Teetotallers like to pose!

I reflect. In the year 2014 at the Bloggers meet in BLR was a session on wine tasting and pairing. It is very fashionable to do it. I was glad to do it. I learnt things about myself. You never know until you cross that edge. This picture of me taken by a blogger buddy caused quite a ruffle in my circles. I still wasn’t married then.  I was the daughter of a teetotaller family. Dad and uncles never touched any kind of alcohol. How was I doing this? Arey arey, She has got spoilt!!! Was the conclusion everyone jumped to. Then in 2015 I got married. Arvi drank in social circles and never alone. We got married in Dec and on the 31st it was the first time he poured out a tumbler of whiskey for me 🥃 I barely licked it and turned my nose up. Arvi said If you don’t drink I won’t enjoy it. So began the habit of pouring out glasses of wine, champagne, vodka or whiskey for me. I would sit with him. Serve him snacks and watch him enjoy and then he would consume my glass too. However Arvi drank on rare occasions at home infact only on his birthday, Navroze and 31 Dec and a rare wedding that we might have attended. I never developed a liking for alcohol. I do cook pastas and bake with alcohol but that too is very rare. Once a close friend happily opened a bottle of white wine for me. When I didn’t drink it she was surprised even more. Then we decided to make vanilla extract with that wine. This picture still makes me smile. It gave me a thrill at the time. It was a moment of shattering the glass ceiling for me. Now I have Arvi’s bar still abundant that I clean once in a while. Have given away some expensive bottles to people but I keep the rest in Arvi’s memory. 

I always say, I am high on life. Don’t need alcohol !

P.S. People will not read this but remember that pic forever 🤣🤣

शुभ दीपावली 2022 | उटणं or Ayurvedic bath powder formula

Namaskar friends

I return here to wish you a very शुभ दीपावली!

So on this occasion let me share a much in demand formula for उटणं or Ayurvedic bath powder. I make this once in few months and use it everyday. Sometimes I gift it to family but for Diwali अभ्यंग स्नान it’s a must. 

I don’t use soap. I was big on bath gels but I have stopped those for long now since my friend Sapna’s Mum Manjula aunty gave me this formula. It makes your skin beautiful! 

Also this organic haldi is from Sapna’s farm in Mysore.

A lot of you have requested for it so here you go…

Ingredients 

2 cups green moog 

2 cups rose petals

1 cup chana dal

1 cup dried orange peels

2 cups turmeric powder 

1 cup neem leaves

1/2 cup camphor

1 cup dried pomegranate peels

Almonds optional

Grind all items together and ensure they are mixed well. Store in a dry container. Keep in the fridge door for long storage life. 

Make it quick now! 

Shree Ram

Accepting

मी सादर  आहे. जे होईल ती तुमची इच्छा. तुम्हीं माझ्या सोबत आहात ह्याची खूण म्हणजे माला दुःख शिवलं नाही. ❤️

I am in the moment. Accepting. I am untouched with the happenings in my life. Give me a place at your divine feet Shree Maharaj. 🙏🏼🌸

Self Care

Self care. She is our caretaker’s wife. I loved her veni of flowers and requested for a picture. She happily obliged and said. Not just now, I have been wearing a Veni everyday since before marriage. That itself makes it clear women did all of this for themselves.

I have seen women especially older women take such good care of themselves. In the villages they tend to their hair twice a day. Weekly oiling and head bath are a leisurely affair. Sitting in the sun after head bath to dry the tresses is such an act of rejuvenation. Especially after periods. No one objects to the women relaxing at the time. In our modern lives we don’t care for our hair nor general health. We made such an issue about sitting separately during periods and lost the best part of it, the rejuvenation. 

I know my mother’s generation took such pride in turning out well every single morning. Hair combed, saree perfectly draped. Kajal in the eyes, bindi on the forehead and gajara in the hair. They would go about their work with tinkling bangles that was reassuring to us kids that Mum is around. The younger ones ran across the house with paijan at their ankles. There wasn’t that much traffic even in the cities that would drown the music. 

I personally being conditioned in a convent school dropped all of this. Now it seems so pleasing…

PRANAYAM (2011) Uncommon and Complex

TV dinner last night. Watched Pranayam (2011). Mohanlal, Jayaprada and Anupam Kher.  Expected a treat. 

Chutney pulav in the bowl.

