Staying fit is fun,yum and no tum.

Anytime and everytime I tell my folks back home I had bittergourd salad and grilled tomatoes with my phulkas for my lunch they feel sad for me and the expression goes like why are you torturing yourself.....we dont think you need to lose more weight,you are perfectly fine ......but what I fail to convince them everytime is that I am not torturing myself,I enjoy making each and every meal of mine and I relish each low cal dish that I toss up for myself, plus eating right and staying fit is not always to do about weight loss, it is all about feeling good and not taking self for a ride on the contrary it is about taking very good care of self .Eating good doesnt necessarily mean it only has to be the sinfully overcooked and oiled up curries and rice,parathas, served with liberal doses of ghee....I seem to disagree ....and believe me one has to try bittergourd salad with smoked ham(very oriental).
The earthy flavours of roasted or baked veggies is of course quite appetizing …nothing can be more soothing to the gastro route than salads….salads can be as interesting as the colours and hues of an artist…..one can be as creative as possible with trying out salads.nutty and crunchy salads are just too convincing about their looks as they are of the taste and calories.Salads are not just the circular slices of cucumbers ,tomatoes n onion rings anymore. The evolution has gone too far. One can toss up ones salad as what and how the mood would demand…feeling low, mood enhancing salad would do the magic, in a naughty mood the nutty green salad is the answer….the cheesy green salads would be perfect for people in love…
Eating good and healthy is important and it is to be remembered that its important to live healthy, so some knowledge about healthy cooking and changes in diet gets very essential. One can have better, healthier, lighter n tastier meals that will not have one either starving or craving for unhealthy foods one has been trying so hard to give up. Healthy cooking does not mean eating only bland vegetables. One excellent healthy cooking technique is sauteing the vegetables. Usage of tiny quantities of chicken or vegetable broth as a substitute for oil, along with a few herbs adds to the taste. This healthy cooking technique gives vegetables a new, zesty flavor. Another alternative is using roasted vegetables. Roasted veggies served with a dash of chilly olive oil and chopped chives would surely give the taste buds a jingle.
Our age-old Indian cooking technique of using a yogurt marinade is wonderful for chicken and lamb. The marinade if left on for eight hours or even overnight and there comes up a wonderful flavor. The acid in the yogurt tenderizes the meat. Healthy cooking does not mean having to do without the dessert. Fruits are always a welcome addition to healthy cooking. Wonderful as a side dish, mixed berries with a topping of fat free vanilla yogurt will make your taste buds happy, while keeping you healthy as well. Another good option, sauted bananas, is an unbelievably sweet treat will make you wonder if you are still on a diet. A dash of honey on a chunk of paneer comes as a good balm for people having a terrible sweet tooth.
So staying fit and healthy involves eating healthy and good but along with healthy food one needs to sweat a bit also. And of course sweating being very important to keep the endorphin flowing so one can enroll self to any of the gym in the neighbourhood(as they seem to be mushrooming like theres no tommorrow).religious visits to the gym has been more than profitable. markets are flooded with the gym wears and accesories. More than one reason why one should feel all the more glamourous in the gym and reasons to hit the gym if one is still thinking. the chitchat happening there surely would keep one abreast of the gossips. The gym is also a place to discuss all our health issues. Sometimes one can overhear the family problems, maid issues and local gossips along with a chat on latest movies. Loosing weight(if required), feeling fit, nice and good and letting go of the gloominess comes as a wonderful package. It is interesting to know that for some the gym is a meeting ground . Did somebody say fitness and romance go together? Also gym is a place to throw up comments, both positive and negative. Sometimes I receive encouraging comments on my figure and that suffices for the thousands of rupees I pay to the gym owner and sometimes comments disappoint me making me feel like quitting. Mirrors ,mirrors on the walls whos the fittest of the all.I wonder why the walls of the gym are fitted with mirrors. whatever reasons can be listed for the mirrors , one thing for sure is, its nice admiring ones own figure.
Joining a gym is of course not the only way to sweat it out. can be any kind of exercising ones limbs. Most essential in trying anything is making things interesting. In order to make exercising fun one should try to find the types of exercises that one enjoys.The most easy and convenient being walking. Most people have some favorite sport that they like, some like tennis, some prefer swimming, one can swim as often as possible. if one picks up the favourite sport, theres no trouble in self motivation because this should be something that one would look forward to doing every time. So its understood that exercising is critical to staying fit. However, exercising by itself is not enough. And it wasn't that I got distracted from the main topic,with which I had started, cooking healthy food and eating right and enjoying eating healthy is still on mind . Excercising and eating right are like the two sides of a coin. So one must watch what one eats. Fast foods, fats, and simple carbohydrates such as sugar and white flour should be avoided, Instead, fruits and vegetables, lean meats and whole grains should be eaten. , And something not to be forgotten is that the fad diets should be a big no no.
There is no question about the benefits of being fit. Fitness improves ones health, gives more energy, enhances the appearance, and builds self-confidence. And to stay fit one needs to eat right and indulge in some exercising of ones limbs also.The moral of the story being making of healthy food can be so creative and innovative hence so much fun in making it,plus exercising, when made interesting, makes one sweat little more,the end result being fun, yum and no tum.
So why aren’t more people fit? Why aren’t my people inspired by healthy life styles. Anyways for all those who still have to realize such myths and truths its never too late.

