Anuradha Sridharan

Human Life goes through the following stages - birth, childhood, youth, middle age, old age and death. Some might skip 1-2 stages and face death in the case of a sudden eventuality. Some sail through old age and hit the final stage in a matter of hours. Some are destined to go through "Sickness" - a temporary phase between old age and death, a phase with intense physical and/or emotional pain that needs to be experienced, when death seems to be elusive. Inevitably, the reason our mind conjures up is that there is some unresolved karma that needs to be cleared before we move onto next stage. As I thought about this a few weeks back, the question that immediately hit me was "Why not clear those unresolved karmas in the 40s and 50s? Why go through all the pain and suffering  in the 70s and 80s?" These questions have led me to go deeper into understanding about karma. I don't have a clear understanding yet. But reading Sadhguru's Karma is bringing in a lot of cl...

  Having been researching packaged foods and their ingredients for the past 5+ years, this book was meant to come to my attention one way or another. Thanks to a friend, I came across this book " Salt Sugar Fat: How the food giants hooked us " a few months back and I knew I had to read it to understand the history and evolution of processed foods in the US.  The book is divided into three sections - a section each for Salt, Sugar, and Fat - the three essential pillars of processed foods. It has been a fascinating and eye-opening read with multiple takeaways. I stumbled upon many new terminologies - bliss point, sensory-specific satiety, vanishing calorie density, stomach share, etc. I also learned about the multiple roles of these three ingredients apart from their obvious role of taste.  The author has taken the effort to go deeper into the two aspects that make processed foods addictive - formulation and marketing. He has provided multiple examples and case studies that...

A few days back, I had made a jar of ragi (finger millet) muesli. My brother and my husband had a bowl of this muesli for breakfast and were surprised to note that it was homemade. Both of them said to me, "this tastes really good. Much better than store bought ones. You should start selling them". As I pondered over this idea, I realised that this is exactly what I don't want to do. This rationale might sound counter intuitive or a clear lack of business sense. But hear me out. 1) There are tons of brands stacked up on supermarket shelves. I don't want to add one more and complicate the decision making process of consumers even further. 2) For a product to be packaged and sold, there are a few compromises being made to the authenticity and quality of the product. For eg, idli chutney podi's flavor primarily comes from sesame seeds but because it can turn the podi rancid in a few weeks, big brands like MTR that need a longer shelf life completely avoid adding sesa...

 For the past couple of years, I have been reading  Mark Manson's blog and his newsletter regularly. His content resonates with me at a deeper level - harsh, hard-hitting truths with no beating around the bush. His article " The attention diet " was so thought-provoking. His books have been on my reading list for quite some time. As I keep reiterating, a book comes to you at the right time when you are ready to receive its contents . There couldn't have been a better time than now to read his book "The subtle art of not giving a f*ck". I found answers to many questions that I had been grappling with, in this book. I have heard of this statement "You are responsible for everything that happens in your life" in multiple forums. I could never come to terms with the explanations I heard in the past. Thanks to Mark Manson, I understood the true essence of this statement, and boy, it gave me goosebumps. I shall write an elaborate post on this soon. The ...