Nutrition is fun with #QuakerBowl Indimeet!

I have been a part of Indiblogger for far shorter duration than many other bloggers,so whenever there is an IndiBlogger meet,I get very excited to attend it because they are fun and it is always nice to connect with other passionate bloggers! When I got invite for attending a Quaker Bowl Indimeet being organized in conjunction with Quaker Oats, I almost jumped with happiness because I am not a good cook but I love oats. Not only do I use it for breakfast with fruits but also in making poha and uttapam,something that I learnt from my mom! The IndiBlogger meet was on Sunday 10th April at the gorgeous J W Marriott, Juhu and we were going to meet a surprise celebrity chef.

The event started a bit late but it was made up for by the huge fun we had. First we had the brilliant IndiBlogger team making us laugh by showing us Taher Shah's Angel and making us dance a bit and then the surprise was revealed-we had Chef Vikas Khanna joining us! He is PepsiCo's Nutrition Ambassador and heavily involved in the process of spreading message of health and battling malnutrition. Wow, not only is he so handsome, he is also so humble! He made the morning lively with jokes, a lot of stories about Punjab and his childhood and also knowledge about health and nutrition. As I said,I am not a good cook but I loved how he explained about the importance of using oats in versatile ways,such as in making soups and gravies instead of using butter and cream.

He also asked us some fun questions and then the fun soup-shot blind-taste round happened. There were more than 15 ingredients used in making these soups! Who could have thought of that? He also told us about increasing gluten intolerance and malnutrition statistics that made us all think of the huge impact food has on our lives and societies. Frankly, Quaker is the first name I think of when I think 'Oats' but now that I know that PepsiCo and Chef Vikas Khanna are involved in such noble task of spreading message of nutrition, my respect for Quaker has gone up manifold.

There was a food contest for us all where we used many vegetables and fruits to make something delicious out of oats. I took this opportunity to roam around and look at all the dishes other teams were making. Chef Vikas tasted all the dishes and came up with the winner which was team 10 based on taste and beauty of the dish. My team was good but we were just enjoying the event more than focusing on any contest. After all the food for thought,we were served some amazing dishes in the brunch that followed. I was amazed to find some delicious dishes made with oats such as brownies and paneer makhani gravy that are traditionally made using loads of butter,ghee etc.! Such a healthy initiative this is! 

We were all given a parting gift of a pack of Quaker Oats and a cookbook. I am still trying to get my strength to actually try these recipes. But I will never forget how much amazing knowledge I have gathered by joining in this event and how down to earth Chef Vikas is! He personally went around taking hundreds of selfies with every person present there. Add to that,the brilliant Indiblogger team made sure that we were all taken care of,even the ones who are new to this family! And PepsiCo,Quaker Team made sure that they brought home the message of nutrition which is the need of the hour. Thank you Indiblogger and Quaker India for this opportunity.

The Impact of Bollywood

Cricket and Bollywood are two obsessions of India. In every aspect of our life,we can see how obsessed everyone in every age group is when it comes to these two, I am not much interested in cricket but being a Bollywood buff myself I have found that the impact of Bollywood extends to more than just watching movies-

1. There is a thin line blurring real and reel lives. All my friends, be they Bengali, Telugu, Tamil or Marathi, now want a wedding in Yash Raj movies style. I see parents everyday talking about doing sangeet and mehendi just like it was done in that or this movie. The trend of having choreographed dances just like in movies and having DJs has increased too. In fact, in my own family, a cousin is now planning her marriage and she has a full flow chart prepared based on her favorite Bollywood movies weddings!
2. The impact of Bollywood can be seen from the little kids itself. Earlier we used to watch Boogie Woogie show in the 90s where kids would dance on Vyjanthimala, Sridevi, Jaya Prada's classical songs but now little kids also dance on 'Chikni Chameli' and 'Munni' on all kinds of reality shows. 
3. Even in little kids' birthday parties there are theme parties being done in Bollywood style. Small kids dress up in designer gowns just like Katrina or Deepika and talk the way even I don't with my friends!
4. Ever since Dhoom movies released, there has been tremendous increase in bikes on the roads and often there is news of bike racing happening in the dead of night in long stretches of roads,leading to accidents too. Similarly, seeings our heroes indulge in goondagiri on screen leads to a lot of people believing that all that nonsense can be done in real life too without any consequences.
5. But the impact of Bollywood is not just bad. Often it is just the bad news that we get to hear and remember but many social issues like widow remarriage, family issues, need of education, poverty eradication, friendship, caste and religious issues etc. have been shown in many movies successfully that have made people think and revise their attitudes. Such an example is the movie 3 Idiots where such a nice case was made for our education system and today we do see quite a few changes taking place and our education becoming more practical than just theory based. Similarly, Chak De India has generated huge interested in sports other than cricket and we can see them coming into limelight too.

