Anuradha Sridharan

Image Source: http://www.bobbiecarlylesculpture.com/SelfMadeMan.php  One of the productive years is coming to an end. It has now become an annual ritual  to jot down a review of the year gone by. It serves mainly as a personal reference to look back after a few years.  The year started off with planning my first food stall at a community event. It was a memorable and a unique experience, given that I have never done something like this before. The success of the food stall motivated me to kick-start a healthy and traditional food catering service in my apartment. There were hardly any takers in the initial couple of months but I persisted at it over the weekends. I'm extremely grateful for the handful of supporters who appreciate my food. I also extended my product line by offering a range of spice powders (podis). The whole experience has been phenomenal, from a learning perspective.  Two key insights on food preferences that I discovered during...

Last Sunday, I took the time out to listen to Dr.Khader, one of my inspirations in leading a healthy lifestyle. I have listened to some of his talks on youtube earlier and had been awe-struck by how he puts forth his points on perils of modern lifestyle in a succinct, hard-hitting manner. I reached the venue early and was surprised to see a buzzing millets outlet, setup by Grameena Angadi. Many senior citizens and middle-aged people were enquiring about various millets and purchasing them. The event got delayed by 45 min and I was conversing with a few attendees on my experience with millets. There is definitely an increasing interest in millets among 50+ age group, especially in traditional areas such as JP Nagar, Jayanagar, Malleswaram etc.  Once Dr.Khader took the stage, in his typical style, he engaged the audience with lots of anecdotes and examples on how we are leading our lives and where it is leading us. He spoke primarily in Kannada but with English phrases ...

Image source: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/01/08/willpower-part-ii/  Willpower is a powerful tool in each of our hands that can help us achieve our goals. I've always been intrigued by how willpower works and have been reading up on a few behavioral psychology books/articles/blogs. Willpower is a limited resource and it gets depleted with each decision we take. Psychologists refer to this concept as ego depletion . Wikipedia  defines it as follows: Ego depletion  refers to the idea that  self-control  or  willpower  draw upon a limited pool of mental resources that can be used up.  When the energy for mental activity is low, self-control is typically impaired, which would be considered a state of ego depletion. I visualize it this way. Imagine a "pot" of willpower that gets refilled every morning, as you wake up. With every decision that requires you to either inculcate a new good habit or stop an existing bad...

This is the story of a young woman who is 70+ years old and lives by herself. Thanks to my EthnicPalate food catering service in my apartment, I got to meet her a few months back. Her daughter reached out to me by email and had asked me if I could deliver food(breakfast/lunch) every weekend to her mother. I happily obliged. The elderly aunty always greets me with a smile every weekend morning. I was initially serving food in arecanut plates and cups. But aunty said one day, “why are you wasting such nice plates? You can give me in steel plates and I’ll wash and return”. I asked her, “Do you have a maid, aunty?” She said, “No, I cook and clean the dishes by myself. I have to keep myself active. There’s nothing much for me to do anyway” I learnt 2 important lessons from her that day. 1. Our previous generations have always followed this principle - Reuse > Recycle. There is a cost to recycle stuff, even if it is biodegradable. 2. Even if you can afford luxury (maid, cook et...

This incident happened around 4-5 months back. As part of my usual evening routine, I took my daughter to the play area in my apartment. I was upset about something that day and I couldn't recollect now what exactly had happened. An elderly aunty also came by with her grand-daughter. We have met a couple of times earlier but never had a conversation. I said "Hello aunty". She replied "hello beta, kaise ho?" (how are you?).    I said "teek hun, aunty" (I'm fine).  She: "What's your name?" I: "I'm Anuradha, aunty" She: "You know, Anuradha means a star. Keep shining like a star always" I: "thank you aunty" with a big smile Those words meant a lot that day. It brought a few tears in the corner of my eyes but the effect didn't stop at that day. Every time I see her, I offer a "namaste aunty" and I could feel a lot of positive vibes. There's no long conversation or chat...

