end up with are vastly different.
We decided on a few things. We will not compromise for less than three bedroom house, not live lower than the second floor neither higher than that and must live on the shortest and most convenient route to my office. We decided upon a budget which was decent enough and decided not to budge from it. We also wanted to satisfy the bare minimum vaastu requirements.
As we trawled through sites and made contacts after contacts for like seven months, we realized that it was not easy to find the house of our choice in the locality of our choice and within the budget that we wanted. We nearly gave up after seven months of trying very hard and stopped looking. House is like love. You get it when you stop looking for it.
So it happened that one day a bank representative came to my husband asking whether we wanted a home loan. My husband said of course we want but there is this small detail of we not having found a home at all for buying. The guy proved to be god send. He had a house in mind which was more expensive than our budget, two bedroom and on the ground floor. The saving grace was that it was in the heart of the town and on my office route so I could catch the office vehicle in five minutes My husband took one look at it and he liked the feel of the place. He was sure that I would like it even though it failed on all of our conditions.

 I saw the place the very next day and fell in love with the entire thing. The clincher was the tiny garden. One in the front and one on the back. And the rest as they say is history. We took the bold step of buying a house inspite of it not meeting our requirements and we have never looked back after that.

https://housing.com/ - your new home to find a home

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It was sports day in school and my sons were ready to be winners in their team game.

The son had practiced for the race the entire weekend.

He would run up to the bandage, pick the bandage up and then run up to his doll and tie the bandage, slowly and laboriously to the podgy leg of the teddy bear and t hen pick himself and the teddy bear up and race to the finish line.

I whistled and clapped and nudged him to do it faster, however he focused on doing it right.

My ambidextrous child, who can write and colour with both hands was having immense problem with the simple act of tying a bandage because of orientation issues and confusion of the hands. Hence he focused more and more on getting it write while I played my part in nudging him to go faster.

On the day of the sports day, the clouds were covering the sky owing to the long week of rains and the school was apprehensive about the sports day as anytime the rain gods could play spoil sport and shower us with their blessings that is the torrential sudden rains which would wet the grassy ground and spoil the sports day for us.

So with great apprehension and trepidation the sports day was declared open and the children started competing in their sports day event one by one.

The theme was profession and the race was based on various professions like pizza delivery for which Tejas' team got the first prize, brick house building, postman etc.

Ojas' class represented the medical guy who would put the bandage on an injured leg.

As he stood in line preparing for his race, my heart raced much more because the pressure of performance would be immense considering the twin had won his race.

The whistle blew and mys on rushed towards the bandage, picked it up and settled himself to tie the bandage to the leg of the teddy bear.

He struggled with both hands, and was all fingers yet focused on doing the bandage correctly. He did manage to secure it and rushed to the finish line.

However he finished neither first nor second not third. But the school was nice enough to award him a participation medal.

My heart beat fast as I went up to his class to collect him back after the sports day, wondering what tears I will have to encounter.

I prepared myself to hug his tears away and as he came out of the class he showed me his consolation prize medal and said simply, "Mamma, I won."

The clouds parted and the sun shone bright and clear and with that it gave me a burst of pride optimism. My son had won because he had managed to tie the bandage well and truly. His race was only with himself and not with anyone else.

And when you are feeling down and wondering whether you will find your dream house at all, go on to https://housing.com/lookup

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