Saturday, June 22, 2019

Yoga day

Yesterday was the International Yoga Day, a day when yoga is celebrated for being the cornerstone factor in the lives of many people who belong to these parts of the world. And what better day than to share my love for yoga here.

Yoga for me, is a way of life. It symbolises a way to cleanse the mind of negative, unnecessary thoughts. It is also a way to achieve the fitness of the mind and body and go back to the discover the wealth hidden in our souls. It is a light that shines on the path that takes us to bring out the best, the kindest and the most compassionate forms of ourselves. It instils courage when it is lacking, strength when one feels weak and resolve in the hearts of the waivering. Yoga brings one closer to the self, when one attempts to control the mind and focus on the body. It brings one closer to understanding the meaning of 'present moment consciousness’.

As one performs varied asanas and becomes aware of the body in different postures, the mind reduces its tendencies to wander. It is more about being in the here and now. When the mind diligently, constantly follows the movement of the body, stills when the body stills,moves when the body moves, the mind becomes one with the body. This is exactly what the legendary Buddhist monk Thic Nhat Han talks about in his book The Miracle of Mindfulness, when he elaborates about how the mind becomes one with the breath, when the mind follows and the breath leads. It is in this sense that the practice of yoga is called yoga in the first place, for after all doesn’t yoga mean union? Union of the mind with body or mind with the breath (in case of pranayama)

Hope everyday is yoga day for all of us!

Saturday, June 15, 2019

My toddler baby Krishna

Time flies. On second thought, no time does not fly, it travels at a speed faster than light. Why I say this is because, one year and one month ago, my son Krishna was born. Change (the dear companion of time) has blitzkrieg-ed its way into every aspect of our lives, in a good, happy sort of way.

So let me introduce you to my son, Krishna. Krishna is quite a heap of relentless energy, on a constant mission to have an adventure exploring everything that lies(and does not lie) on his path,as he traverses on his sojourns around the house. Krishna would have beaten a baby version of Usain Bolt, hands down in a hundred metre crawling competition. Any day,any time! And when he tires of crawling, he rests awhile, smiling around at onlookers.

As soon as he wakes up, like a dutiful student, he voluntarily revises all that he has picked up in his babyhood till now. He points at the fan and utters a 'du' His attention shifts quickly from the fan to the light, followed by the double barrel gun that is hung on the wall and the chair that rests against the wall - all recognised with the monosyllabic 'du'.

"No, that is not 'du' - that is light, here is a gun and that is a chair," I try to correct him. He smiles a wide toothless grin and says "du" again. Sometimes, he even ventures on to say ' dhat' or 'dhish' ! All this happens within the first five minutes of his waking up, until he hears the approaching footsteps of my parents or my husband. He then peers eagerly in the hope that he will be carried around on a VIP tour to the terrace where he usually gets to greet his little birdie friends flying overhead.

One thing I have noticed is that Krishna has great fascination for birds. We once went for a walk in the park, when Krishna suddenly raised his hand in excitement, forefinger pointed upward. I looked up at the sky and saw a lone eagle swooping down. ‘Du’ he said with glee. ‘Yes! Eagle!’ I said, but he was in no mood to listen, for he said 'du' once again, this time to alert me about a group of parrots tearing through the sky, in great hurry!

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Paneer fresh cream masala!!



Dinner today - paneer butter masala or should I call it paneer 'fresh cream' masala. For this dish has oil, ghee and fresh cream but no butter! So although it was originally meant to be restaurant style paneer butter masala, it is paneer fresh cream masala. 

Cooked,plated and photographed by yours truly!

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory – my favourite sitcom is coming to an end! Sniff! The Big Bang Theory has been my favourite since goodness knows when. Another contender vying for the to spot was the evergreen, super humerous FRIENDS(there was a time probably when I was in school when everything about it – even the title track was all the rage) – but, The Big Bang Theory beat it to be at the top of my list. 

The Big Bang Theory is about the daily life of a bunch of scientists, their journey across the years as they achieve milestones both professionally and personally, chronicled brilliantly and innovatively. The wry wit and clever retorts by each of the characters makes us break into peels of laughter atleast twenty times in five minutes.