Maid in India.

She stood in the doorway leaning against the side a hand cocked on her hip. She would flung herself at her work with such velocity that it becomes necessary to put the glassware away, lest the crystals would inevitably crunch somewhere in the pile. Cant even ask her to be careful with my very precious crystals lest she might start off with her cv, in the sense, where all she has worked till date and that everywhere she has handled glassware with ease so I shouldn't have my lungs in my mouth even if she would be juggling with my favourite pieces.
I thought how different are we. I used to fancy her earthy language , rural aphorisms utterly unlike the prattle of the so called civilized chattering classes and we presume that we are so different….I am talking about my domestic help,without whom I am sure life would be different ,good or bad, cant say.
So typically a wife she is ,waits for her man to call up, something like a JLT (just like that)call which for sure we all wait for.when you dont get it your fingers itch and you give a call or maybe a missed call.
She was making real round and fluffy chapatis and I was trying hard to decide what veggies to be cooked to pair up with the chapattis ,there her phone sings, she mindlessly presses on the phone not bothering that her floury fingers would make her set little fair but not lovely. Sad to say her excitement was so short lived .I could just guess it right I smiled to myself and asked her ,what happened ,did he ask you WHAT IS IT,a gruff was it,she was embarrassed and just gave an affirmatve nod.
That happens ,those small sweet little snubs ,.i told her , all our husbands(generally) are like that.She felt nice,Saab bhi,she said. I was in some mood to talk,I asked her what does she think otherwise ….they I believe fancy that the other side is quite a colourful romantic thing …..something like what one sees in bollywood flings.I couldnt but smile.sahab roz aapke liye phool laata hai kya, aapke ghar mein hamesha phool hote hain,he makes the morning tea too,she asked me with that queer innocence on her face. I didn't disclose that, I actually buy the flowers.
My husband tries to do weird thngs these days,she said.whats it,I asked, thinkng and fearing he is seeing some other woman.He helps our girls dress up for school and plays with them,asks me if I need help also. Yesterday he didn't allow my girls to play in the mud and wants them to be always dressed up clean and prim,she sounded so exasperated as she talked.I appreciated and understood that her husbands going through some kind of a process of sanskritisation and trying to spend some time,like we say quality time, with the kids.My kanta bai couldnt stop complaining,and i had no heart to disrupt her litany of complaints as it kept flowing. He takes his dose of alcohol(once a while as she says)in a special cut glass that's specially high raised in the room,she said.The girls and I are not allowed to use it,it was getting difficult to supress my laugh hearing to her,but I wouldnt dare do that,her displeasure would be the last thing I could ask for. I acted so very patient and empathetic,as always(and i also knew she would leave in a hurry after this,leaving half of my work unfinished),but her tales and dramas of tragedy, misery, honesty gifts me a peek into her life and ways,and i can barter some time and labour for that .He calls me fat and wants me to go for morning walks,where do I have time madam, for walks and all.Mera aadmi toh paagal ho gaya hai,Sahab aapko kabhie moti nahin bolte honge,she had a typical pout as she told this. Thats actually nice, I thought, but she thinking that we never fight and disagree on anything,how true was that.I better not reveal.
As the chappatis got done she started her regular n religious crib as to why I simply never allow her to entertain my chappatis with her liberal doses of makhan. How can I manage eating dry chapatis and just one or two,really worries her,she has to spend some time giving her sermons everyday.The curries you make looks like its made for sick people, how can the curry taste good without lots of oil and masalas,on and on she would go on. She complains she has never got the job satisfation of her cooking at my place.Madam, you people eat so less still many of you are so very healthy but we eat so much still we don't gain much. Its just that this man in my house thinks I am fat and tells me not to eat so much for which I tell him I earn my bread so I can,she yapped confidently,financial independence really empowers a woman I thought.
Its like an unsolved puzzle game that she wanted to fix up,but i never helped her out much.I guess if its helping her out and enhancing her life styles and thought processes and reigns her from yelling at the top of her voice to her kids(she thinks i never shout at my child),then nothing like it.But true within some years I will surely miss her innocent and earthy flavours.

