Destined to be... - A Poetic Mind

I wish we were destined to meet earlier,
Our lives would have been more merrier.
I would have been in your arms,
Been most important of all your charms.

My feelings were dead and life was plain,
You swung in by and rose them again,
Laying my head on your chest,
You caressed it with all your best.

If we met not like we were destined to be,
Together we could be for years to see,
Similar likes and similar habits,
Compatibility would have been our chit.

Together we could live our passion,

With our own life of creation.

All crumbles of the day,

At nights, on bed they would lay.

Biting your ears gently,

Rolling my tongue on your shoulders,

Down goes my fingers slipping off,

When you rescue them with your Palm.

Holding hands tight, tucked behind on wall,
You look at my eyes, with desires they call.
Pressing with power, you don't let me move,
I wish for more, wildness for which I drool.

How long it took for me to understand,
The place where I currently stand.
Only thing I can do is long for you,
Hoping to meet someday out of the blue.

HypnoBirthing – A Blessing for Pregnant Women (Parentous)

(This article was originally published by me on Parentous.com)

“Hypnosis” as known to all, has been a controversial treatment and often gives goosebumps when suggested. But a lesser known fact is that hypnosis for pregnant women has worked wonders, if practised correctly. Practising hypnosis during pregnancy is termed as “Hypnobirthing”. Framed in simple words, it is a relaxation technique which helps pregnant women have a painless delivery.

What is HypnoBirthing?

Relaxation, being peaceful & stress-free and a having positive mindset is of utmost importance

When a woman is pregnant, everyone around her offers advice, gives instructions and some of them even scare her about the painful delivery phase. Most of her life, she is made to believe that pregnancy and delivery is very painful. But most of the advice given by people would be based on things they have heard and not experienced. So it’s important for every pregnant woman to get the instructions verified by a certified expert. Also, it’s well-known to all of us that getting scared and stressed during pregnancy is the biggest enemy for women. Relaxation, being peaceful & stress-free and a having positive mindset is of utmost importance. Hypnobirthing helps you exactly with this. It is a technique which if practised correctly and regularly, trains the pregnant woman to experience normal delivery without the pain.

How does HypnoBirthing benefit?
A pregnant woman could easily get stressed out, angry, irritated or emotional. It’s often difficult for her to control her emotions even if she wishes to. But these emotions if over-experienced, could affect the baby and result in unwanted situations. Hence it’s absolutely necessary to keep yourself and your little one calm and peaceful. Practising hypnobirthing regularly could keep your mind fresh and calm. In this technique, a woman learns to hypnotise herself with deep breathing and thinking of the positive things. She lets confidence, peace and positivity inside her and removes stress, anger and uneasiness sheltered within her.

 

You must be wondering if confidence, peace and positivity can really help in birthing. Well, there’s a direct connection. Lack of these positive emotions result in tightening of muscles which in turn interferes with the birth. So, being stress-free helps in releasing stress hormones leading to comfortable birth, lesser chances of Caesarean section, chances of lesser time taken to experience labour and lesser use of pain relief medications. And the most important benefit: as your have been practicing HypnoBirthing throughout most of your pregnancy, your baby will be more peaceful and composed in nature.

Use the right terms!

The whole motive of HypnoBirthing is to maintain a positive environment and a peaceful mind

It is human tendency to associate words with emotions. So a term like ‘Cervix Dilation’ could create panic. HypnoBirthing teaches you to replace it with a milder version like ‘blossoming’, replacing the phrase “Time for Delivery” with “Time to meet your baby” and many more such replacements. The whole motive of HypnoBirthing is to maintain a positive environment and a peaceful mind.

Where can you find it?
HypnoBirthing has not really become popular in India and you might find very few places where you can actually find experts teaching this technique. But you can always opt for videos and practise it regularly during your pregnancy days after consulting your doctor for healthy birthing and peaceful baby.

That Woman You See – Sujata Parashar Book Review

With the emerging gender equality and women empowerment strides, the book That Woman You See by Sujata Parashar is a plus 1 for the efforts put by human rights activists. Sujata, who is herself a human right activist, has rightly portrayed the ideas of a modern woman. The woman likes to express her views in the way she wants to. She doesn’t prefer to hide her feelings.

The collection of 9 short stories, all focus on a single idea, but in different manner. The stories beautifully depicts on how the modern day woman would like to act upon in different situations. A woman who finds that her son is taking the wrong path in his marriage, stands up for her daughter in law’s rights by behaving rationally.

With a pinch of romance and tinges of suspense, all the short stories keep you hooked up till the end of each of them and wanting for more in the next one. Although the climax of most of the stories didn’t entice me. They seemed to be either incomplete or unsettling to be a good climax, probably because I expected more twists in the story. But the unsettling part is something which raised my excitement to read the next one.

All in all, a wonderful book by the author Sujata Parashar, deserves a quick read while having your afternoon bites at your favourite restaurant (like I did 😉

Oats Green Poha Recipe

Well technically this shouldn’t be called a poha because it’s made of oats. But we have to name it with something familiar to those home cooks who want to cook healthy. So here is an all healthy oats green poha made of plain oats, coriander leaves and more.

