Teaching Experience in Kanpur

My trip to Kanpur was an awesome experience as it was my love for food and travel combined together! I was offered a 4 days workshop at the GD Goenka school, which was primarily for the mothers of the kids attending summer camp there and of course the teachers, who were present in the school at that time.

I arrived in Kanpur, in the early evening hours and my parents arrived a little before dinner time, to look after Vedika (my daughter) when I would have gone for my sessions in school.

I had an agenda for 4 days of the workshop, which we did not follow keeping the demands of the students in mind. However, the dishes that were taught were simple, less time consuming and could be made by ingredients that were easily available. I could sense the curiosity and eagerness to learn in each one of the parents sitting there to learn more about healthy food for kids. At this time I realised that I am not the only one struggling to feed my daughter. All kids avoid food. 

On Day 1, being the first day, all of us struggled with collating the ingredients, utensils and setting up the kitchen in a classroom. The efforts were successful and we made a Hawaiian Sandwich, Fruit Punch and Oats Kathi Roll. Everybody was really impressed with the way Oats were used, instead of the regular Oats and milk, upama and poha. This evening, we all went out to have chaat, which was not that great but filling enough for us to skip dinner.

Day 2, the audience was more comfortable and much more participative. On this day, we made Sprouty Peanut Tomato Rice, Tikka Parantha Sandwich and Broccoli and Apple salad, which again was enjoyed by each one present there. On this evening the Chairman of the school was kind enough to request one of his friends to show us around the city. He picked us up from the hotel and being a native, he took us to all the non tourist streets of the city. We started our evening with some shopping of artificial leather bags and chikan kurtas at the New Market in Kanpur. Followed by the famous 'Ramswaroop Chaat' at Birhana road, which is surely not to be missed. I do not remember having a better chaat than this one ever. People there also told us that this chaat guy was invited by Ambani for one of his house functions in Mumbai. After this we picked up the famous 'Thaggu Ke Laddu' and had it's 'Badnam Kulfi'. Honestly, I did not like either of it much. We ended our city tour with a visit to the 'Cawnpore Club', which was huge with several dining places, disco, bar, gaming, gym, swimimg pool, play area for kids, coffee shop, huge lawns and majorly all sports. After the club, we were dropped at a friend's place for dinner and then back to the hotel.

Day 3- Healthy Paneer Burger, Nutri Nugget Kebab and The Rose Kulfi was the menu. I had to wind up my session early on this day as the other trainer had to leave on this day and her session was immediately after mine. This evening, we had nothing much planned as the previous day we had covered most of the things to do in Kanpur, we chose to skip the regular tourist places there and visited the JK temple close to the hotel and a local fair, which was too much fun, picking up liitle things at dearth cheap rate.

Day 4- The farewell day. on this day all the dishes were made on demand, including 2 kind of pastas, salsa, sour cream, cheese corn balls, stir fried greens etc. Since, on this day we had a little more time to ourselves, we ended with a small cooking contest for participants and gave out little goodies. After the session, my parents and my daughter joined the principal, chairman and me for lunch at the school and we were bid farewell with loads of gifts. Not to forget another brilliant sweet that we picked up from Kanpur was 'Banarasi Ke Laddoo', the best boondi laddu, one could have.

Overall, a great experience and awesome food :)

Travelling with an Infant

Motherhood is as you take it, for some it can be rosy while a few others just count days to school. I have an 11 months old daughter and I partially fall in both these categories. Apart from the daily challenges, I must say, both my husband (Moksh) and I have had some great times with our daughter. Both of us are extremely fond of food and travel, so is our daughter. At this age too, she senses the outside food and loves to eat. About travelling, she is always happy to go on a drive at any hour. An important part of our family is our little dog 'Milo', who has been a part of most of our travel.
We have experienced travelling by road, ship and flight with the little one Vedika and are yet to experience the train travel. Here are some handy tips to travel with your little one-

1. If travelling by car, try getting your child to sit in the car seat for sometime if not the whole journey. This is important for you too, to stretch your legs and enjoy the drive. A little tip to make your child sit in the car seat is to keep her busy, with music or conversations. Also, give her a biscuit or a toy in her hand to play with.

2. Clothes- Please please do not overburden the child with fancy clothing. The diaper is enough to make the child feel hot. Make her wear clothes, where her body movement is not hindered. A body suit is recommended and if it is winters team it up with Pyjamas and socks. Keep changing the diaper too.

3. Baby essentials- Always remember 'You will have a successful trip, only if your child is comfortable'. Each child's requirements are different, cater to them first. Carry medicines, snacks and little toys to keep her busy.

