Anuradha Sridharan

I've been meaning to write this post for quite a while and it has taken me a year to put down those wonderful memories into words. Memories to be cherished for a lifetime! Memories to be revisited whenever I want to gather some strength in life when I can proudly say "I did it!" Experiencing labor pains and the transformation into a new mother - something that every woman goes through in her life which is very, very special. Around this time last year, I was having severe contractions and was immediately rushed to hospital. My husband was driving the car while I was holding my brother's hands tight. I never thought a speed breaker bump can be so painful when in labor. We reached Cloudnine hospital around midnight. The gynecologist confirmed that my labor had started and I was 4 cm dilated.  Since we had booked our room earlier, I immediately got settled. With each passing minute, the intensity of the pain was increasing. A glass of mosambi juice gave some temporary r...

Before you proceed any further, read this blogpost of mine to get some context. Now, the third time was indeed a charm. After the disaster that happened three years ago, I made proper kozhukkattais this time for Ganesh Chaturthi. I'm so happy that they were edible. The shapes could have been better. I planned quite well in terms of risk mitigation. Less quantity of raw materials to begin with so I don't waste them if at all it didn't turn out well. I also prepared a backup offering for Lord Ganesha in the form of moong dhal payasam. After the kozhukkattais came out well, I felt I could have made more of them. The sweet tooth was asking for a couple more pieces. Unlike me and hubby, our little daughter is not into sweets yet. I just gave her a small piece and her facial expression indicated that she didn't like it. I said to myself, "her reaction might be different next year". Hope so!!

What better way to dust my blog than to talk about one of the not-so-famous gems of Rahman's music! I fell in love with this song around the same time when I fell in love with my soul-mate (my hubby). It's the title track of "En Swaasa Kaatre". I used to listen to this song continuously while working and waiting for my hubby to come to office (We both worked in the same office and he used to work in evening shifts). Now after many years, my 10 month old daughter loves this song and it's her favorite lullaby. As I rock her in my arms gently swaying, she goes to sleep peacefully, with this song repeating in my iPod. Very few musical instruments, a gentle beat, the mellifluous Veena interludes and the soul-soothing raaga, all blended together with Chitra's amazing ah-hmm-la-la-s flowing like a stream in a serene forest. She takes this beautiful song to greater heights. Though I felt the essence of this melody could have been captured better in the picturization,...

Before I get into the "how" part of learning Python, let me first list down the reasons on why I am learning Python:   1. First and foremost, my resolution for 2012 was to focus more on Create rather than Consume. Learning a new programming language was one of the list of action items I had listed earlier   2. Being a stay-at-home mum, the thinking time periods are more these days, during the times I feed my daughter or rock her to sleep. Random ideas pop up now and then, and I want to be able to quickly create something. Of course, the time to focus on such ideas and spend some quality time on execution is really rare, given the circumstances   3. I want my brain cells to remain active. Working full-time in a job alone shouldn't become the sole reason for my brain cells to get exercised   4. My prior programming experience was mainly on PL/SQL and SQL in the databases world. Though I had learnt Java long time ago, I'm in no mood to go back and upgrade. I want to e...

I have been a regular customer of bigbasket.com for the past 3 months. Since frequency of my purchases are quite high, I want to share my experiences. With a little baby at home, it's very difficult for me or for my husband to go to the nearby supermarket for our weekly grocery purchase. Moreover, the fuel charges for commute and most importantly, the time required to step out and buy groceries, vegetables and fruits from the nearby shops (please note the plural word) made us look for an alternative. Thanks to twitter, I discovered BigBasket through one of my tweet acquaintances. This is my unsolicited feedback. First the pros. Shopping for groceries is highly convenient. I just can't be more happier about the time it saves for us. Cash on delivery - the payment method I prefer for products like vegetables/fruits where product quality cannot be guaranteed Friendly return policy - no questions asked. I have returned vegetables and dairy products a couple of times when I was...

If you are planning to take up a product management role (or similar such role) for an E-Commerce organization/startup, here's a list of pointers for you to get started, assuming the product is already launched. Hope this list will help you get a head-start in your new role and will give you some direction to think about where and how you want to take the product forward: Current state of market for the product category to be sold      - Target segments      - Estimated market size      - Buyer personas From a customer's point of view,      - Why do customers purchase this product category? What problems does it solve for them?      - What decision criteria do they use to evaluate before making a purchase?      - How do customers purchase this product?      - What are the different channels? (wholesalers, retailers etc)   ...

An article I had written on "Product trials": Peter Drucker in his book "The Practice of Management" says "There is only one valid definition of a business purpose - to create a customer". In this era of globalization, many different brands are eying for consumer's attention at the same time. So it becomes essential for the brand to try different strategies for building awareness about its offerings, thereby creating a presence in the mind of the consumer. One such strategy that has been in existence for a while is to give consumers a chance to try out the product.  The “trial” strategy gives consumers a first-hand experience of the product, which helps the brand to develop certain associations in the minds of the consumers. The recent Nescafe ad starring Vir Das illustrates this aspect where the primary focus is on getting new consumers to try out their “first cup of coffee”. This ad appeals to the target segment – the current youth generation. ...

The last two years have been a good experience in terms of breaking a couple of habits which I no longer wanted to continue. I felt it might be useful to share my experiences here for people who want to adopt a similar change in their day-to-day routine. For years (from 2004 to 2009, to be precise), I used to be a big fan of Lays chips. Whenever husband and I went for grocery shopping, we would pick up a few packets casually and dump them into our shopping cart. Though husband would try different flavors, I would always go for the cream cheese & onion flavor. Every evening, as soon as we come from work, we would dig into a pack of chips, sitting in front of the idiot box. In no time, the pack would be emptied. Isn't Lays chips a pack of air with a few potato chips thrown in? With sedentary lifestyle, no exercise and no diet control, my body became very inflexible. Thanks to my genes, my weight wasn't increasing though. So in 2010, we decided to stop eating Lays chips. ...

Though I hate shopping in general, I love to shop for vegetables. The fresh produce, different colors and textures give a nice feeling and inspiration towards cooking. The supermarkets these days stock up different varieties of vegetables but sometimes they don't seem fresh. I hate the sight of packed ones because invariably, there will be one or two veggies that had gone bad. I'm the sort of person who like to examine each vegetable and pick the ones I like. Moreover, we end up with more plastic because of the so-called-modern habit of pulling a plastic cover for each vegetable. If I ask the salesperson who weighs the vegetables to combine 2-3 varieties in one plastic cover, he would give me one nasty look as though I'm asking for something stupid. I have been shopping online for groceries for the past few months because I cannot step out of my home leaving behind my 5 month old daughter. Before that, I used to go to this friendly neighborhood vegetable shop. It's a...

This post has been lingering in my mind for quite sometime now. Better late than never. 2011 had given me a lot of insights into motherhood and childcare. Though many of the moms-to-be and new moms might be aware of these, I want to share some of my learnings which might be of help to some of you. Please note I'm not a medical practitioner and so I would highly recommend you consult with your doctor. Even before the stick confirms the happy "news", taking folic acid supplements is essential. Eating healthy, keeping stress levels low and taking adequate rest are required while you are planning to conceive. One very important point which I found quite difficult to practice while pregnant was to drink adequate water (3-4 litres per day). If you don't have this habit, it's better to start early. I had severe nausea during my first trimester and the taste of food was sickening. I started taking lemon juice an hour before lunch and dinner and it reduced the discomf...