Do I need to Cook today honey?

This post is dedicated to all those females who crib about cooking. I personally have experienced and seen lot of females just get frustrated cooking some days. It's but natural, common guys mundane job everyday. These so called cookery shows boasting off trying to make cooking fun and different always involves COOKING and CUTTING.

So my Dear Gals Just Chill ! i am not a feminist but let me be honest without the ladies half these men would starve to death (not literally) thanks to globalization and all those hot joints which serve home deliveries also. But home cooked food out beats everything. Right..

Anyways coming back to the point, ladies just chill. If you don't feel like cooking and still want to have home cooked food here's a idea. Weekend's when you are lazing around, just cut 3 onions and 2 tomatoes into small pieces and store in the fridge, always comes in handy(store separately).The day in the week when you are not upto cooking, ask your hubby to boil noodles, onions tomato, 1 chili, salt, chilli powder and garam masala saute in oil, mix both of them.
Wallah!!! here comes tasty masala noodles that your hubby can make without cribbing as well. Healthy too if your hubby uses wheat noodles instead of maida one's. And what a change would it be for children - They are going to love it guys...

Ladies End Note:! Every solution comes with a price. The price for this tip would be a beautiful smile and heart full of happiness.

Have a great time making your hubby cook...:-)

Help Required Indeed - But for whom?

When i started writing on this blog, i had few things on my mind. One of them being i should address things are relevant to most of the people i relate to. everyday things however small or insignificant that might be. this post also tries to retrospect those aspects of our daily life.

Our life's are so filled with routine and mundane jobs. Same old way of going on - get up, get ready, grab a bite, go to school/work, come back, work at home, sleep. In this routine world and life do we realize that we need to connect to something that is close to us but we do not even a second glance to it.

No guys, i am not talking about your family or friends but all set and done thanks to the revolution called internet we are in touch with them. But i am talking about our inner self - Yes our conscience. Once in a month or atleast once in a year do we help people who are in need. Everyone these day's says they don't have time for charity stuff. I am not saying that but atleast small things make a difference in someone's life. I had a friend who was struggling with family problems and needed a job desperately, i didn't do anything just referred that person to a company. Today my friend is happy due to the job.

Charity begins from home. Help people who are in need, you don't need to go to any orphanages or old age homes just simple help to someone who needs it very badly and don't expect anything in return. I have a friend - a professor who works with IIM, he told me something last week - Give love, however much the other person refuses it or rejects it, keep on giving so much that everyone around are forced to start loving it. Let's do it guys together - we can make this world a better place.

I love that song of Micheal Jackson - 'Heal the World, Make it better place, For you and For me and the Entire Human Race'.

Love comes with a price tag

"kiddo..don't do this, it's not good". From the time we are born we are told , do this - do that and what not. Forget about our family even our own friends who should ideally be understanding us also tell us what to do. Do these people really love us. If yes then they wouldn't do this to us is the only thought that comes to my mind everytime.

How many times we would have heard the word (esp from teenagers), ' Ma, Pa, Give me a break'. Trust me these people really need a break. Take a vacation guys not literally but from your stereotypic thoughts. Our thoughts should pass on the positivity in us. Sex has always been a taboo subject in Indian society. No wonder our kids are more intrigued by it than Geometry or Trigonometry. If only we make all these subjects taboo too.

I am not saying even if kids do something dangerous encourage them. But let's stop restricting them for everything. Their creative abilities will never come out in open if we do that. They want to be like air free flowing and we want to tie them into a balloon. Remember even the balloon will burst one day.

My 3 1/2 year old son said the other day, Ma i know the difference between boy and girl. I was cooking at that time - I was too shocked to react and composed myself and remained calm. Very casually he walks upto me and says, ' Ma Girls have long hair and wear skirts and frocks, Boys have short hair and wear jeans & shorts'. I couldn't stop myself from Smiling and gave him a huge hug. They know things that are unimaginable to us. They speak language that we wouldn't have even thought of in that age. They have a great memory, even remember things that they did when they were very small. So guys chill our children are into quite a fast generation so leave them as they are.

Finally bottom line is Live and Let Live. Breathe and Let Breathe.


*** Conditions apply - Don't bother till they don't do anything dangerous or get into any wrong company.Keep a close eye on them without they realizing it and intervene only when necessary. ***

Pranavam or Pranava Naadam

Someone once asked me, Why do people worry so much about religion and rituals attached to it. I didn't have an answer then nor i have an answer now. But certain things make me think whether this statement is true 'Truth is stranger than fiction'.

Pranavam or Pranava Naadam means 'OM'. Omkaram when said aloud allows you to use your lungs full capacity of breathing in and out. It is kind of Pranayama or Breathing exercise where we try to modify or clean our system using our breath as a medium.

Many great philosophers professed the whole idea of rituals like fasting - cleanses the system of toxins, wearing gold - gives energy in the body, applying turmeric - clears the house , dishes and body of infections etc.... etc....

