Are you a flab police?

Why are we always shouting from the roof tops when our actresses put on some weight after marriage or childbirth?

Be it Aishwarya Rai Bachhan or Nazriya Fahad, we love to scan where the curves have accentuated.

Are we secretly feeling happy? Is this a case of “its-not-just-me” syndrome?

Each slideshow from yahoo and filminews are exploiting our habits of consoling ourselves, as we flip through in our phones or iPads, to ogle at month-wise changes of the celebrity waistlines.

Instead, why don’t we just concentrate on ourselves – to eat healthy, exercise regularly and stay away from negative thoughts.

In retrospective, the celebrities have their own ways of losing their flabs and getting on with their lives while we scrutinize the next victim…

The "Inconsistent chicken curry"

How do you cook chicken if you have to eat it mostly every week?

Would you add the same spices? Or would you tweak the quantiites here and there? Or would you find new ingredients from the kitchen shelf to change the taste?

It is an endless journey to find new recipes from the hundreds of cuisine in the Indian sub-continent to reach your spouse’s heart through his tummy.

How will he understand the planning behind a chicken curry – a Sanjeev Kapoor recipe or a typical Kerala chicken curry, with or without coconut milk, do I use the shopwaala ginger garlic paste or should I use my mortar and pestle to grind fresh ginger and garlic?

How do you succeed to make him eat out of your hand?

At least, avoid judgment of how inconsistent your chicken curry at the peak hours in the kitchen when you are making chapatti, boiling milk and cooking dal to the perfect consistency on your three- burner gas stove?

God save you, the Indian woman – working or home-making!

But remember, no one else can provide food so healthy and tasty as you do whatever comments come through. Nor can anyone match the taste of your cooking, because you cook with love…

Have a yummy day!

I love my hair - I pledge it!

I love my hair – I pledge it! Indian woman treasure their hair like nothing else. It is a symbol of beauty, feminineness and so many other things. And for that reason, we end up spending a lot of money, effort and time transforming our curls into straight ones and perm and curl the straight ones. We google for remedies for all our hair problems, if any and also for silky smooth, long and strong, black and shiny, you name it, we want it all! Haircuts mark important events in our life – may it be a heartbreak, marriage, pregnancy and motherhood. And for this era of makeovers, we drastically change our style to make a statement. Unfortunately for me, before I pay the credit card bill for a designer haircut, my hair grows to make it undone. Does anybody else think so? Okay, apart from all this, how would it feel to donate hair for a cause you believe in. Changing lifetyles, pollution and all new research findings need not tell us Indians are being more and more susceptible to Cancer. Stories of those who battled with Cancer and won makes us proud indeed, but do not forget there was a stage in their treatment course when the lost all their tresses and felt weak because of that, with the same intensity how we felt proud with our long, shiny tresses like a Rapunzel. Here is where the movement of Hair for Hope – India makes a difference. If you have at least 10” of hair to donate, go ahead, do it. For you, it will grow back and bring a smile to a chemo patient. Mass donations are being driven in schools, colleges etc and celebrities join the cause to make it look even better. As for me, since I have layered my hair drastically, even if I donate now, some portions will not match up to the requirement. So what I plan to do now is to go for a straight hair cut and grow it out so that I can donate the same and be proud of it. I am writing this so that that I don’t back out and change my decision to grow my Hair for Hope!

My Miss Vanity

Some people are irreplaceable and so lovable, even when they get on your nerves. My Miss Vanity is a person like that.

Case1.

During a long evening walk, when my dear friend Miss Vanity looks at the lightning in the faraway sky and exclaims ”Thunder!”, my jaws dropped.

When I gather my senses to think that the other brain cannot be more stupid, she corrects herself, “yeah, I call it silent thunder”.

Boom! I just had a heart attack.

Case 2.

Miss Vanity is hungry and have not had breakfast at 9.00 am. We have very little time before getting picked up for a team event organized at the suburbs of the city. Almost panicking, we hunt for a darshini for a plate of idli. But Miss Vanity peeps into each petty shop which sells mostly only cigarettes. Finally, I am  pissed and turn around to ask whether she wants cigarettes.

She blatantly replies, “I DON’T DRINK!”

Case 3.

Actually, this was the first case, but slipped my mind. I had to get help to remember this one!

Initially, myself and Miss P had some apprehensions about the grey matter content in Miss Vanity’s brain. So one day, we directly asked, “ are you dumb or just acting?”

“I can hear!”, she replies, answering all our questions!

P.S.: Any resemblance to people living or dead are purely coincidental. LOL and phew!

An open letter to my daughter

Two days before, as I was listening to Kiran Bedi’s speech as part of an office event, I realised my inspiration to work outside home is not my working mother, not Kiran Bedi herself, but my Daughter who joyfully goes to her creche when I drop her off before I leave for work.

When I got pregnant with my girl as soon as I joined by new office, I had a feeling that this is the end of my career. Nevertheless, the pregnancy period was incredibly exciting and me enjoying that superwoman attitude. So now since I could still continue to work, all thanks to the in-house creche facility in office, I should apologise to my girl. Hence, I came up with this open letter for her.

My dear sweetheart,

The first sight I saw of you was the big black eyes looking around, curious to see the world. 21 months later now, we are partners in our development. Every morning, we have our bags to pack- mine with my office documents, lunch box, ID tag etc and yours with food, extra clothes, diapers etc. If you were not supportive enough, I would have had to stay at home wasting the investment on me.

So I want you to remind me of my following promises to you if at all I forget them out of my selfish love and insecurities:-

• ·         When you grow up, I want you to be empowered not just educated.
• ·         Choose your career based on your passion and not mine.
• ·         Be involved in outdoor games, to build endurance, be disciplined and have a sense of sportsman spirit.
• ·         Learn to be independent but take sensible decisions about what you think is right.
• ·         Make your own share of mistakes and learn to move on with renewed spirit.
• ·         Believe in yourself and not pull yourself down because you are a girl.
• ·         Treat the disadvantaged with compassion and lend a helping hand whenever possible.
• ·         I do not want to discriminate and deny you anything which I would have given you if you were my son.

Last but the most important of all, I do not want candles lit before your photograph like any other mother in the World. So be safe, be brave and know that your home will always be there for you.

,Love and hugs

Amma