4. Baby Gear- A pram and a carrier comes really handy. It is difficult to pick the kids up and roam everywhere. A pram lets your baby sleep anywhere, anytime. If you as a couple, want your own time, give the baby her time as well. Also, the airlines allow you to take the stroller till the aircraft, which makes it very convenient. The best part is that, it is not counted as a part of your baggage but carrying it is free of cost :)

5. Choice of destination- Do not choose destinations that are very high on activity. Cover the laid back ones till they turn 5, so that both you and the child have time to relax and do not have to run around. Children are most cranky, when they are sleepy. Make sure they get enough rest.

6. Respect their schedule- I agree its difficult to follow the child's schedule when you are out. Try planning your day as much as possible according to her timings to avoid discomfort to everybody.

7. Travel Light- Most difficult part, but carry bare minimum stuff as its you, who has to pack, roam around with and then unpack. Restrict the number of bags to one or two. Chances of leaving things here and there are very high with the little one.

8. Some items not to be missed- A liquid soap for washing bottles. Even if you do not sterilise them for a few days, its completely Ok. Boil the water in the electric kettle and wash them with it after washing with the soap. A liquid detergent for clothes, do pack the dirty clothes but sometimes the clothes are really dirty to pack. Wash and dry them before putting them back in your suit case. Odomos or any mosquito repellent, for a peaceful sleep and a comfortable evening stroll. An electric kettle, if you are driving down and have no constraint for baggage.

9. Camera- Believe me the best family photos are captured when you are travelling. If you want the best photos of your baby and the family, do not forget to pick up the camera bag.

10. Advance bookings- Very important to have a well planned trip. Make all bookings in advance and check out the hotel websites and amenities before you land there. I have once had a horrible experience because I had not checked on the hotels my travel agent had allotted to us. When you have a child, you need decent places to stay. Home stay can also be taken as your child is bound to feel more comfortable there with company.

I hope you find these points helpful. Also, on another note, do not cut costs on your trip.
Memories of holidays stay forever. A good hotel might increase your budget by 20%-30% but can increase your joy by 100%.
Have a happy and a safe trip!

Together

Beautiful times and beautiful people make beautiful memories. Though, there are many memorable moments including our family holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. However, worth mentioning the memorable day is when I had put up a stall at #TheGreatFoodShow. It was a really  memorable day, because my entire family, including my husband and in laws and helped me put up a great show.
Being a mother of a 10 month old, I am always short on time and have my attention devided at all times. However, I must say that a week before we had started to make preparations and my husband took care of the little one single handedly and gave me enough time to prepare for the event.
The day was really special, firstly because all of us were together and secondly, it was a great weather day. Thanks to Housing.com  that I get to share the experience as a family here and just another cooking experience. We had an elaborate menu with the 'Delhi cuisine' theme. The menu included 'Chandni Chowk Ki Tikki', 'Fresh Rose Kulfi' and 'Refreshing Ginger Lemon Iced Tea'. The entire family got together to work on it. My aunt did the frying of the 'tikkis' and my cousins got busy making the iced tea. My husband and I spent time interacting with the visitors and making them taste the Kulfi, while our daughter was being taken care of by my father-in-law.
Along with being a hobby and passion being followed that day, I think it was a great family picnic. Even though it was not a perfect show put up, we all goofed up little but everybody's energy towards a common goal of making the event success was delightful and really heartening. Apart from the immediate family, great support was shown by our distant family and friends by coming over and appreciating the efforts. We missed our little dog, Milo there, who is a very important part of our lives. I wish all places allowed pets.
I always personally feel, that if we want to have success at work, we need to bring up a happy family too successfully. Most important resource is not money and our tangible assets but it is the peace of  mind and unconditional love and support from the near ones. After the birth of my daughter and her increasing dependence on me, I used to keep wondering, if I will ever be able to work again. However, looking at the family support, it gave me the strength and confidence to start work again and follow my passion of cooking.
Optimism is I guess the first step to a successful career and I am glad that I have already taken the first step. I would like to conclude by saying that we need to create a balance in our work and personal lives. None of the two is more important, rather both of them are equally important and interdependent. 

Start A New Life- Meet The New Housing

I believe in starting a new life everyday. However, I started my new life by moving out of my marriage and getting married to the person I was meant to be with. Apart from absolutely no interaction with my ex husband, I had no complaints with the marriage. I had a great house, two dogs and was running a bakery very successfully. One day I discovered that the man I was living with was at the last stage of a mental disorder called schizophrenia. Even though I did not give up on the marriage at once, after a lot of attempt to make him alright I quit the marriage, on being convinced that the disease was incurable.
Going back to our story, it is as colourful and inspirational as 'Meet the New Housing' and the brilliance further demonstrated through this video.