In the end, it depends on us how we want to see and observe this impact. Bollywood is a major force in India and now its popularity is spreading through the world. We must be careful of imbibing only the good and not the bad, to ensure that the right message goes to the next generation and to the world at large.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

My best friend is also the most peppy person I know

Friends play such an important role in our lives. It is often when we stay away from them that we realize their true worth but fortunately in my case,it is the exact opposite. I found my best friend when I was staying away from my family for the first time and with her peppiness,she made my life crazier and better. I had never stayed away from my home and that too,a joint family, where I was cared for an sheltered by so many people. When I got a job and had to relocate to another city,all alone, I was apprehensive how will I do so successfully? Of course, my mother helped me set up my new home and I knew that my family is just a phone call away but still, I had many nagging doubts and insecurities inside me, what will I do if something goes wrong or if I fall ill? As they say, the more we think about something,the more it happens to us! Just about a week after joining my new office, I fell ill with food poisoning, a remnant of the huge change in my diet from home cooked food to outside food in this new city! I was writhing in pain in my room when I heard the doorbell ring. My landlady brought Meghana to my room and left us alone. Meghana was the only friend I had made in my new office.

When I first met Meghana,she was wearing a huge cartoon Mickey Mouse pair of ears as there was a birthday in the office. Funny thing is,the person whose birthday it was, was not even a close friend of Meghana! But being the big ball of sunshine, she naturally assumed all duties of organizing a surprise birthday party within half an hour and cheered up the entire office. This is exactly what she did when I fell ill. She came home with a home grown chicken soup and some Khichdi for me to munch on. Then she started talking about all the gossip in the office I was missing out on and made me laugh like crazy,making me forget how ill I was! She got me medicines and visited me everyday after office for 2-3 hours, bringing me greeting cards from all my new office colleagues and even little teddy bears, chocolates as get well soon gifts..

I was nursed back to health within a week. Soon after, she found a new place for me where I had to pay lesser rent and it was also closer to office, plus it had the amenity of getting home cooked food tiffin everyday. Whenever I look at Meghana, I am reminded of Geet from Jab We Met. She is just like that character. She is always joking, always making fun of herself to make others laugh, always looking at situation in a positive light, always taking care of others around her. There is never a dull moment with her around and with her presence alone she brings an air of sunshine in everyone's life. Today, we are inseparable and spend hours chatting in as well as outside the office. As doctors say, laughter is the best medicine, just spending time with the peppiest person Meghana makes sure that I never fell ill again after that food poisoning episode!

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

My Fantastico Mother is my Rock of Gibraltar

Everybody says that their mother is the most fantastic and inspirational person they meet and everybody is right. After all, mothers were made by God to be there for us when God couldn't be present! Every person has a different story related to their mother and I do too for saying thanks to my fantastic mother. 