Oats Green Poha Ingredients
You can easily guess most of its ingredients. But the measurements are most important.

Oats Green Poha Ingrediants

Serves 2-3 people

2 cup roasted Oats

1/2 cup moderately sliced onion

1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste (adhrak lasun)

1/2 cup finely sliced potato

1/4 cup raw/roasted/boiled peanuts (seeng)

1/4 cup green peas (matar/vatana)

1/2 cup ground coriander leaves (dhaniya pattha)

4-5 curry leaves

2 small green chillies

1/2 lemon

1 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai)

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)

Salt to taste

How to make Oats Green Poha

Heat oil in a Kadai.

Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds one after the other.

Add onion and ginger-garlic paste.

Add potato, mix and add water enough to cook the potato slices.

When half cooked, add peanuts if you are using raw. If roasted or boiled it can be added later.

Add green peas and mix.

When the ingredients are cooked, add haldi powder, green chillies, curry leaves, salt. Add the peanuts now if roasted or boiled.

After few seconds of mixing, add coriander leaves paste and mix well.

Yet after another few seconds of mixing add roasted oats, lemon juice and water (if required)

Note: Add less water to make it less mushy.

Mix it well and your Oats Green Poha is ready to eat.

Oats Green Poha Ready!

If you try out this recipe, do let me know in the comments.
Till then, keep cooking, continue eating!

Corpokshetra Review – Deepak Kaul

Book name: Corpokshetra – Mahabharata In The MBA Yug
Author: Deepak Kaul
Publisher: Bloody Good Book

An out of the box thinking, that’s the power of a book author. And Corpokshetra author, Deepak Kaul, has done exactly that.Who would have pictured Duryodhana visiting the Starbucks, or Duryodhana inviting the Pandavas for poker game over the Whatsapp? Kaul has made us do that!
Mahabharata is well depicted in today’s corporate world. Hastinapur Enterprises, Indraprastha Airlines, all entities are well in place. Despite of knowing the popular story, you will be certainly glued to the book till the end. The humour and flow of the story keeps you engaged. The heavy thick books and hundreds of episodes are intelligently concise in this 142 pages Corpokshetra making it a quick read.

The epic has been recreated and inspired many authors and filmmakers. Some of them excelled while some couldn’t pick it up. Deepak Kaul belong to the first category. The light-hearted nature of the book gives the reader the liberty to go beyond imaginations. When Draupadi is pulled out during the dice game (poker), she is more concerned about her hair which took hours to get done. Brothers cursing the iPhone and regret for not buying a Samsung instead! That is so us! In short, the author of Corpokshetra has hit the right node.

Corpokshetra an MBA Yug Review: 5 out of 5

Legend
1: Naaaah!
2: Think twice before you go for it!
3: OK!
4: Great!
5: Out of the World!

Have your reviews & experiences with Corpokshetra? Do share in the comments below.

Vermicelli Vegetable Upma Recipe

We are so fond of Vermicelli Kheer. A simple mixup with milk and sugar makes it a delicious dessert. But instead if you are looking forward for a quick bite with evening tea or coffee, then Vermicelli Upma is an ideal dish to dwell in. Add some vegetables into it and make it a healthier option.

Vermicelli Vegetable Upma Ingredients
Serves 3-4 people

2 cup roasted Vermicelli

1/2 cup moderately sliced onion

1/4 cup moderately sliced tomato

1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste (adhrak lasun)

1/2 cup finely sliced capsicum

1/4 cup green peas (matar/vatana)

1/2 cup ground coriander leaves (dhaniya pattha)

4-5 curry leaves

2 small green chillies

1/2 lemon

1 teaspoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai)

1/2 teaspoon urad dal

1/2 teaspoon chana dal

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder (haldi)

Salt to taste

How to make Vermicelli Vegetable Upma

Boil Water in a deep pan. Put off the flame, add Vermicelli and a pinch of salt. Cover with lid for 5 minutes. Then drain all water and keep aside.

Heat oil in a Kadai.

Add mustard seeds, urad dal and chana dal one after the other.

Add onion and ginger-garlic paste. Saute for a min on high flame

Add capsicum and green peas. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes on medium flame with closed lid. Add few teaspoons of water if required

When the ingredients are almost cooked, add haldi powder, green chillies, curry leaves, salt.

After few seconds, add the Vermicelli and mix well

Put off the flame and add coriander leaves

Mix it well and your Vermicelli Vegetable Upma is ready to eat.
If you try out this recipe, do let me know in the comments.
Till then, keep cooking, continue eating!

California Pizza Kitchen Review – Infiniti 2

Burdened with load of work,
Looking at desktop screen like a jerk,
On a Friday already feeling sickened,
I stepped into California Pizza Kitchen.

