Anuradha Sridharan

It didn't come as a surprise to me when I heard this phrase in a TV show many years ago - "We first eat with our eyes" . The clean cutlery with well-presented, colorful food makes our mouths water, even before we take a first bite. No wonder, gourmet food in star restaurants are so expensive. The ambience and presentation are part of the experience they provide. Brands understand this fact too and as a student of Consumer Behavior course, I have read about the concept of experiential marketing and how it plays a significant role in ensuring consumers " experience " the brand through all their senses. The fast food chains entice us with huge hoardings of cheese-dripping, colorful burgers. Our eyes get attracted by the visuals and our mind has already made up a plan for the upcoming weekend. Kids feel the impact the most and as a mother of a 3 year old, I'm well-aware of this fact. :-) This " eating-with-your-eyes-first " behavior manifests i...

One of the major sectors that's getting a lot of attention and at the same time, confusing the common woman(man) the most is the "Foods" sector. Every food brand tries in some way or the other to promote why their products are superior for your health. Even if you keep your eyes and ears shut on packaged foods and try to include healthy grains, fruits and vegetables, there are numerous imported products that are being promoted as healthy (or aids in weight loss or kicks diabetes out of the window or promises glowing complexion or DHA or omega-3 and what not!) and sold at ridiculous prices - quinoa, blueberries, oats, chia seeds, apple cider vinegar, kiwi fruit etc to name a few. The facts might be true too, but are these the right choices for "us" - is the question to be asked. More often, these bombarding messages take away a very basic principle keep it simple and local.  This is my mantra when it comes to making sure my family and I eat healthy. Years...

I read somewhere that this book is an Indian version of Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In. I haven't read Lean In yet but " Lady, you're not a man! " talks in detail about the numerous issues that working women of India have to deal with. Humorous, witty and lots of interesting personal stories, the author Apurva Purohit has conveyed many important and valuable lessons in a breezy manner. I was nodding in agreement in many chapters and felt so glad that I'm not alone in this journey. The book is well structured, starting off with acceptance of various issues and struggles that women face. Sometimes, we do ponder if we are over-working ourselves, both at work and at home. It felt good when she talked about how multitasking which women are pro at, can work to our advantage. In one of the chapters, she talks about an interesting term called "Suffering Sita" syndrome :-) It was hilarious but at the same time, an eye-opener for many of us who unconsciously dr...

Image Source: http://discovermagazine.com/2013/nov/05-sit-down  It was my 3rd day at my Yoga class. After a round of different asanas from the lying down position, our instructor asked us to get up from the sitting posture, without using our hands for support. I was able to do that casually while the others in my class were finding it a little difficult. My instructor was a little shocked looking at my ease and said "Wow". I felt happy since I was struggling with many stretching postures earlier. A small win can boost your confidence tremendously, isn't it? This incident brought up a lot of questions around how our sitting habits have changed. We no longer sit down on the floor - be it for eating, reading or even chatting with friends/family at home. Our love for chairs and couches have only gone up manifold. I used to sit down a lot when I was a kid and a teenager. It was our family practice to sit down on the floor and have our meals. It's a different story t...

I remember vividly the packaging, the aroma and the taste of my grandma's tomato rice, which I used to devour in the train while returning from school. The memories - so nostalgic and so dear to me. Blessed with 2 loving and caring grandmothers who cook awesome food, I'm grateful and at the same time, I deeply regret that I didn't take interest in cooking when these 2 active and special women were alive. I guess I was more than happy in relishing the delicacies prepared by them, that I wasn't too curious to know the background work involved. Now coming to the story, I used to travel by local metro train to go to school everyday. Due to certain circumstances, we had to shift home to a distant suburb. But I insisted I would stay put in the same school for my 8th grade, even if it requires me to travel 1 hour (one-way) everyday. Who can say NO to train journeys, right? :-) My paternal grandmother was living with us and she would pack me a proper lunch box every mornin...

Given a choice, I would shop for fresh veggies once every 2-3 days. But the time and effort required for this activity prevents me from taking that route. Instead, I shop for veggies and fruits once a week (like most urban families do). There were times when I would just buy from supermarkets and dump the veggies wrapped in their individual plastic covers directly in the fridge. As the week progresses, I had no clue of what veggies were remaining. I just grabbed what piqued my attention first and used it for my cooking. Towards the end of the week, I would notice an almost rotten pumpkin slice, wilted greens and a few leftover beans giving me a sad look. I realized that wasting vegetables is a crime, for the goodness they bring in to our health and ofcourse, the escalating prices we had to pay. One of the ways by which you could control wastage is to plan your weekly meals in advance, based on the veggies you have stocked up. Though I plan my daily meals the night before, "week...

Whenever we decide to start eating healthy, the first thing we start off with is to cut down sugar in our tea/coffee. We get all pumped up, make the cup of tea without any sugar and take one long sip and…. it tastes so bad! Without giving up, we try one more time, it still tastes bad and with all the mighty power, we gulp it down. We might try the same thing again the next day or two but then it's a struggle. We end up going back to the old ways. If you are able to eliminate sugar in one go, hats off to your willpower! But this post is for the rest of us who wants to cut down sugar but want a better route rather than the sudden change. A couple of years back, I used to have my tea with 2 tsp of sugar (1 tsp = 5 grams). I usually have 2 cups of tea in a day, which means 4 tsp of sugar. I have almost cut down on other sugar-based sweets/chocolates/cookies/cakes. They are occasional visitors though. Gradually, I reduced the sugar in my tea to 1.5 tsp, tried this for a couple of m...