I'm starting this series titled "Chronicles of Positivity" to log positive experiences/moments from my life. Given that the media is filled with negative news, we forget to appreciate the little, positive moments that just pass by like a soft feather in rough winds. My goal is to make sure that I log such moments that touched my heart, stirred my soul and made me take a pause in a busy day. Hope my readers can relate to these little snippets too. Here we go - the first one! On a Saturday afternoon, I had been to Reliance Footprint to buy shoes for myself. While I was trying out a few pairs, there was a family who were also checking out shoes for the lady of the house. The husband and their son (9-10 years maybe?) were eagerly selecting different models and giving to the mother, the son suggesting "Amma, try this" while the husband saying "try this, will look good when you go out on special occasions". Felt so heartwarming, seeing the shoppi...

I had briefly touched upon this topic in an earlier post titled "What's your slash?" . A recent interaction motivated me to expand on the same. A "slash" implies that you explore multiple roles in your lifetime by trying out and building expertise on various skills. But before adding slashes to your life, it is important to find an "anchor" to hold onto.  Anchor doesn't just mean a hobby / interest. It is what makes you come alive, what inspires you to wake up every single morning. "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."  - Oscar Wilde   A Google search of the meaning of the word " Anchor " returns this phrase - "a person or thing which provides stability or confidence in an otherwise uncertain situation." An anchor is extremely important for women and especially stay-at-home mothers who do thankless, often under-appreciated task of managing home an...

Now that year 2016 is coming to an end, I'm wrapping up a few posts that are in my drafts for a few months now! One such post is this travelogue. Having visited this place in 2008 when hubby dear and I were a couple, we decided to visit Marari Beach again, now as parents along with our little girl D :-) D loves beaches and whenever we visit Chennai, she ensures we do the trip to Besant Nagar beach :-) So it wasn't a hard decision to narrow down a place when we were planning our holiday. Being the off-season, we got a good deal at the resort and booked the flight tickets as well. We took the morning flight to Cochin and then boarded a cab to reach the resort. The just-subsided monsoon rains had painted a lovely, green picture around Kerala. The refreshing tender coconut water as a welcome drink felt so good after the long drive. After the check-in procedure, we headed to our room. As with any CGH Earth property, it was a neatly done, spacious room with all the essentials...

 Healthy eating is not only about what foods to eat, which ingredients and raw materials to use, but it is also about cooking techniques. I'm listing out a few principles that I follow diligently at home and for my EthnicPalate catering initiative. 1) I don't prep or chop vegetables ahead of time. I know people who chop for a week and freeze the required veggies. But I believe that nutrition gets lost if veggies are chopped beforehand. I ALWAYS chop them just before I start to cook. This applies to my catering orders as well. 2) I make sprouts, peel small onions/garlic cloves and grate coconut all by myself. None of the store-bought peeled onions / packed sprouts for me. Hygiene is a very important factor that I can't take a chance with. Moreover, the freshness of the just-peeled shallots/garlic is completely lost. I'm perfectly okay to shed a few tears and peel the small onions, just before frying :-) 3) When I'm making salads, I chop the vegetables just when ...

Playing hide and seek, or feeling shy to be the center of attraction today? As I soak in your beauty the chill breeze gently ruffling my hair, my little girl exclaims "moon is normous!" who cares about correcting her cute little vocabulary, when I see the glee in her bright black eyes I capture your magnanimity with the lens of my eyes, my smartphone resting peacefully at home For I know I won't be alive when you come this close the next time around those imperfectly perfect craters that adorn you like a beautiful bride, those thick dark  clouds that wrap you like a soft pashmina Oh! you super moon, shining in all your glory you are a treat to our tired, puffy eyes!

Image Source: http://quotesgram.com/img/glowing-quotes/484162/  During a friend's birthday get-together, one of my friends complimented that my face has been glowing and was asking what I'm doing differently. Honestly, I didn't realize it, although I was aware that the pimples were out for the last few months (touchwood!). Her kind words made me ponder about the many changes I've been embracing over the past couple of years. I have summarized them as 8 reasons below: (1) First and foremost, it HAS to be Yoga . I have been pretty much consistent at it for the past 1.5 years. Yoga has brought so much change in me, both in my body and in my mind. I can't explain the feeling of calm and peace in words but it just feels wonderful. During Yoga sessions, my teacher insists on breathing practice and I try to take deep breaths at least during that one hour of practice every morning. (2) My passion towards healthy eating . It has become a way of life and I don...