Alright, that was a lame one. But that exactly described my Friday morning at work. To turn the day into something better, I stepped into California Pizza Kitchen in Infiniti 2 mall on link road, malad. I knew only a pizza can apply some cheese on my disturbed brain. There goes a lame one again!
CPK is surely a place that a pizza lover shouldn’t miss. This Italian cuisine can be made so creatively and eaten without getting your stomach full within the first few bites here, unlike other pizza restaurants. After going through a long list of pizzas, I landed over Kasturi Paneer Pizza which was quietly hiding in veggies section. Not that the chics have ever betrayed me, but I prefer paneer over any live food. After finalizing the pizza, I went on for some beverage. The red drink couldn’t slip away from my eye balls. And I ordered a cranberry juice with the kasturi paneer pizza.

After a couple of scrolls and thumb clicks on my phone, the glass full of cranberry juice appeared. Not being able to control my sense I pounced over the straw and took small sips. Then I realised I haven’t taken a pic for you readers. Here it goes…

Alright my whole purpose of ordering the beverage was to complement my pizza bites. But the pizza was nowhere seen for the next 15 minutes. I just wished that my pizza arrives before I need to order another glass of red juice. Finally it arrived with a big knife raising one of the pieces. I was like Ohh, now I eat away the plate, knife, pizza whatever has appeared in front of me.

But like the most disciplined child, I quietly lifted the piece of pizza and placed it on my plate. The thin crust pizza with kasturi tossed paneer, tomatoes, bell peppers, coriander leaves and lots of cheese as toppings made me drool at the first glance. Here’s the glance so that you can drool too 🙂

After this moment all I did was bite and sip. Pleasingly, the drink lasted till my last piece of pizza. The courteous men at the California Pizza Kitchen did make sure to ask me how was my meal. Well that made the whole experience better.

Now was the time when I had to let my wallet loose. After an awesome pizza, I wouldn’t mind that though. There came the cheque and 2 feedback forms. But surprisingly no ink! Was I supposed to give the feedback through the fork dipped in my blood? So the feedback never reached them on the paper. But being a blogger, I do not need a paper and pen.

My Rating: 4 out of 5

California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) review

Thumbs up for:
Huge list of choices. I had a hard time in selecting the one.
No compromise on taste. I couldn’t resist licking my finger at the end.
Quick feedback on the table. The gentlemen do not miss out asking about how was your meal.
Few turn downs:
Waiting period quite long for a pizza. If you are in a hurry think of some other place, as this CPK is the place of taste.
Feedbacks are on the tongue but not on paper.
Prices on the higher end, but worth the experience.

Bhima – The Man in the Shadows Book Review – Vikas Singh

Book: Bhima – The Man In The Shadows
Author: Vikas Singh

Passionate, action-filled and humorous.

That’s Bhima by Vikas Singh summed up in three phrases. Beautifully enlightened Bhima’s feelings, this book has covered every aspect of the great warrior’s thoughts. His caring nature towards the love of his life, his feelings towards his brothers, his affection towards his parents are so amazingly penned down that the reader will be left amazed.

As rightly said by the author, Bhima – The Man in the Shadows, He was indeed the one. So why is he addressed as “in the Shadows”? Because in the front were Yudhisthira and Arjuna. If you are aware about Mahabharata, all you know about the second Pandava was that he is a muscled man who can put down anyone with his mere strength. Least did we know about the sensitive side he had. Thanks to Mr Vikas Singh, he enlightened us with it. Some of the lines are truly touching for readers.

“What would have I done if I were in his place.
Maybe I would have just taken Draupadi’s hand and walked away from there forever…”

His care for his lady can be deeply felt with just these lines. He understands every pain that Draupadi goes through but surrounded with bars of limitations he is left helpless. His failure to express his feelings makes him seem a man without emotions. But the author has so beautifully elaborated his emotions that you will feel how it is to live the life of Bhima.

To summarise, this book is a must for you if you haven’t read or watched about Bhima through any other source. Keeping aside the wars and fights, Vikas Singh has raised a thought on whether Bhima has been appropriately understood by the past and present generation.

My rating for this book would be 4 out of 5.

Basic Veggie Toast Recipe with left-over bread

So you bought a huge pack of bread slices. Had 70% of it. Now the rest of the slices are waiting in the refrigerator to become part of your meal. Ohh! Don’t do that to your bread. Don’t make them wait any longer. Here’s a simple recipe for your evening bites.
This is the recipe for toasts made of 3-4 bread slices. Serves 1-2 people.

 

Ingredients for Veggie Toast:

• 1 small sized Onion
• 1 small sized Tomato
• 1 tea spoon Ginger paste
• Half bowl Coriander leaves
• Half teaspoon Vinegar
• 3-4 white or brown Bread slices
• 1 teaspoon Oil
• Tomato ketchup

Veggie Toast Recipe:

• Fry long sliced onions in oil.
• Add finely chopped tomato and ginger paste.
• Fry till onions and tomatoes are cooked.
• Put off the gas and add chopped Coriander leaves & Vinegar and let it cook in the leftover heat.
• Keep the topping mixture aside.
• Let the bread slices enjoy a heated pan till they turn golden and hard.
• Cut the slices diagonally and fill it with your toppings.

Add cheese if desired. But if you worry about those extra flabs, just like me, enjoy them with ketchup on the top.