Anuradha Sridharan

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...

என் வயதில் பதினைந்து வருடங்கள் பின்னோக்கி சென்றது போல் ஒரு உணர்வு எண்ணம் புரியாத ஒரு குதூகலிப்பு முகத்தில் அகலாத ஒரு புன்சிரிப்பு இமைக்க மறந்தேன் கணினியில் உன் சிரிப்பை கண்ட தருணத்தில் இருந்து, தனிமையின் பெருமை அறிந்தேன் இதயத்தின் படபடப்பு உணர்ந்தேன் எங்கோ எட்டா உயரத்தில் நீ இருந்தாலும் அருகில் அமர்வாயா என்று ஒரு ஏக்கம் அந்த புன்முறுவல் தருவாயா என்று ஒரு ஆசை கண்களின் காந்தம் உன் மொழியின் அழகு தேர்ந்த பல்வரிசை ஈர்த்ததடா என்னை இதயத்துடிப்பு வேகத்தில் இடி முட்டியது விண்ணை புயல் போன்ற இந்த உணர்வுகள் ஒத்தி வைக்க முயல்கிறேன் என் பணிகளில் மனம் செலுத்த அல்லல் படுகிறேன் வேண்டாம் இனி உன் திரைப்படங்கள் வேண்டாம் இந்த இளம்பருவத்து இன்னல்கள் கடமைகளும் எதிர்பார்ப்புகளும் அலைக்கழித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கும் வேளையில் இந்த சிறு மாற்றம், வியர்க்கும் கடும் வெயிலில் வரும் சில்லென்ற கோடை மழை தாகத்தில் தவிக்கும் பயணிக்கு தரும் ஒரு கோப்பை குடிநீர் இந்த சிறு மகிழ்ச்சிக்கு ப்ரேமம் கலந்த நன்றி, உன்னால் ஈர்க்கப்பட்ட ஆயிரம் "மலர்"களின் சார்பாக! :-) De...

This post is applicable to parents of children between the age group of 2-6 years. I'm not sure if the tips shared below would work out for older kids, but do give it a try :-) " We eat first with our eyes " - this quote has struck me deep, ever since I came across it. The fast food / junk food manufacturers have been successfully applying this principle on us through their posters, large banners, drool-worthy advertisements etc. When you see a big hoarding of a burger with dripping mayonnaise and colorful veggies, you automatically salivate. In reality, the burger would be smaller and there would be hardly any veggies. Children start to become fussy eaters when there are alternatives. When we were kids back in the 1970-80s, we ate what was given to us, no complaints or cribbing helped. We didn't have any McD or a supermarket stuffed with Kinder Joy or Lays chips right next door. As parents of today's age, we have an added responsibility (and challenge) to pr...

During one of my visits to Chennai, I came across an article on child nutrition written by Rajamurugan in Ananda Vikatan magazine. On similar lines as "Aaraam thinai", I found the article interesting and insightful. Later it dawned on me that the author had been writing a series of articles titled "Nalla Soaru". I quickly rummaged through old issues of Ananda Vikatan from my in-laws place and got hold of a few older articles from the same series. I felt so excited when I noticed this title  in Vikatan books online site and quickly ordered it.  Written in a simple format with total focus around food, nutrition, millets and traditional practices, this book has a lot of relevant take-aways. A few of them listed below: 1) Food decides our health, well-being, mental thinking and our lifespan. So invest time in learning about food and cooking. Don't surrender to packaged foods for the sake of convenience and taste. 2) Have bajra(kambu) in summer, ragi ...

Image Source: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-say-no-to-alcohol-5/  Writing about a sensitive topic. So a disclaimer which is a dialogue from a Tamil movie - "idhu advice illa, akkarai" (this is not advice but a genuine concern). Please read with an open mind. I vividly remember this incident. I was around 9-10 years old. My dad's usual Sunday evening routine was to take a walk to a tea shop to buy a weekly Tamil magazine (thuklak). My brother and I would accompany him, mainly to buy some tasty butter biscuits from the tea shop. While coming back one Sunday, I casually asked my dad if he had ever drunk alcohol. He replied, "Once I had a drink at an office party and came home. Your mother shouted at me and got very angry. I never touched alcohol after that". In the 1980s, drinking alcohol was considered a social taboo among middle-class families. Our parents and grandparents were strictly against it. So were the women of the household....