Image Source: Flipkart  The synopsis of the plot intrigued me, especially the "freak weather disturbances" phrase. Skyfire by Aroon Raman is a fast-paced thriller which links various issues from child kidnapping to weather change. Right from the first chapter, the suspense builds up at a steady pace, leaving many ends loose until it all ties up together towards the end. The author deserves credit not only for keeping up the interest levels of the reader but also taking the time to explain a scene and build up the narrative. I haven't read his earlier books but references to Shadow Throne in a few places in this book made me want to pick it up soon. It is difficult to write a review without spoilers, especially for a thriller novel. But I'm proud to say that I guessed the negative character right, somewhere around the middle part. Maybe, there is a bit of Meenu in me! :-) She is my favorite character in the book - her strength lies in figuring out missing p...

Among the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), I'm a strong believer that "reduce" is THE need of the hour to preserve whatever is left of our environment.  The plastic ban imposed in a city like Bangalore is a welcome move but what's the alternative? Supermarkets and large-scale grocery chains have switched to brown paper bags for vegetables and fruits. I used to collect and reuse the plastic bags earlier but with paper, they are so flimsy and easily tear apart when you try to remove the price tag. When I end up going to these supermarkets, I leave behind a pile of use-and-throw paper bags in my garbage bin.  When I want to throw a party or fulfill food orders for my EthnicPalate initiative, I opt for areca-nut plates and cups. What is the source of these paper bags and areca-nut plates? Trees, of course. So if we need to switch from plastic to eco-friendly alternatives, we have to extract materials from the environment. How many trees need to be cut in order to i...

Over the past 4 years working on multiple products, I noticed an interesting pattern on the problems that many product managers are trying to solve. They seem to fall under one of these five major themes: Evangelizing the product Driving product adoption Effective onboarding Increasing user engagement Demonstrating value during the customer lifecycle The debate on whether we are building the right product or not seems to have settled down. The much bigger question many are grappling with is how to communicate the right value to the right target customers. This makes me ponder if the role of product marketing is now becoming a lot more important and crucial for product success. Many of these problems involve identifying the right audience, right channels, right message and right context. That explains the proliferation of contextual communication platforms such as Intercom, WebEngage, Customer.io, Appcues, Autosend etc. With plenty of tools and platfor...

 Today is World Mental Health day (10th Oct). Dr.Sivaraman, the leading Siddha doctor from Tamilnadu has written multiple books in Tamil and these have changed my life. He points out repeatedly in his books and speeches about 3 issues that are the the main reasons for the rise of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, depression, cancer etc. 1) Change in our food habits - right from food cultivation, processing, storage, preservation, cooking techniques, serving to eating practices 2) Our disturbed mental health - attributing happiness to material possessions, societal status, raising ego clashes 3) The mindless violence we have unleashed on environment and nature This post is dedicated to the second issue - our mental happiness and peace. When did our happiness start to be influenced by latest iPhone launches, purchase of new gadgets, getting FB likes, riding a swanky new car, jumping companies to get that promotion or a huge salary hike, buying expens...

 I'm a firm believer of the fact that our human body has amazing abilities. How do we feel when a peck of dust enters our eyes or a sand particle enters our nostrils? Our body will ensure that the foreign particle is thrown out immediately, by the use of tears in the first scenario or a sequence of sneezes in the second case. Over the years, we have lost touch with our body. While we want to stay connected to our smart phones with strong Wi-fi / 4G signals, very few of us are able to detect the signals sent by our body. The very basic of these signals are hunger and thirst. How many of us eat food when we are hungry? We like to be busy throughout the day and grab something on the go, without an understanding of our hunger pangs. Either we starve ourselves completely and pride on the fact that we had a late lunch due to a "client meeting". Or we keep munching something every 10-15 minutes, distracted with our umpteen number of devices. As much as I respect Rujuta Diwek...

