Anuradha Sridharan

I wrote my last year's review while nursing a cold and throat infection. 2015 has been a year in which I won against the common cold virus :-) I didn't catch a cold/cough even once (touchwood!). Many reasons behind this but I think the major one has been starting my day with Yoga and being consistent with it for the past 8 months. I can't stop raving about the benefits that Yoga has brought to me - be it feeling fit, relaxed and an overall sense of peace and calmness. Hoping to continue with the same consistency next year too. I spent a lot of time outdoors this year as compared to the last 3-4 years. That could also have helped me boost my immunity levels. The discipline towards conscious, healthy eating continued this year too. I embraced more and more of local foods and millets. I'm proud of the fact that I can walk into an ice-cream parlor and not order a scoop for myself :-) Wish I could say the same when I enter a chaats place ;-) I had started an initiati...

I'm intrigued by the theories of motivation and behavioral psychology - what pushes us to do something, start an initiative, take it to completion, bring people together for a common cause and many more important and mundane steps we take in life. This interest has led me towards some very interesting books and the recent read has been this simple and profound book " Drive " written by Daniel Pink. I have listened to his TED talk earlier and have read about the core principles of intrinsic motivation. I finally made time this past week to really dive into the book and explore the principles in detail. The author first talks about what's wrong with the earlier assumptions on motivation - the carrot-stick rewards/punishment practices, if-then rewards, extrinsic recognition, role of money etc. For the present knowledge economy, these practices are proving to be more detrimental in achieving individual/organization's goals. He lays down in depth the research behind ...

This post has been pending in my drafts for the past 7 months now. As the year 2015 comes to a close, it's high time I wrap this up and publish it. Thanks to my ex-employer, my family and I got to visit one of the gorgeous places in India last April. Though I was apprehensive traveling with a 3 year old, my boss was highly encouraging and we decided to take the plunge. It was D's first time traveling in an airplane and also by train. Tickets booked, warm clothing purchased and bags packed. We were so excited and a little anxious about how we will manage. Being a workation, the plan was that I would be working with my team during the working hours (9 to 3) and hubby dear would take care of D during that time. He was fully prepared with her books, puzzles and her favorite DVDs. The workation part is well-covered here , so I will share about what we did as a family outside the working hours in this beautiful little town near Dharamshala. Contrary to what we thought, D was at he...

Embed from Getty Images I'm writing this post mainly for mothers who face the same issue as mine - "my child is not drinking milk" . Don't worry, you're not alone. To give you a little background of my motherhood journey so far, I breast-fed my daughter for 2 years (exclusively for the first 5 months). I never gave her formula milk. When she turned a year old, I started to introduce cow's milk slowly (Nandini blue packet available in Bangalore). She hated it so much. I tried with a little sugar and also with health mix powder (sathumaavu kanji) but she wouldn't open her mouth. I strongly believe that I will never force-feed my child and I follow it diligently. So I didn't want to force milk down her throat. I checked with my pediatrician and she wasn't too worried about this issue. She asked me to give her enough curd and continue with breastmilk. After she completed 2 years, I tried adding a little chocolate malted drink powder i...

In my earlier work, I was driving the efforts to optimize the free trial experience of a SaaS product. The key objective was to increase the free trial conversion rate. We first tried to fix the low hanging fruits by evaluating the first-time customer experience with the product. We came up with a structured onboarding flow, video tutorials, relevant lifecycle communications and a clear call-to-action to experience early wins. We also evaluated if there are any friction points in the prospect's first run with the product and fixed those as well. These worked well for prospects who were willing to take the time out to evaluate the product. If we map this to BJ Fogg's behavior model B=MAT, the prospects were high on motivation (M) ; we increased their ability (A) by fixing the above mentioned product gaps and sent appropriate triggers (T) through lifecycle communication strategy. So the expected behavior (B) of "going through product free trial and experiencing value...

Simon Senek's Start with Why is one of the best books I have read in 2015. The underlying message by the author is very simple but we often overlook it, given the noise around us. "People don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it" Inspiring leaders and organizations are so clear about their WHY - their purpose, cause or belief. WHAT they do serves as a tangible proof of their WHY. The author has covered relevant examples throughout the book to reinforce this concept - be it Apple, Harley Davidson, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines or Walmart. The vision of their founders clearly demonstrate their WHY. Apart from an organization's context, the author has also talked about why this concept is relevant for any leader who inspires others. The examples of Wright Brothers and Dr.Martin Luther King showcase how an individual can inspire a group of people by being clear about their WHY. I found the concept of "Golden circle" to be extremely relevant for to...

Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convenience_food#Packaged_mixes Last night, I had prepared noodles for dinner after a very long time. Not the instant noodles that you think :-) Plain noodles boiled and mixed with sautéed veggies and paneer. My 4 year old got so excited that she was jumping in joy when I told her that I'm making noodles. She doesn't have much exposure to noodles since I don't make it at home often, she hasn't seen that many ads in TV and she wouldn't have observed noodles being eaten by other kids in school, given the strict lunch box restrictions. Yet, her excitement got me thinking deeply about how times have changed. As parents of today's generation, we have to deal with the onslaught of junk food everywhere - be it the attractive ads, colorful packaging, the add-on plastic toys/goodies that come with each pack and peer pressure from other kids. Here are 10 ways by which I manage junk food consumption at home. 1) Be aware ...

Bright sunshine after more than 2 weeks and I feel so happy and cheerful. The rains, the wind and the dark skies were so depressing to me. I was feeling sad, dull and irritated. The effects on the mind had an impact on the body too, with severe stomach cramps and loss of appetite. And not to forget the excruciating migraine and the nausea. I felt so sick that I didn't have the enthusiasm and the motivation to do anything. Dull and dragging days. The slight sight of the sunshine and I would feel exhilarated, only to find minutes later the dark skies and the rains again. The wet clothes that are hanging forever to get dried; wearing sweaters, socks and thermal wears all the time - Nope, not my kind of weather at all. I completely understand that my plight is nothing compared to those who suffered so much in Tamilnadu with floods entering their homes, lack of food and proper sanitation. The videos shared on FB are so scary that I prayed for the water logging to be cleared soon and pe...

Image Source: http://www.jtdesigns.com/jtblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/rent-vs-buy1.jpg One of the important lessons I learnt in product marketing is - Emphasizing on benefits (and not features) is extremely important when it comes to marketing collaterals and product messaging. Most of the times, we don't give much thought into the benefits our product offers to your customers. We get obsessed about the cool features of our product and our messaging would proudly list them out. Even if we do talk about the benefits, it's more superficial and biased by our own assumptions and experiences. But if we dig deeper, we can figure out the actual value our product can bring into the lives of customers. I call it the "benefits discovery" exercise. This can be done before launch - either as part of your customer development interviews, MVP validation or usability testing feedback. Ask this one question repeatedly to atleast 12-15 target customers:  "How does that help y...

The last 10 days have been raining heavily and Bangalore is at a freezing cold temperature in the mornings. It would be nice and comforting to snuggle inside a cozy blanket and get some more sleep. But my body clock wakes me up on time for my Yoga class. It's been 6 months now since I started doing Yoga and it has become a part of my routine now. On days when there is no Yoga class, I feel something is missing and my body also feels the same. It has taken me so many years to incorporate a regular exercise regime in my day. I find keeping my eating habits under check relatively easier than doing regular exercise. I had struggled, been lazy, gave myself enough excuses over and again but Yoga has finally helped me to break all the obstacles that I had built for myself. If you are like me who is struggling to get some exercise into your routine, the following 6 tips might be helpful. (1) Try multiple forms of exercise and pick the one that you like the most For years, I have t...

 It's clearly etched in my mind. When I was a kid, we had a Godrej steel wardrobe in our home that had 4 shelves with a locker. The top-most shelf was used to keep unstitched dress materials, dhotis and other rarely used stuff. The second one was for my dad's clothes, the third one for my mom's and the bottom most shelf had mine and my brother's. These clothes were the ones we used to wear when we go out. The daily-wear clothes were kept separately outside in a trunk. I remember we used to buy new clothes for two occasions - one for our birthday and the other for Diwali. The birthday purchase was done only for us, the kids. Our parents never bought anything for their respective birthdays. If there was a wedding or any other family function, new clothes would be purchased. Other than that, Diwali shopping was the only time when we buy new clothes for the entire family. And it used to be an exciting trip, going all the way to T.Nagar and hopping from one shop to the...

