The tunes of Highway

Music that I usually like to hear has taken a backseat in the past couple of years. That's because I have only been listening to nursery rhymes day in and day out, thanks to my 2.5 year old daughter. Not that I'm complaining, it feels like a trip down memory lane to my LKG classroom. Even if I switch on my iPod for some film music, all she wants to listen are her personal favorites - En swaasa kaatre title track (when she is sleepy), sonapareeya (when she wants us to dance) and jai ho (when she wants to dance). I'm so glad that her preferences are also like mine - our love for Rahman's music :-)

Though many good albums of Rahman were released in the last 2 years, I have fallen crazily in love with "Highway". Except for the one song "wanna mash up", the rest of the album is just brilliant.

Same song, two different treatments - that's "patakha guddi". The energy, unexpected twists in tunes and pitches, soothing flute interludes, powerful voices of Nooran sisters - I can just go on and on about this song. The best part is the male version sung by Rahman himself. It's so surprising to hear such casual and playful attitude in his voice. This song is definitely poised to cheer you up after a long, tiring day.

Maahi ve is a peppy, foot tapping number sung by Rahman again. His voice is so magical that one wishes he just sings more often. Easy to fall in love with this song, from the first listen.

Though Kahaan hoon main has a slight touch of "mannipaaya" when it begins, it flows smoothly and makes you want to just close your eyes and dive into the feel of it.

My personal favorite in this album has to be "sooha saaha" - a magical lullaby perfect to listen to, late in the night when it is quiet and peaceful. Rahman's lullabies always evoke powerful emotions - be it lukka chuppi from rang de basanti or aahista aahista from swades. The sweet, innocent voice of Alia Bhatt makes this song even more likable.

The instrumental "Implosive Silence" has a similar feel to that of Latika's theme. With simple hums, it just flows like a gentle stream in a forest.

I was never a fan of Sunidhi Chouhan, primarily because of the fact that I prefer slow paced melodies whereas her songs are completely the opposite. I only wish she sings more songs like "tu kuja". She takes this song to a different level - with superb variations in the pitches.

What better way to end a beautiful album with a "heera". It transports you to a different world altogether, with the sweet voice of the singer and the orchestra, especially the violin bits.

I hope that picturization of all these songs are equally beautiful. Would it be the movie that I get to watch in a cinema theatre after nearly 3 years? :-)

Collecting small wins

5 days have already passed by in this new year. In a blink, we might find ourselves in the end of January. Days fly past so quickly that we sometimes wonder what we did in the last one month (and eventually, the last one year). I have been in such situations quite often and so I decided to start a tiny habit which I have named as "Small wins".

In my brand new 2014 diary, I have started a separate section where I'm writing down my small achievements everyday that has made some difference to either me or my family. For example,
- when I went to an ice-cream parlor and didn't have a scoop of ice-cream (a spoon to taste doesn't count though ;-) ).
- when I did 1 mile Leslie Sansone walk (I know people who walk 4-5 miles, but for someone like me, 1 mile is a victory)

I'm hoping that these small, tiny wins would make a big difference at the end of the year. And it would also be fun to read them later and have a laugh with loved ones.

If you would also like to start something similar,
- grab a 2014 diary if you love pen and paper. Or just add a note in Google calendar.
- at the end of everyday, spend 5 minutes, thinking about those small wins of that day. It could be anything, for instance:
     - you controlled your short temper towards some incident and didn't react immediately
     - you read a few pages of a book you have been wanting to read
     - you ate just 1 piece of a dessert instead of the usual 2 pieces
     - you woke up 15 min earlier than usual
- note them down and end with a smiley :-)

Behavior change doesn't happen overnight. Most of the times, we end up disappointed after a week into the new year, when we fail to keep up our resolutions. Taking tiny steps, making small conscious changes and being aware of our day-to-day choices help us move forward in our lives.

In one of the episodes of Castle (my recent favorite show), he says "Life is a journey and you can't predict the outcome.  The only thing that you can control are the choices you make and that defines who you are." Inspiration came from unexpected source and I quickly jotted it down in my Evernote app :-)

These small wins are like the shells that we run around and collect from a sea shore. Once we bring them home, we can make beautiful collages as a whole.

