Anuradha Sridharan

Yesterday, I went to a nearby supermarket with my 4 year old daughter. She has been insisting me to buy her a strawberry flavored breakfast cereal. Though I'm totally against such ready-to-eat packaged cereals, I do give into her demand once in a while for a smaller pack size. I don't want to completely ban such products in my home as the kid might start developing a craving and give more importance to such foods. In the last couple of weeks, whenever we go shopping, she would ask me for the strawberry cereal but we couldn't get a smaller pack. "D, I will buy it only when we get a smaller pack", I told her. She spotted a smaller pack yesterday and brought it to me. "Mumma, see…I found a small pack", she handed it to me with a big smile. I kept my promise and bought one. The product was made with ragi flakes and claims "deliciously healthy" (now you know which brand it is!). This morning, she promptly remembered during breakfast and w...

Image Source: https://thebonablog.com/2016/02/22/top-5-a-race-to-the-finish-line/  On my farewell day at Oracle in 2006, one of my senior colleagues said to me "You are a good finisher". It struck me and I was glad that someone else was able to spot something about my personality that I wasn't even aware of. A finisher is someone who takes initiatives to completion and persists at them for long enough. In today's distracted world, we start multiple new initiatives at work, at home, as part of our continuous learning process, new hobbies etc. But the steam dies down after a few days, weeks or months. The opportunities are aplenty and there's no reason to stick to one thing if it doesn't work out. But persisting, keeping at it and taking it to completion has numerous advantages. It helps us to proceed down the road of mastery. As we practice a skill long enough, we become exponentially better, it gives us tremendous confidence and boosts our self-esteem...

Dry waste collection happens in our apartment complex every Sunday. We have a separate bag in our utility balcony where we dump dry waste (plastic, paper) on an ongoing basis and on Sunday morning, we keep this bag outside for collection. Last Sunday, when I peeped into our bag, there was hardly anything. And then I realized that this had been the case for the last few Sundays -  the bag hadn't reached its full capacity for the past several weeks. This made me feel happy and gave a sense of satisfaction that I'm contributing a teeny tiny bit towards reducing waste and garbage. Our bag that day had plastic milk packets, a few plastic covers and some torn paper bills and receipts. Over time, we have made many changes to our lifestyle that has resulted in a positive impact towards reduction of garbage going to the landfills. I'm sharing those changes here, hoping that you might get a few ideas. 1) Kitchen DIY - I had already written a detailed post on it. Yoghurt boxes, rea...

A few days back, I went for a Bollywood dance night in my apartment. It was a lot of fun, dancing after a long time. Great energy, adrenalin pumping and a good workout. But I felt a slight tinge, which made me realize something. Of the 25+ songs played that night, I could hardly recognize 3-4 of them. Most of them were the latest Bollywood dance numbers. I haven't been in touch with Bollywood music off late (with the exception of ARR's albums). But that's not exactly the point. I didn't like many of these new songs. Neither I'm able to recollect them now nor I feel the urge to look them up. The few words that I was able to recognize made me uncomfortable. Is it a mandatory requirement that all dance party numbers need to have words like dhaaru, vodka etc?  When I was a school going kid, I used to wonder why my dad never appreciates Illayaraja, AR Rahman or Jatin/Lalit albums. He is quite happy, repeating the same MSV and RD Burman albums over and over. He still bor...

Disclaimer: I'm neither a gynecologist nor a dietitian. This is purely based on my experience. Do consult your doctor if you are making any major changes. Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS / PCOD) has become so prevalent among women these days. The official reports state that 25% of women in India face this problem but the actual numbers might be more. And this percentage is on the rise. I've been facing this issue for many years now. There's no medicine/treatment to completely cure this hormonal disorder. But there are ways by which you can ensure that it doesn't lead to further complications. I'm not going to talk about the symptoms or complications of PCOD as the primary purpose of this post is to help women who are already facing this issue. So my assumption is that you are aware of PCOD and looking for ways to keep it under control. Here are the 10 habits that I follow diligently for the past few years that have resulted in a positive impact in my o...

One of my goals for 2016 is to get back to listening to my kind of music more often whenever time permits. The little one has been hogging my iPod with her favorite fast beat songs and I hardly get to hear even a single favorite of mine :-) I grew up with the music of ARR and have been a hard-core Rahmaniac for the last 2 decades. More than the popular songs, I love his melodies - soul stirring, soothing and relaxing. He has given some fantastic melodies that have been quite popular even after the release of the movies and the music channels repeating them everyday. But there were many beautiful songs that didn't get the attention they deserve. I'm sure these reside in the playlists of Rahman fans like me. Here's a list of 10 such least popular melodies that I love: 1) Nenje Nenje from Ratchagan The right choice of singers in KJ Yesudas and Sadhana Sargam, meaningful lyrics and the music that doesn't interfere too much with the flow and the words. The tune just before ...

The last Saturday was a very memorable day in my life. I took my passion of healthy cooking in front of my customers. I had registered for putting up a breakfast counter stall at a local community event. The items I prepared were sold out in 2 hours. Some of the customers came back and said that they enjoyed the food. They asked for recipes, questions around ingredients etc. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience with lots of lessons and insights to carry forward. 1) A well defined goal and a deadline is extremely important to get started I have been thinking about this idea of catering healthy and traditional food for quite some time. But there has been resistance, questioning myself, anxiety and procrastination that prevented me from getting started. It's easier to read loads of books on nutrition, try new recipes at home, watch numerous recipes on youtube etc but it's quite a task to take the step forward and actually cook food for people outside my immediate family, frien...