 I love public speaking. The preparation, topic selection, putting together a structure and coming up with a seamless flow of thoughts/ideas, delivering the presentation in front of an audience, taking questions - the entire process excites me. Though I have participated in a couple of speech and debate contests at school, I wasn't naturally good at it from my childhood. I wanted to become a good speaker and have been investing time and effort over many years. Thanks to my first job at Oracle where there was an active Toastmasters club, I started to work and refine my public speaking skills. Whenever there's any presentation to be given at work either to an internal audience or to customers, I look forward to it. I also love to speak at lectures/sessions at public events and I have managed to speak at 4 such sessions so far (would love to do more!). Although I have good experience in public speaking, I still believe there are certain areas that I need to improve upon. ...

This book couldn't have come into my hands at a better time. Many of the passages felt like the author had visited me, knew my creative dilemmas and wrote those responses exclusively for me. As I was reading "Big Magic" , I could feel nodding my head vigorously at multiple places. The author talks about our creative genius, the process of feeling inspired, the fear and excuses that hold us back and most importantly, falling in love with the process and keeping the outcome aside. Bhagavat Gita has conveyed the same principle but it has to be retold again and again, given the pressure that we (and our society) place on outcome. Elizabeth's personal anecdotes and her easy-to-read flow of writing make this very interesting non-fiction book a page turner. Perhaps, call it the self-help book on creativity. She starts off brilliantly by posing a thought-provoking question.  "Do you have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within you?" T...

Last night, I had prepared white rice for my 4 year old and broken wheat for myself for dinner. The accompaniments were rasam and carrot curry. D had little rice and was curious to know what's inside the pressure cooker. She has a fascination of pressure cookers just like me :-) I said "that's broken wheat for amma". She said she wanted to taste it and so I offered her a spoonful of it. She loved it and then finished almost the entire cup with rasam and curd. After finishing her dinner, she said, "mumma, this is yummy. Tomorrow, I want buckwheat". Don't be surprised yet. During the weekend, I had prepared ragi idlis and regular rice idlis for breakfast. While I was feeding her ragi idlis, she asked "mumma, are these kambu idlis?". (Kambu means pearl millet / bajra) This is the effect of our reading ritual. Every night before going to bed, we go through pictures in the book " aaraam thinai " and that's how she knows the names of o...

D turned 4 a few days back. From the beginning of 2015, hubby and I decided to keep the birthday party simple. The main influencing factor was how the previous birthday (3rd) turned out. We had decided to host a birthday party. Booked the small party hall in our apartment, invited a few common friends, apartment neighbors and kids that D usually meets in the play area. Ordered birthday cake, snacks (pizza and soft drinks), bought personalized return gifts and other party goodies. Took a lot of our time, energy and effort to get things arranged. On the D-day (it was a Sunday), friends kept dropping out one after another through messages/SMS. During the party, very few invited kids turned up. Many of their parents didn't even bother informing us that they wouldn't be able to come. With the few kids who turned up, we conducted the party. After the party got over, we requested the security guards to take the remaining cake and other food items (which were quite a lot). Hubby a...

பயம் என்னும் திரையை விலக்கலாம் ஓடுதலின் வேகத்தை குறைக்கலாம் பூக்களின் வாசத்தை நுகர அணில்களின் செல்ல சிணுங்களை ரசிக்க தூரத்தில் ஒலிக்கும் கோவில் மணியை எண்ண மழைத்தூறலின் தாளத்தை கேட்க உன் மூச்சின் ஏற்ற இறக்கங்களை உணர   நேரத்தை கொஞ்சம் ஒத்திவைக்க கைபேசியின் கூவல்கள் காத்திருக்கட்டும் முகநூலின் தகவல் ரேகைகள் ஓடிக்கொண்டிருக்கட்டும் வாழ்க்கை ஓட்டம் ஆமையாக சில மணித்துளிகள் மாறட்டும் கண்கள் நோக்கி முழுமையாக உள்வாங்கும் உரையாடல்கள் வேண்டும் காதுகள் கவனமாக கேட்கும் பொறுமைகள் வேண்டும் எதுவும் உன்னை விட்டு போய்விடாது உனக்கென்று சில மணித்துளிகள் ஒதுக்கினால்

I should thank YouTube for introducing me to Mrs.Bharathi Baskar's works. On one of the bored Saturday afternoons, I stumbled upon her talks given at an Engineering college orientation programme as part of my YouTube recommendations. If you can understand Tamil, I highly recommend the two videos. My hubby who doesn't watch much of Tamil programmes loved them too. Later I realized that she is one of the prominent speakers in various pattimandrams (debate shows). For me, pattimandrams remind me of my childhood when TV channels would play them on festival days at 10 AM. The elders in my family would be glued to them while we (kids) would be happily munching on some sweets or taking a nap. I was never a fan of such debates in growing-up years. Anyway, coming to the topic, Mrs.Bharathi's speeches are multi-dimensional - humorous, contemporary, thought-provoking, passionate and most importantly, she knows exactly how to connect well with an audience. I have been listening to...