Start collecting your small wins, they can be such a positive boost to our day-to-day lives.

Developing kid's interest in salads

As an evening snack, I prepared a bowl of salad yesterday for my 2 year old daughter. She loves steamed sweet corn and tomatoes. Along with these two core ingredients, I also added steamed green gram sprouts, cucumber and carrots, with a dash of salt, pepper, lemon juice and chaat masala.

She loved the way I shake the bowl to mix all the ingredients together. I let her eat on her own, using a spoon. As she was carefully picking out sweet corn and tomatoes, I also showed her the other veggies. I started a conversation with her, asking her the colors of the vegetables and she answered them right. She then started picking sprouts and cucumber on her own and ate a few spoons. She isn't a big fan of raw carrots but I added it anyway, just to ensure she takes a couple of bites at least. To my surprise, she did pick a few of the pieces and chewed them, without spitting it out.

I wanted to share what worked for me and my child, in this whole experience:
- I engaged her during the salad preparation process. She saw me chopping the vegetables, while sitting on the kitchen counter. This intrigued her and developed her interest towards the food.
- I gave more importance to the vegetables she likes and complemented them with other vegetables I want her to try
- She took the cup and spoon and fed herself. Because of the freedom to explore, she was willing to try other vegetables as well
- There was a good interaction opportunity for us, when she asked me to shake the bowl and when I asked her about the colors of different vegetables.

Hope these small tips are useful for other mothers.

2013 in review

Although my blogging frequency has been quite low, I definitely would like to keep up the tradition of reviewing the concluded year. It feels nice to know that I can go back to get a glimpse of how the past 8 years were.

I read this interesting quote somewhere - "We overestimate how much we can achieve in a day and underestimate how much we can achieve in a year". 2013 was a productive and most importantly, an emotionally peaceful year. It started off with completing the long pending tasks (ones that are important but not urgent) such as dental treatments, health checkups, passport renewal and getting a new passport for D.

D has grown quite fast, from crawling to walking to running. She speaks so much and sings a lot of nursery rhymes. She is no longer a small baby but an individual with her own interests and wishes that "must" be fulfilled at any cost. She is in that phase where if she doesn't get what she wants, she will throw a big tantrum. At the same time, she does so many cute things that can just melt us and cheer our hearts. It feels like living my childhood all over again with her.

She has started going to a play-school nearby. Though it took her a while to settle down, it is a major milestone for us as a family. She is picking up English words and can recognize alphabets, colors, vegetables and fruits.

On the professional front, I got back to working with an early stage startup focused on a domain close to my heart. Nutrition and healthy living led me towards HealthifyMe. I reached out to the founders and we worked out an option of me working from home. Talking about remote work, I have lots to write about, which I shall do in a separate blog post. It has a been an interesting comeback after a 2 year break, with lots of learnings and opportunities. I also managed to attend Nasscom Product Conclave this year. It was wonderful to catch up with my ex-colleagues from Yahoo! and Cleartrip.

The most important event on the personal front was my brother's wedding. I'm very happy for him to have found his right partner for life. Spending a week in Chennai with the summer at its peak, the wedding ceremonies and most importantly, D's stranger anxiety with our other family members and relatives - challenging but memorable experiences.

With a 2 year old, we didn't travel much outside the city but we roamed a lot within the city. D loves outdoors and she made sure we go "tata" every other day - be it for ice creams, cakes or just grocery shopping. We took a short trip to Mysore in March which was D's first ever trip outside Bangalore. She was quite excited and loved the zoo. We took a "real" vacation in Orange County which was relaxing.

Reading took a big hit this year as well. I just managed to finish one book "Life is what you make it" by Preeti Shenoy. A good read. I started reading "Immortals of Meluha" but after pushing through 200 pages, I realized it's just dragging and I gave up. This year, I'm extremely serious about getting back to reading.

The other aspect that I need to pay more attention this year is towards my health. I have been falling sick more often than I usually am and on top of it, I have not been exercising as well. Though I'm conscious of what I eat, I need to incorporate exercise regimen somewhere into my daily schedule.

I'm starting 2014 with lots of hope and excitement. There are many new areas I want to explore, one of them being baking. My new microwave oven has arrived !!