Review: 

An adult love story that straddles the relationships between current love and life and past. It isn’t easy to forget once loved ones and cannot stop caring about the person. Mohanlal is undoubtedly the magician of his craft. He doesn’t act. He slips into the role and lives it. Loved the bearing in ‘I am your man’ song where he sings like a paralysis patient, very believable. The moment when Jayaprada hugs him in bed and tears flow silently from his eyes. Mohanlal is larger than life in this role of a handicapped husband with his unique brand of philosophy. I wish there were subs so I could understand the dialogues. Yet I did not need them. Anupam Kher’s role was light. Jayaprada mesmerises by how she emotes with Mohanlal and with Anupam Kher, her switches are flawless. A must watch movie to open the mind to mature love stories rather complex relationships. Children and others are not going to be accepting as there is conflict of interests. It is upto the people involved who are in it to not make it a tamasha yet live the life they want. The film is more beautiful because it shows the friendship develops between the past and current husbands. The scene where Mohanlal moves his hand over Anupam Kher’s head when he breaks the news of Jayaprada’s passing away gives goosebumps. It is about tenderness and not lust with the past. Loved it!

What a day!

Recently I gifted a drone to Pranav, my favouritest nephew as a gift for completing his degree in Aeronautics. Actually we had planned to send him away to Bangalore to live on his own and explore the city and opportunities there since we were accused of being over protective. You see all our children in the family have studied in Mumbai itself. He however landed a job almost immediately with Airport Authority of India and got busy. Had enrolled him to learn driving so that we could go on road trips. All our plans to travel together had to be pushed back.

This particular day was planned to be a poignant one. We had gone to scatter the ashes of my Baba in the Arabian sea. We also did an asti visarjan in the Managanga at Gondavale as wished by him. The sea and Gondavale have been the constants in his life as a born to a Koli family and latter his place of faith.

However after that the day flipped for us. As my nephew said unplanned days make the best memories. We took the ferry to Mandwa and decided to fly the drone on the beach. My nephew is the more careful one but I was pushing him to go to far distance. Suddenly he realised we were loosing network. He panicked and gave the return home command. Now when we do that the AI maps a straight line which is the shortest route for return. After a while we lost complete connection. If you watched URI you know the feeling. GPS was showing last location. So we walked towards it, a good 1.5 kms. Pranav told the mali of the bungalow where it had crashed that his toy has crashed in. Sweet guy allowed him to pick it up. I was far behind. He checked the drone it had a crack on the body. One blade had broken but was still able to take flight. So he flew it right back located me still treading along. I waved to him and signalled to land. Then we walked back to the jetty. Our legs aching and Pranav's health watch showing 14000 steps. Gosh we were ravenous by then. So this was our grand lunch to celebrate our adventures. We ate the watermelon and feta salad so no pic. Then he ate Chicken Hakka noodles and I enjoyed a superb veggie delight wood-fired pizza. He enjoyed a Alphonso mocktail and me a Peach ice tea. The food and drinks were really good at The Boardwalk. Rode the ferry and were back home by 4pm. What a day!

So here is Pranav’s channel. He plans to share his experience and footage about flying the drone DJI mini 2. Some joyrides from a helicopter from his aeronautics college days. Additionally clicks of aircrafts that he is doing maintenance on. It’s going to be fun to see him grow!

What Makes The Quality Of My Life Rich?

I have lived a life where what I wanted in life is priority. I had a single minded focus on travel. Travel is expensive and you cannot do it if your pockets are empty. Travel of the kind I like not as as a nomad. Nomads can live n travel without money.

I never had the pressure of earning money for a living. My father never ever put it on me. I am blessed I earned enough to travel in luxury once a year and on budget whenever I wanted to. If you ask me what I did with 18 years of salary, well it was enough for me to run my every day life and have a small investment. Above all freedom to travel the way I like. The way I have lived it is not possible for a person whose goals in life are to own a home, car etc. I have a car which my organisation made it easy to own. I used it for all my travels until a few years ago. I used to drive every morning to work in BLR through mad traffic and scenic roads n villages of rural BLR that were on my route to Electronic city. This even though I had a full time driver. I stopped driving after I dashed into an auto. My dream of driving cross country was never fulfilled. I do wish to get back to driving now that my nephew Pranav has learnt driving.

I got married to Arvi at an age when I felt the need for a partner and fortunately I found the sweetest husband. Even in our marriage travel was the most important thing. Our year was planned around where we would want to be in what season? So it was cool months in Udwada, Summers in Thal, Rainy season in Panchgani and Our anniversary month of Dec at a new destination. Arvi had spent a life building two businesses and due to health and the responsibility of his ailing sister had not travelled like I did. Arvi loved luxury so we chose that in our travels mainly because of his health restrictions. I ensured we had access to a Doctor at all times. Thinking of it now, I feel I was a tough nut all that time. I risked it but made beautiful memories with Arvi.

Besides travel I have built parallel economy for myself through several hobbies. I continue to blog after 15 yrs. Even before the blog I loved needlework and used to embroider, stitch, knit and crochet etc. Creativity was my thing. Blogging gave my creativity a new outlet. I got into photography a big way. My food photography also gave me money for a short while. I was writing for India food network too. That’s when they offered me the rearchitecting project of their website. The website has undergone 2 more cycles after it. Currently done by someone else.