Whats about onions.

With few exceptions onion has become an essential part of cooking in almost every culture across the globe.Members of the onion family have been cultivated ever since people started to form communities and grow their own food.There is no country where this indispensable vegetable in one form or the other is not grown.

Onions belong to the allium family,which contains more than 300 species. The pungent onion smell is caused by the presence of allicins ,chemicals that include volatile sulphur compounds,which are released by the action of enzymes when any part of the plant is cut or bruised.It is these compounds that make the eyes water when an allium is chopped and which gives onion that are used for cooking their characteristic flavour and bite.Its believed that researchers in New Zealand are working on a tear-less onion.

From the earliest records it appears that onions have always been regarded as important foodstuffs and imbued with religious and symbolic meanings.Onions can be found in important tombs and paintings.The relationship of the onion family to people throughout history is marked by contradictory attitudes.While they are revered and praised and popular in dishes around the world they are also frowned upon and rejected by many cultures and social groups.In ancient India only the lowly castes ate onions,the honourable castes stayed away from it.Despite the beliefs that the devil in onions present in their fiery bite and effect on the palate would incite men to lust and carnal desires,people fell prey to the temptation and everyone irrespective of castes fell for this wonderful thing,onion. And fighting the long religious and social taboos the onions have successfully established a niche in the gastro world.The growing love affair that the world had with Indian curries especially after World War11,did escalate the demand for onions.

However onions and their relations are often taken for granted and tend to be used simply as the basis for whatever savory dish we are preparing.One should celebrate the onion family not just as kitchen staples,but as star attractions in their own right.

While for most onions are just accompaniments and basic ingredient for curries we lose out on the availability of onions in different varieties ,colours, and sizes .Some are better suited to roasting, others to frying some are delicious when cooked while others are better for chopping slicing and eating raw.There are yellow onions, red onions, white onions, cipolla onions, shallots ,grelots, pickling onions,potato onions etc..There are many ways of cooking onions all of which will produce very different results both in the flavor of the onion and in the dish in which it is used.frying onions can be quick frying or slow frying,sweating ,caramelizing,paste cooking,roasting,pickling.Doubt if any of us gave a thought to how versatile our onion can be.

Other than they being kitchen mates,there goes some useful old wives tales too...
It soothes a dry and painful cough ,a spoonful of honey mixed wth a little crushed onion.
It was once recommended that a roasted onion be applied to the affected ear for earaches.
Believed to cure baldness, rub the sap of a cut onion mixed with honey on the bald patch until the skin reddens.
A cut onion is said to attract all infection from the air into it and will kill airborne infection.
..............Whether one loves the melting sweet taste of slow-cooked onions or whether one deteste the piquant flavor it,onions have come a long way.....so cheers.....

                    P.S.I LoveYou.

Thought I would dash off a line ,

but it is difficult ,when your thoughts you cant define ...

the heart and the mind churn up a heady mix,

at times the feelings and thoughts put you in a fix.

There is so mch to tell and so mch to do...

dont know how the moments with you just flew...

to use your words ,you are more than dear

you are so far n yet I feel you are always near...

it sets my pulse racing and gives me a glow

emotions like a cascading river does flow

I feel alive and full of life

and then I question this terrible strife

I seek your presence ...you are there and yet not so...

I cant explain it but a glorious feeling within me does grow

I just miss u so terribly so

to again borrow your wrds,"jst go wth the flow".

just wnted yu to knw

you are the bestest

you know what.... I Love You...