All the characters come together in their own special way bringing in their own characteristic humour which makes almost every dialogue funny in an intelligent kind of way. My favourite character is that of Sheldon – a brilliant, nerdy theoretical physicist with abominably poor people skills. But it is this very trait that provides ample fodder for all the laughs with his ironic and sarcastic humour perfect in its comic timing.

Recently, I watched all of them on the Ellen De'Genres Show where the viewers were treated to interesting behind-the-scenes gossip about the final season. All the members of the cast were visibly sad and understandably so. I too wanted to cry with them and I did – in private of course. 

From now on I will have to convince myself to be satisfied with watching re-runs of the old episodes, everytime I wish to watch my favourite sitcom. But, the curiosity and eagerness that every new episode brings along with it will be sorely missed.

Saturday, June 1, 2019

Healthy living

Healthy living or healthy lifestyle! What does it mean to you? How does one begin living a healthy lifestyle?

A number of micro aspects lead to  formulating a macro ideal called healthy lifestyle. To my n mind healthy living comprises of physical, mental and spiritual aspects. One is necessary for the other and one depends on the other. One cannot be achieved without the other.

It goes without saying that food is the primary aspect of living healthy. Avoid processed food, sugary beverages, instant fast and junk food and you are well on your way to making a healthy way. It goes without saying good food is the most important pillar of healthy living. Without it, all other aspects of healthy living would only be a distant dream. And that is why Gandhiji said,” You are what you eat”,so be careful about what you put into your mouth.

Exercise is extremely important if you want a healthy life. Our body was designed for physical activity which is why if you see the lifestyle of ancient man, you can find that his activities consisted of hunting for food,  traveling places in search of a safe shelter. But in today's era when sedentary lifestyle is the order of the day, we have to deliberately make time to exercise or bodies. It could be anything from a mild form of walking to an intense workout in the gym, or even yoga, swimming, cycling, running – or a combination of all of them. Whatever suits you. Whatever suits your body type. But do it!

Healthy living includes a mental aspect as well as I said earlier. Regular reading, solving puzzles, having interesting stimulating conversations with like minded individuals goes a great distance in improving health of your grey cells. Of late studies have shown that engaging in physical activity such as stretching or even a short walk helps one improve mental health too. So, there you go – its all inter related.

One cannot live in the pink of health without a certain amount of spiritual advancement and awareness – a realm that transcends everything connected with the body. Practising meditation, deep breathing, living in the present and mindful living go a long way in cleaning out your internal self.  Shunning all forms of negativity – complaining, criticising, thinking about the past and so on are a few all important factors that help one achieve that stage of 'feeling healthy from within’.

A few words about the role of digital media in our lives – a lot of our previous time is hogged by social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on. Social media has become a way of life for most of us when all of actions are motivated by thoughts of what to upload on the next post or which picture would look best on our Instagram accounts and generate more comments and likes. This is a very superficial way of living underlined by the need to be liked and feted by external validation. Nothing can take you rather away from realising your inner truth than in mindlessly and constantly engaging in expressing our opinions and ideas, sharing important details about lives with all and sundry and logging into our accounts every so often to see how many likes our latest profile pictures have generated. Social media if used in a modicum and if used wisely can be an excellent tool to enhance our personalities and live in a healthy manner. Like money and the human mind, social media can be a very good servant but a terrible master.

Lastly, actually I cannot say lastly, for this list can go on and on and on. I would instead say more importantly,(yes, that would be the right turn of phrase!) be happy. Practice being happy. If you observe children, you can see that they are happy for no reason at all. Don’t wait for others to make you happy, don’t wait for situations to make you happy. Find it within yourself. Let finding happiness within yourself be a habit. Also nothing makes a person more beautiful than being happy. So wear your happiness on your sleeve.

Let's live in a healthy manner, both internally and externally, when in company and when in solitude, more importantly let us be happy and also be a harbinger of happiness in the lives of others.