My mother is a teacher by profession, primary school teacher to be exact. We are a simple middle class family in a small town in north India where society is conservative and attitudes are more or less set in everyone's minds. Everybody has their own way of dealing with situations and mostly they are dictated by traditions. A long time, we used to have a maid who had a 10 year old daughter. One day, she asked my mom for holiday leave for 5 days as her daughter was getting married! My mother was shocked as to how could she marry off her kid like that? She went with her maid to the groom's house and made them understand that not only is it illegal, it is also detrimental to their health in later life and by health she means both physical as well as mental and emotional health. A big fracas was created where some people even started abusing my mother for interfering with their traditions but she stood her ground and offered our maid to send her daughter to our house for free education till the age of 18 at least. With the help of my dad who also was present there, she managed to convince them to call off the wedding for some time and took both the children to her school and got them admitted under a scholarship for poor scheme. Today, they are both completing their education in college as they turned out to be quite bright students who got scholarships all their life, marriage is far from their minds as they have eyes set on good careers and our erstwhile maid still keeps in touch with my mother to take advice related to her family and life!

Having such an amazing mother is the best thing a child can hope for. With her actions,she time and again proved the importance of having courage, the spirit of nothing is impossible and the conviction to stand on one's principles in life,come what may. Being a teacher herself,she understands the importance of education foremost and never let anything come in the way of me and my education. When I became the first in my family to leave our home and city for a new job,she was the first one to get me brochures related to the new city I was coming to and all important information related to living,eating and roaming around here. In fact,my dad was quite adamant on me getting a job in that small town only but my mom stood her ground that I be allowed to live my life the way I want to, make my own path in life and follow it without any interference. I am lucky to have found my rock,my biggest support group in my mother who is always ready with a caring hug or a shoulder to lean on. A fantastico life needs someone like her to flourish!

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Music is no less than a mode of therapy

Music is often considered the food of soul and it is said that it touches the heart without any words. I have seen the same happening in my family too.

Some years ago my dad's elder brother had a horrible accident in which he fractured his leg and a major impact on his spine made it difficult for him to walk. While he was going to the physiotherapists, one of the doctors told him to inculcate a love for music and spend some time listening to various kinds of music to recuperate faster. It was strange for him to hear something like this from a doctor to which the doctor replied that music is nothing short of a miracle and medical miracles happen all the time. My uncle was always very interested in classical music from all over the world and in his youth he even used to play the cello. He reinvigorated his love for music and spent some hours every morning listening to masters of classical music in his room. His huge collection of music came to his rescue. He also started listening to his favorite songs by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Lionel Richie and so on. Soon thereafter,my dad found out his cello dumped in the attic of our home and brought it for him to play again. We could see the peace and happiness in his face when he was surrounded by his favorite music.

It has been said often that children who are exposed to classical music in early life often turn out to be geniuses. Classical music helps us focus and cope with harder tasks easily. It seems that music establishes a link between different parts of our brains which helps them smoothen out tasks easier. My uncle is no genius but with the help of music,he said that it became easier for him to cope with pain. He really felt lighter, happier, more jovial. His physiotheraphy sessions did not make him nervous or sad anymore and he could feel a rejuvenating force through his body. It could be said that these are more psychological reactions without any hard proof but when it comes to human body and medical science, our brain still remains a mystery. If surrounded by music, our brain finds it easier to cope with harder aspects of life, which in my uncle's case, was an accident, then we must encourage it as therapy just like my uncle's doctor did. In fact soon he allowed uncle to bring his music collection to the office and they used to play all his favorite tunes while he exercised. This proved to be highly effective too as he felt his pain diminish more and more each day. Today he is fit and healthy and still spends a good amount of time every morning playing his favorite tunes on cello and listening to music from all over the world. There is always an air of happiness in the home and I have a firm belief that music is a mode of therapy for our bodies and souls. 

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Impact of Social Media on our real life

Trrrrrrring..

Woke up in the morning listening to this ghastly noise from my roommate's phone, it was just her boyfriend whatsapping her at 5 in the morning, in the process disturbing everyone in the home. Whatspp is an amazing tool but can't people have common sense on when to use and when not to use it? This gets even more annoying when 2 people in the same room are sending whatsapp messages to each other,something else my roommate and her boyfriend excel at doing...

