Anuradha Sridharan

A few days back, I was delivering a talk to a group of mothers. As I was walking through my slides on the ingredients of one packaged food after another, a couple of them remarked, “ please please don’t include Maggi in your list ” :-) The unanimously favourite junk food (or indulgence) for people who grew up in the 80s and 90s had to be Maggi. And for many of us, that would have been the first dish we learned to cook ;-) So we have such deep, emotional connect with the brand (which other noodle brands envy) - the connect so powerful that even after the lead controversy, the brand seemed to have bounced back. In my 20s, whenever I return home late from work, Maggi with veggies used to be the default dinner. Or when I return early, I would wipe off a bowl of Maggi with onion raitha as an evening snack. Weird combo, you might think but my absolute favourite! Now, after many years of clean eating, I can’t eat even a spoonful of it, let alone a bowl. My tongue rejects the o...

Some books you find interesting, some you find insightful while only a few would feel like they understand you and were written especially for you. I felt this way when I read “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert a couple of years back. Over the past one week, I was engrossed in Cal Newport’s "So good they can’t ignore you” . The underlying message felt so relatable and clarified many questions that were haunting me. Last year, I read “Deep work” by the same author. It was such an insightful read on how our distracted daily routine with multitasking and busyness derails our ability to engross in deep, meaningful work with utmost focus. Here’s my detailed review . If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend that you check it out. “So good they can’t ignore you” as the subtitle suggests is all about why investing in building skills is more important than mere passion in the quest for work you love.  I find these two phrases - “identify your passion” and “do the w...

Someone had posed me this question - " Not everything that was done in 80's and 90's is good too. If it was, India would not be a diabetes/cholesterol hub today. Isnt it? ” This question came up as a comment to one of my posts as I keep referring back to 80s and the good practices followed with respect to home cooking. Whoever asked this, thanks. It’s an interesting question that got me thinking. First of all, avoiding junk and eating healthy, home cooked food is definitely NOT the ONLY contributor to good health, though it plays an important role. There are so many other factors that need to be considered - physical activity, exercise, emotional wellbeing, keeping one’s mind active and engaged, environmental factors such as air we breathe, water we drink etc. Speaking from my experience, if I am stressed about something, then the negative effects of that stress outweighs all my other regular healthy habits like eating home cooked food, avoiding junk, doing Y...

The synopsis sounded so interesting that I felt I might give this book a shot. And I’m so glad I made the choice to read it. Over the past one week, I have been smiling, laughing, smirking, nodding my head and ROFLing at every page. My 6-year old was wondering what has happened to me and was insisting that I explain the joke to her. As much as I attempted to give an explanation, unless and until someone had experienced the situation, he/she may not appreciate the context. Having worked in MNCs and startups for more than a decade, Rishi Piparaiya's "Job be damned" reminded me of so many moments from my work life. Right from the interviews, orientation, navigating office politics, organization hierarchy, offsite events, appraisals, managing expectations etc, the author has covered it all. Humorous, funny, witty, sarcastic and actionable, he has recommended strategies that one could easily relate to. Underneath all the humor and fun, one cannot deny the fact that th...

I usually buy a small pack of Maggi for my daughter (remember, the once-a-month rule). Since she doesn’t eat spicy food, I add a pinch of the masala pack while cooking Maggi and throw away the rest. I recently learned that the Maggi masala is being sold separately and people add it to dry vegetable curries to enhance the taste. The product is called Maggi Masala-ae-magic with the tagline “Truly good aromatic roasted spices - to make your everyday vegetables delicious” . Apparently it tastes similar to the noodles masala pack but not exactly the same. The ads talk about 10 roasted spices that constitute this spice blend. Given that our Indian cuisine celebrates spices and most of our cooking involves adding a range of spice powders, I was wondering why there is a need to add a sachet of Maggi masala. Screenshot taken from Amazon on 6th Jul 2018 As always, I turned to the ingredients list: ----------------- Mixed spices (( 38.7% ) (Red chilli powder (7%), On...

A few weeks back, I was at my IL’s place with D. D’s favourite activity there is to watch Doraemon episodes on Disney Channel. I don’t mind if she watches Doraemon, the characters are cute and funny. My main problem is the sheer volume of ads being played within a span of 30 minutes. D gets introduced to all new junk foods whenever she watches Disney Channel (grrrrr!!!!). One such ad that makes me so angry is Sunfeast’s Dark Fantasy Choco Fills. I’ll come to the ingredients shortly but what irritates me the most is the theme " Can’t wait, won't wait ”. What kind of a message are they sending? That if we want something, we had to get it right away? The children of current generation are already facing the brunt of instant gratification offered by various gadgets and games. This ad’s message seems to emphasize it even more. As a mother, I find it extremely challenging with D, if I had to make her wait for something. But we continue with our effort as much as possible. ...