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 ...