Take another scenario. I went out for lunch with my office colleagues. On the lunch table in the restaurant,every single one of them was busy looking at their mobile screens, checking their facebook, twitter, whatsapp, hike messenger status etc. Nobody had the time to comment on food or enjoy it. On top of it,the only time they were interested in food is to take pictures of it to post on instagram...

I used to be the same way. When I had just entered college,facebook had just entered India and everyone was going crazy over it. Over like, shares, friendship requests and status updates. Soon I realized there is a world of twitter out there too and I got hooked to it. I found some of my old school friends there and we used to chat for hours. I also used to play candy crush for hours. In the process,I completely neglected my studies and even bunked many important lectures in my 2nd semester at college. The worst part was that I used to obsess over how many liked each of my pictures got or how many friends of mine shared a post I made and then I used to fight my friends as to why they did not like my posts! It turned into a disorder and my family had to disconnect the internet for a month to get me out of this state.

Today, when I see people obsessing over social media,I just wish that they would understand how important real life relationships are and not to ignore them at the cost of various apps or status updates..Not to mention, many lives are being lost foolishly in the selfie craze where people are taking selfies in the most dangerous situations. It is just another form of addiction if not managed correctly.

Special attention must also be paid to children and teenagers who are so lost in this game of social media that they are becoming unsocial in real life. They do not have developed social grace and manners, their health is affected by spending long hours staring at the social screen, posture is affected, body metabolism rate is affected and many psychological disorders like-early onset depression can make them a perfect target. I have learnt from my mistakes but we as a society must come together to accept the impact of social media on our real lives.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

#FlipkartKids and the changing face of shopping for kids in India

Flipkart is now a household name. At least,in my household, we have been using Flipkart as our go-to shopping destination for everything from gadgets to cosmetics and everything in between. Speedy delivery, discounts, comfort to shop from home are just some of its positives. The very news of Flipkart launching an online shopping destination exclusively for kids was enough for me to get uber excited for this #FlipkartKids Indiblogger meet.

So there I was, at The Blue Frog in Lower Parel,Mumbai on 19th Dec 2015 at 2 PM,ready for this exciting adventure to begin. It was the grand occasion of launch of ‘Flipkart Li’l Stars – India’s Biggest Online Kids Store’ after all.

After a breezy registration, we were ushered in the huge dreamy Blue Frog where amazing cocktails and lunch spread waited to entice us all. Pretty soon, bloggers (mommy, daddy in the majority!) started streaming in and then began the selfie session that lasted till the end. The proceedings of the afternoon were started with a lively introductory speech by Kalpana Behara who talked about how she fell in love with blogging as a mommy, her struggle with writer's block and her ongoing journey. Then came the highlight-we had Chhota Bheem walking around the venue! He was waving and dancing and taking pictures with everyone, setting the tone perfectly for the next item-a panel discussion with executives from Flipkart, Disney, Mattel and Chhota Bheem. The most illuminating discussion of the afternoon, it opened our eyes to many facts-

• The parents and kids today are very aware of what is happening in the world,especially the kids, who are in tune with worldly trends
• Technology has changed the way we shop and kids are no different
• Chhota Bheem is exceptional as it has made its own mark among the Disney, Mattel toys. While Barbie is still extremely popular, Chhota Bheem is a mark of Indian excellence as kids are crazy about it!It is turning into a sensation everywhere!
• Kids are so advanced these days,they want what they want and they want it then & there. This is a challenge for the sellers to improve their logistics
• Flipkart is also bringing thousands of toys for special needs kids from international arena which will take some time to be shipped,but it is a big step forward.
• The best part is that the e-commerce arena has brought the magic of shopping for whatever we want,right from the comfort of our own home.

Pondering over these points in themselves was a big brainer, then came some light entertainment in the form of Indiblogger's own music band and the amazing Ad Mad game where we all chipped in teams on 10-11 each trying to sell Flipkart kids' toys. The event ended on a high note when we were each presented with a Chhota Bheem souvenir by Flipkart. I am positive that #FlipkartKids is going to be a huge success too!