Then came along Deepa Krishnan who brought me into demo and dining experiences for Magic tours. Though they have been sporadic. I did few on my own. I have conducted few baking classes too.

However I was doing all this while Arvi was my top priority. My hobbies gave me sanity in the challenging times. My Baba was very independent till the lockdown started. He lived on his own and cooked for himself. He spent a lot of time in Gondavale and pursuing his goals in spirituality and religion. He has been my rock all my life. It is only in the last year I had to take care of him. I have never ever seen my father frustrated with life. I learnt that acceptance of life the way it is doled out to us from him. We had lost my Aai when she was just 44.

I get my bounce from my parents. I get my outlook to life from both of them too.

In the current scenario I never feel lonely because I have built relationships that are loving with family and friends. Some new who hold me dear. I connect easily with youngsters. They brighten my life. Just to mention few things they say to me that make my day.

1. A friend’s 8 yr old daughter, “Anjali aunty you talk like a bird!”

2. Another family friend’s teenaged daughter, “Aunty what’s your skin routine?” None I reply. “Your skin is so smooth, I want to lick it!” I push her back, the drama queen that she is. Just keep washing your face with water as often as you can I tell her. Guess I am vain and I can’t forget this love

3. Cut to now… a young set of boys want to have a potluck at my place, dishes that they will cook themselves because I cannot be offered anything less. They don’t want me to have the pressure of cooking for a gang. They find me cool. Ahem! I am flattered

My loves are my nephews and nieces. I am very much into them. I must not become a helicopter mom to them I remind myself.

Grateful to Shree Gondavalekar Maharaj for this life.

How To Bypass Amygdala Hijack

That is me. Lately I have started posting pictures of me on the blog without hesitation. I am 51. Still young at heart. Looking forward to living a happy contented life. I enjoy my freedom more now. There are so many things I wan to do in life and I do not need anyone to tell me what I should and should not. 

Today I came to post here something I wrote on Facebook about my favourite Amygdala and decision making. So I searched the blog to see what I have written before and found this post. I laughed at the memory. How I wanted to be in love and wanted to be swept away by Mr. Charming. Twelve years ago I was single and looking forward to a partnership in life. That is not the case now. I am still the level headed person but I have learnt the hard way not to risk the after effects of the Amygdala hijack. 

So here is what I wrote... 

16 Dec 2021 on Facebook.

I was barely 35 when I got into a leadership role in my corporate career. I remember my then project manager telling me that I was getting into a big role. It was also something new so a lot of risk was involved. It involved convincing the senior line of leaders to start doing things that were not part of their top line nor bottom line. Why would they do it then? So weaving in altruism was the best way.

I started work with 1 vertical head and grew to working with 14. The line of leaders just below the CEO. The CXOs.

My approach was humility, showcasing them in good light and adding value to their work by hand holding with social technology which was just about emerging then and they were clueless about it. Once the leader was won over, he made sure the officers fell in order.

My GM a very sweet man established that team that I was part of and groomed many of the new managers like me. He sent us for leadership trainings.

Now the leadership training as you are aware are always about winning people and enable to work with all types of workforce. We were 1 lac strong workforce by the time I left from that Organization.

It is 8 years since that I am out of the Corporate world I think leadership skill programs are manipulative. They teach you many things about behaviour, psychology, physiology and using it to your advantage. This I feel because I have chosen to live a more natural way of life. Let things happen, allow people freedom to be. Accept the difference in thought and let go if it comes to that.

One lesson in leadership that I love personally is about 'Amygdala hijack'. I have mentioned it a few times in my conversations and writings before. So what is it? It's the two almond shaped bunch of cells at the base of the brain that are related to spontaneity. When the blood supply to the frontal lobes (the decision makers) of the brain is cut off. The amigdala acts in fear so either it tells the brain to fight or flee. Very good instant response in a situation of accident or bodily harm. However decisions are not based on saved historic data n emotions in the brain. Where as the frontal lobes in the cerebral cortex are all about fine decisions based on data, memories, emotions and they are not voluntary but infact strong decisions. The frontal lobes are what rationalize the spontaneity of the amygdala.

Emotional intelligence comes from first understanding one's own emotions so that we can help others or use others if that's the goal like in the Corporate scenario.