But for me Pranavam is the naughtiness of my son and his beautiful way of praying to god every morning before going to school. Every child have their unique naughty way of doing things but we elders insist that they should do it as per our instructions. Praying should be fun for them where they learn our culture. As they continue to learn they realize the importance and significance attached to it.

I read a line from a discourse given by Adi Shankaracharya when i had recently been to shringeri. It said ,'Whatever we do, we do it because others expect us to', But do we know why are we doing it?, If only we knew the answer and half the world would be more relaxed and peaceful'.

Size Zero - Myth or Real

There was a girl in my Class. When she joined the batch she was a breath of fresh air. Full of smile, cheerful and with beautiful eyes. She was the epitome of energy and enthu. 2 months down the lane, she didn't come for a week.After a week when she entered the class everyone had a shock looking at her. Dark circles under the eyes, cheerful look turned into a skeleton looking dull face with bones sticking out and no smile. I couldn't hold myself and went and asked her.

Her answer shocked everyone in the class,'My boyfriend wants me to reduce weight'. He wants me to look like Kareena,'Size Zero'. What nonsense? How much of hardwork would have gone into making a kareena of size zero. But everyone thinks it can be obtained in a day. Myth or real but doesn't an average girl sans make up or artificiality look much better than the hot heroine with all the make-up. If a girl puts on little weight, immediate questions start coming on, what happened you seem to have put on weight? After childbirth its common girls put on weight but then again our neighbors and so called well wishers, 'when are you planning to reduce?' you look very fat. Who are these people to comment. What about all those beautiful flawless complexion and faces with beautiful features. Does that even count?

All the knowledge which these people are blessed with is not even taken into consideration. Kareena is not even a graduate. Do we allow our girls to stop education after high school and allow them to wear a bikini and roam? No way even that thought sends shivers down the spine. Then why these double standards... Grow up People. Learn to live and let live.

Lets break from this hipocracy and start accepting people the way they are and love them unconditionally.

why is it that our performance is measured for whole life..

Right from the time a child is born her performance is judged by everyone, are all the organs functioning properly, is the child able to crawl, walk, run, talk, develop teeth and do all the things at the stipulated age as any other child. Real value of the performance comes from the performance of the child in this scenario. A child’s intelligence quotient is tested especially at the time of getting admission into a school. If observed, all of the above scenario’s conclude that performance review is a continuous process. All through the school child is tested either orally or through written examinations and then comes your university studies. After all the studies it is the profession that tests. To enter into a profession, to set up your identity in a organization and then of course the continuous process of monitoring once started with the work. A man’s whole life his performance is tested, reviewed and advices are given, suggestions are recommended to improve it. But every individual is unique and cannot be compared to anyone.

Good Novel- I loved reading Vendor of Sweets - Crazily teaches about management

They were the good olden times of Sundays in India way back in 80’s when national channel was some kind of a luxury for a regular middle class household. Some very interesting programmes were being aired in those days and one of them being Malgudi days. It was a series of short stories written by one of the best writers India has ever had - R.K.Narayan. He had written some very interesting novels based on everyday facets of life. What do people go through, their joys and their little sorrows used to be a major part of his characterization in novels.

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Hey Wait! Why Am I writing all this stuff? May be because my observation during all these years of watching Malgudi Days and reading the author’s different works made me realize that he had a unique way of teaching us what is management all about. He wasn’t from any B-School and neither was a management Grad but taught us about different aspects of management. All the stories somewhere point out the meticulous ways of living or the lifestyle of different people and their unique sense of management from all walks of life. Let’s take one such story from the book – The Vendor of Sweets by R.K.Narayan.

The story deals with only 4/5 characters – Jagan, the sweet shop owner, Mali – His Son, Cousin – No Name but who visited the shop everyday and was a cousin of everyone in the village, Grace – His son’s Half-American, Half-Korean girlfriend, Sivaraman – His Head Cook. Jagan had unique style of managing his sweets business. He and Sivaraman would discuss the quantity to be purchased, maintenance of basic raw materials like butter, dry fruits or any kind of flour etc. His every day would go in meticulous calculation of requirements in the store, maintenance of food products, registering the cash earned and also depositing the cash. As the story progresses it is observed that once the son arrives from US, he starts pestering Jagan for investing in story writing machine. Now due to the tensions in the house he looses his concentration in business and starts taking hasty decisions which cost him a bit. During the end of the story jagan finally leaves the business to his cousin to manage and wanders off to an ashram.

Jagan’s Performance at least in most part of the story is consistent. It suddenly gets diverted and he loses it once for all. Looks quite familiar

Right? As a HR when I worked in different companies and encountered similar situations it is noticeable that performance is not always consistent even in the best of employees. Everyone has a good day and a bad one. When discussions happen during performance review bad days are taken a lot into consideration. Does that mean that all those good days of performance were not counted at all? No precisely the point. Let’s again go back to our previous story of Jagan and his employee Sivaraman. Sivaraman would plan the quantities as per the estimated sale, now sale details are given to him by Jagan who in turn has to plan the budget for the raw materials and also labor charges. Head Cook in turn has to plan the number of sweets, their variety, and their quantity as per the budget allocated by Jagan. Everything is interlinked.