I came across this concept in my Science textbook in 9th or 10th grade. And for some reason I still remember it even after so many years. Ivan Pavlov observed how his dog would salivate when he would ring a bell and bring food for the dog. As days passed by, the dog would salivate just by hearing the sound of the bell in anticipation of the food. This observation led to his research on classical conditioning theory.  It gives good insights into how a conditioned stimulus can lead to a conditioned response. We all experience this often in our day-to-day lives. Our smartphones have transformed us into Pavlov's dog. You hear a notification, vibration or even a blinking LED, your hands automatically reach out for your phone to check what's new. Mobile app makers understand this phenomenon and ensure their first and foremost user engagement strategy is "Notifications". They personalize these messages, make them variable, interesting, whacky and what not. I started...

Having been born and brought up in Tamilnadu, my friends found it strange when I told them that I had never been to Pondicherry. " You must go, Anu. You'll love it ", one of them recommended during an evening chai meetup. When hubby suggested that we go for a long drive to celebrate our wedding anniversary, I knew exactly where to go. Cleartrip somehow got a peek into our "offline" conversations and sent a hotels flash sale email on the very same day :-) We got a great deal in one of the CGH Earth Properties at Pondy, Maison Perumal . Day 1 A light drizzle greeted us early morning and we left Bangalore around 5:45 AM and drove straight to Vellore - the route that has become very familiar thanks to our Chennai trips. We took a short detour inside Vellore to have breakfast at our most favorite place - Saravana Bhavan. Loaded ourselves with some amazing dosas, yummy pongal and refreshing filter coffee. After Vellore, we took a right turn towards Arcot (route SH5...

A few weeks back, I was interacting with organizers of executive MBA programme at Institute of Product Leadership. They asked me if I could deliver a talk on design thinking and share some of my experiences from past projects. While I was thinking about the relevant topic, I also came to know from them that the students are already doing a course on design thinking, know the concepts and that it would be more useful if I can link the concepts they have learned to real-life experiences. I observe that many startups do not seem to invest enough time in understanding the problem space, exploring the user/customer's context and diving into their motivations. This directly relates to the first 2 stages of design thinking process - Empathize with your users and Define the problem statement . So I structured my talk around these 2 stages and shared relevant examples from the two startups I have worked with so far. Here are the slides: Why the first 2 stages of Design thinking are impor...

Disclaimer : I'm neither a doctor nor a nutritionist. The tips below are based on my experience whenever my 3.5 year old daughter catches cold/cough. So use them at your own discretion. If the body temperature is very high or the child looks very weak, do consult your doctor first. I find the below tips to be very effective during the initial stages when my daughter had started to sneeze 4-5 times or when she has watery eyes/running nose. 1) Warm water - Ensure the child keeps sipping a glass of warm water. This will keep him/her hydrated. 2) Coconut oil with camphor - Before putting the child to bed, follow this procedure. Mix a pinch of camphor in 2 tsp of pure coconut oil. Warm this mixture for 5-7 seconds. Massage this oil on your child's chest and back. The congestion will ease and he/she will be able to sleep better. 3) Tulsi-ginger extract - Pluck fresh tulsi leaves from your balcony/garden (Highly recommend you have a tulsi (holy basil) plant at home for the...

Ever since I read his two books ( aaraam thinai - volume 1 and 2) last year, I have become a big fan of Dr. Sivaraman. His ideologies, beliefs and principles resonate with me completely that I google him often to explore more about his work :-) That's how I came across his other books published by Vikatan publications. I searched far and wide in Bangalore but couldn't get them. Amazon and Flipkart have shipping charges that are almost the same as the cost of the books. During my last visit to Chennai, I made a trip to Vikatan office and bought his other books along with a few more interesting ones. Nalam 360 is a series of articles that he has written focused on various ailments, ranging from allergies, migraine, thyroid, blood pressure, diabetes, obesity etc. In his usual style of being informative, witty and thought-provoking, he has written about the causes of each ailment and how it can be treated/controlled using traditional medicines and eating practices that have been...