RamCharitManas

In September 2021 RamCharitManas came into my life. I was mourning the loss of my father who had passed away in June. It was very hard for me to float through life without the love and warmth of my cousins. Besides them there were few people from my Shree Gondavalekar Maharaj's followers who were by my side through thought and phone calls. People who for me are very important today. They spoke to me and gave me strength through my father's illness and when he was gone nursed my soul back to good health. Among them is Sir. After my father he is my guiding light. When I told him grief stricken that my days feel empty, there is nothing left for me to do and I felt no purpose to live. In this short span of three years I had lost my husband Arvi and my Baba. Sir sent me this RamCharitManas.

I started reading it and found Awadhi difficult to read forget understand it. This is a Marathi translation so I got the meaning but I struggled through the original. Sir suggested that I read only the Marathi translation but I was persistent. Yet the lyrical nature of the original Awadhi soothed my mind. I read aloud and it made me happy. It was the day of Ganesh Chaturthi when I started reading it in my father's home in Nerul. I was alone yet I felt my heart lighten a bit. The Mangalmaya vibes of its words was beginning to heal my soul. I started reading it critically but within few weeks gave it up and just started enjoying the love that oozes from its reading. 

I would leave the book on the dining table and read it whenever I felt like reading it. The magnetic pull of the words. It is something one must experience. Then I started reading about 10 pages everyday. Sometimes I read more and sometimes I felt fatigued and would stop at 5 pages but that was rare. 

It took me about 3.5 months to complete my first reading. Sometimes understood it and tried to absorb the essence. At times my modern mind found it hard to accept certain incidents and thoughts which feel socially outdated. When I read I was so into the story that I felt the emotions. I got angry with Kaikayee, was furious with Ram for being so obedient and Dashrath for being so helpless. Laxman was me. There is none like Bharat. Hanuman is so intelligent and entertaining. Kaakbhushundi is so evolved that he became my idol.

If I have to choose my favourite Kaand it would be Aranya kaand filled with beauty. Layers and layers of human nature explained thru it. Each Kaand is enjoyable in its own way. Baal Kaand and the conversations between Shiv Parvati was a new learning for me. Ayodhya kaand demolishes the Raghukul as the united and peaceful family. Kishkinda kaand became more enjoyable for me as I have visited the place near Hampi. In my mind's eye I referenced all the locations as I enjoyed the building up of the army of the monkeys. Sundar Kaand is all about Hanuman and his trailer of events to follow. A warning to Ravan.  Lanka kaand the victory over evil. The essence of Ramayan. Uttar Kaand the return of Ram to Ayodhya his accent to the throne of Raghukul. Also the amazing story of Kaakbhushundi is part of this concluding part. It will take many reading to appreciate RamCharitManas. Hope I continue reading it and studying it.

I want to jot down here that I finished reading it exactly on 28 Dec and on 29th I read the brief on Tulsidas's life which is at the end, 29th was Shree Gondavalekar Maharaj's 108th Punyatithi. This is no coincidence!

Shree Ram 🙏💮

Year End 2021 Salad

Lets begin blogging this year on a healthy note. This salad I made at home on New Year's Eve. All the other food was ordered from a bakery on Swiggy. For evening tea we had deliciously filled crisp veg puffs. So fresh that it was as if they were made for us.  Dinner was a creamy and lipsmacking Spinach and corn Lasagne. Dessert consisted of Dutch truffle pastry and German chocolate cake. To set off that richness in the evening I thought a salad would be lovely. Here is how I put it together. 

Ingredients

few large leaves of Iceberg lettuce

1 cup colourful cherry tomatoes

5-6 dried apricots

5-6 walnut halves

2 tablespoons mixed seeds

a splash of honey and 

a splash of Balsamic vinegar

Take a salad plate. Layer the iceberg lettuce. In the centre pile the cherry tomatoes. Layout the walnuts and dried apricots. Sprinkle the mixed seeds. Splash the balsamic and honey. Serve the beauty at the table.

Toss it up before serving a portion to eat or just pick it up from the shared plate with a fork and dip the veggies in the juices and enjoy the mouthful of freshness.

My cousin sister was there with me for the New Years eve though we had expected more people. Yet the two of us enjoyed our evening together. 

After dinner we watched Atrangi Re. Here is our brief review.

Watched Atrangi re on Disney hotstar with Charu. The name is frivolous. It sends out a wrong expectation. We expected some hilarious time. That it wasn’t. But the movie does not disappoint. The twist n turns kept us engaged. Loved Sara, Dhanush and actually the Atrangi in the movie in Akshay kumar. The direction is over the top at times. The main subject is edgy. I could not find anything comedy except some little light heartedness. When you have lived around a person with mental disorder you cannot laugh at the switches between the reality and hallucinations. Nevertheless loved the movie’s handling because only popular culture can drive awareness. Like today we saw a girl tapping her heart few times and mumbling. I pointed out to Charu that this was the “All iz well” effect.

Hi 2022 !

Happy New Year Friends!

Promising regular posts here. Hope to see you.