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year. Don't think about resolutions but identify 2-3 themes of your life which deserve your attention and go for them!

The Orange County experience

The only vacation we took this year was a trip to Coorg in early Sept. Finally I managed to pen down my experiences. Husband and I had been planning for a vacation for quite some time since it's been 3 years since our last one at Swaswara. We wanted to go to a place which is toddler friendly in terms of food, space and distance from Bangalore. D is 2 years now and she loves being outdoors. We enquired a few places in Kerala but the thought of taking a flight or a train was scary with D screaming within a few minutes after we board a flight/train.

So we decided to go for a drive nearby which is not more than 5 - 6 hours. We had earlier went to Mysore and it was comfortable, driving down with a toddler. We called up Orange County and bookings were done for a 3 night package. Since I had mentioned to them that this is our wedding anniversary special trip, they wanted to make it special.

The day before our trip, we were packing our things and D was quite curious and interested to see all suitcases being brought down from the loft. My travel checklist came in handy, especially when packing all the essentials for D.

On the morning of our trip, hubby and I woke up quite early, packed some sandwiches and got dressed. It was a pleasant surprise that D also decided to wake up early at 5:30 AM that day. Guess the excitement of a vacation caught up with her as well!

The drive was smooth, with some new songs added in my iPod for company. We followed the ritual of having our breakfast at Kamat. D was quite calm and slept through most of the journey. Except for the last 20 odd kms where we had to drive through bad roads, the drive was mostly smooth. We reached Orange County around 1 PM and we were welcomed with traditional music and glasses of cold coffee.

The resort is vast, nestled inside coffee plantations and with 3 different restaurants inside the estate. We were taken to our "county cottage" through a buggy ride (just like a golf cart). D was highly impressed with the ride and started calling the buggy as "auto" (like an auto-rickshaw).

The cottage was spacious, with a huge bedroom opening up to a balcony, along with a clean bathroom. After a quick shower, we headed out for lunch at the "Granary". It was a multi-cuisine buffet with an elaborate spread. The heavy lunch and the long drive pushed all three of us towards a nice afternoon siesta. We then roamed around the resort a little and had some snacks and tea. I just loved the ambience of their reading room - perfect location overlooking the paddy fields, comfortable chairs and they also serve coffee. Too bad, I couldn't spend much time there. With an active toddler who wants to explore all the time, there's no way to sit and relax with a book :-)

We had dinner at the "Pepper Corn" restaurant that night. This place serves some nice continental spread, along with barbecue starters. For a vegetarian like me, it wasn't that impressive. Also the candle lights and darkness was a little spooky for D. This is ideal for a couple but not for parents :-)

There is also a South Indian vegetarian restaurant "Banana Leaf", where we had a sumptuous lunch the next day. More than the food, I liked the location of this place, with nice views of plantations. The waiters also ensured D got a separate bowl of kichdi, wherever we had our meal.

In terms of activities, we started for a plantation walk in the evening but since it was for 2 hours, carrying a toddler around didn't sound like a good idea and so we dropped off in between. The village walk in the morning was really good, where our guide took us to a nearby village and a coracle ride across Cauvery, followed by some hot chai. D also loved this walk since she got to see many goats, dogs and cows.

The pond inside the plantation has a lot of fishes. We grabbed a bag of puffed rice from the restaurant and fed them. D was excited to see so many fishes but her main activity was to create a mess by spreading the puffed rice all over the deck and wiping them with her hands.

Hubby and I also went for massages, taking turns and baby-sitting. There is a small nook which is a play area for toddlers, with teddy bears and other soft toys. There are also other indoor games like caroms, chess and ludo which the older kids might enjoy. In the evenings, there were some dance events by native Kodava dancers which we loved, including D.

The team had arranged a surprise for our wedding anniversary, with a cake and a gift. When they came to know it was D's 23rd month birthday (yeah, we celebrate month birthdays too!!), they surprised her with a cake too. D got quite excited to see everyone singing for her.

Being our first vacation with D, it was a memorable experience at Orange County. Everyone was very courteous and friendly. Perfect location, peaceful atmosphere, pleasant weather, excellent food - what more do we need in a vacation!! I'm sure we would go there again, after few years once D is old enough to appreciate the trees, birds and nature.