Earlier, I had written a post on managing dry waste . I got a lot of positive feedback and encouragement (thank you all!) for that post. Continuing on similar lines, let me talk about five ways by which I manage wet waste at home.  Wet waste refers to waste generated from cooking, take-away food, left-overs etc. Segregating dry waste and wet waste is a mandatory rule in Bangalore. In-house composting of wet waste in apartment complexes is also being enforced in order to control the amount of waste that gets into landfills. (1) Home composting: Since 2010, my husband and I have been diligently using Daily Dump's Khamba to compost wet waste, mainly the fruits and vegetable peels. It has become a habit for us to dump such waste directly into the compost bin 2-3 times a day. The Khamba sits in a corner of our balcony and doesn't emit any smell. It doesn't attract any rats either. Maggots do come into the bin but they only fasten the composting process. Our 5 ye...

If you are wondering what JTHJ stands for, it is the Bollywood movie "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" :-) A regular reader of my blog would know that I'm a crazy fan of AR Rahman's music. His music is like a dear friend, a family member to me. My iPod and playlists are filled with his albums (mostly).  There was so much hype when the music album of Jab Tak Hai Jaan was about to release in 2012. Media was going berserk that ARR-Yash Chopra-SRK combo would create magic. All fans of ARR were eagerly awaiting the album. When the first 2 songs and later the entire album was launched, there was so much criticism that ARR failed to meet the expectations. To be honest, I didn't fall in love with the songs instantly. They say ARR songs grow on you but to me, this album didn't impress even after multiple times of hearing that time.  Now after 3 years, this album sounds so refreshing. When I'm feeling dull and tired, I just turn to the peppy "Jiya re". What a...

Twitter is my go-to source when I need some inspiration/learn new things/access interesting articles/stay up-to-date on what's happening in my areas of interest. On one such twitter browsing session this morning, I came across a story " the science of practice " from Hardbound. It is an excellent compilation on what goes behind the achievement of world-class performers. We have all heard about the 10,000-hour rule that was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book "Outliers".  The quantity of time spent in "deliberate practice" of a skill matters. But what is equally important is the quality of time spent towards building a skill or expertise. I have been curious to understand how one builds expertise/mastery over a subject/skill. Mastering a skill is not possible by just reading books/articles, taking courses, listening to podcasts etc.  This story link talks about a research by Dr.Ericsson that went into discovering the 4 elements o...

I stumbled upon this site this morning - FindYourSlash According to this site, a slash (/) represents the following: It is a symbol used to express the eclectic ensemble of avatars of those living in many different worlds. You could be an Artist /  Blogger; Writer /  Photographer; Technologist /  Musician; Fashion Designer /  DJ; anything you love.   While browsing through this site, it reminded me of the conversation I had with a classmate from college days when I met her a couple of weeks back. She decided to be a homemaker after her son was born. During our conversation, she remarked how her relatives are mocking at her for "wasting" her engineering degree. Do note that she did work for many years after college. She is now learning Sanskrit slokas and ancient Hindu scriptures. The casual chat I had with her that day triggered many questions in my mind. 1) If you pursued an engineering degree, does that mean you "have" to be in the sa...

Today is a special day for me. Having struggled with Shalabhasana for the last 1.5 years, I was able to do this Yoga pose today for 10 counts and most importantly, with ease. When I started out with Yoga last April, I had such a hard time whenever my teacher asked us to do this pose. My legs would hardly go up an inch. I pushed, struggled, tried a lot but failed multiple times. Though I was getting better at other asanas, this one gave me such a hard time. As months passed, I could see that I was improving a little bit and my teacher also recognized that. Today, when I got this asana right, I patted myself on my back. Certainly, a satisfying moment it was! This experience reminded me of this interesting talk by Bharathi Baskar I listened to a few days back. She is one of my inspirations and I love her books and speeches. In this talk where she talks about first-rank holders in schools (from 31st min of this video), this statement on failure struck a chord in me "People w...