Moksh and I were supposed to get married in 2009, when he came to Delhi and refused to get married to me. No reasons asked and no reasons giving. It was not the marriage that pinched me but cancelling my admission in a foreign university and most of the marriage shopping already done, pinched me the most. That is when I got married to another man and got separate for obvious reasons.  Meanwhile, Moksh too got married to someone else and got separated as his marriage too did not work.
After I returned to my parents house, I was given full support emotionally and even monetarily. My comfort was taken care of well by them even though I can imagine how shattered they must be on this misadventure in life. This is when I decided to #StartANewLife. I joined an NGO and started working there. At this time, while I was already struggling with my emotions, the upset life and the court dates, I encountered a terrible boss too. I still managed to survive in the job for 3 months and quit the job too after being extremely fed up of it. The very next day Moksh came to our house, while travelling to Dehradun for his court hearings. At this time, my father came up with the idea of me setting up his office in Delhi. Very reluctantly I cam with my brother to Mumbai to understand his work and starting afresh in Delhi. During this course of time, he floated the idea of being together again. It did not come as a shock but as a surprise and the doubt of something being fishy, that why now? No decision was taken at this time, but after his several visits to Delhi and after our divorces came through we decided to ties the knot and start a new life.
Now we are together, with a lovely daughter and working towards owning our house. Hopefully through The New Housing

Look Up Stories- Housing and optimism

'Be optimistic' is what everybody has been telling us since childhood. Day in and day out, we live in hope of certain things changing, happening and somethings we adjust with. The most important of all is to have an optimistic outlook. 

Owning a house brings in the optimism, the reason being once we own the house, we are sorted on the major possesion and necessity in life. After owning the house we can concentrate on the other things in our life like family, work, friends and of course our hobbies. However, it may sound simple, but owning a house is not a days work, it might take years together. The New Housing.com promises to take care of the real estate and we do not have to wait for the next 10 years to fulfil our dreams. 

Remember the master card advertisement? "There are somethings money can't buy, but for everything else there is master card". I had seen this ad as a child but till today it has an impact.

Let us concentrate and make time for things that need our personal touch and not just the money. Our jobs define our job responsibility but we need to define our responsibilities towards our family ourselves.

We surely do not wish to gift only toys to our children while they grow up. We need to gift them a secure future. Owning a house is bound to bring a smile to your family's face today and after many years.

My story of optimism is the birth of my daughter. The day she was born, I made a promise to myself that my child will never have to worry about the basic necessities in life but concentrate on her studies and build a healthy life and relations for herself. Both me and my husband, have started working towards it. We buy gold coins and have even started saving for a house. Being optimistic is not just a term to be followed, working on the future automatically brings the feeling of optimism in our hearts. 

The way she responds to our conversations and the way she is growing by learning several things herself and showing signs of being independent brings joy to us. Gone are the days, when daughters were only supposed to be taught house work, given basic education and got her married. Today even the girls wish to own a house, be independent and at par with the men in the society.

I would urge everybody, to take up the initiative of owning a house seriously and bring a smile to your family's face. The feeling of being secure is the best gift we can give to anybody. Our family definitely deserves that gift. 

An evening to remember at #VikhroliCucina

Let me start by saying that #VikhroliCucina has been one of the best evenings spent over food, wine,conversations, celebrities and many other interesting people. Also, a big 'Thank You' to Sujit Patil, Director Communications, Godrej for inviting us at the event.

For the last two years, I have been making unsuccessful attempts to visit the Friday Fundas at Godrej and so was even more thrilled to visit this event.

I assume, children are usually not a part of the events at Godrej and I was a little apprehensive to attend the event with our 9 month old daughter Vedika. But the entire team welcomed us warmly and Vedika too greeted everybody with her ever beautiful smile. 

The very well planned event kicked off with a food game, where chef Vicky Ratnani picked up chits with the bloggers names and called out 5 of them to guess the names of the food ingredients while being blindfolded. Surely, one needed really puissant senses and a thorough knowledge of food. Guess what whose name was it first? It was my husband Moksh Juneja   who is a big foodie but limits his cooking to eggs and cocktails. We cannot expect a guy to guess the name of a leaf by touching and a powder by its smell, so I think he was quite a sport to participate in the game.

This was followed by various other activities like the cooking competition, vegetable cutting for bloggers and other guessing games. Godrej's wide range of household products were displayed for the guests to experience. Apart from the team at Godrej, we met the celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor along with his wife, Chef Michael Swamy and chef Harpal Singh Sokhi. All the chefs mingled around with guests and the bloggers and everybody was enjoying the special moments with them.

The Yummy console was a hit with all the guests, where they took their selfies and uploaded on twitter. Here is my #Yumfie

Coming to my best favourite part, the food was great. Did not take pictures in the pure excitement of tasting of over 20 kind of cheese and mouth watering starters. Being a vegetarian, did not taste all the dishes but the ones I did, were scrumptious. The well crafted desserts included crepes and Tiramisu, which were equally delectable.

Here are a few more pictures of the event and I wish the Godrej team Best of Luck and many more successful events like the #VikhroliCucina

Last but not the least the goodie bag

A Healthy child makes a happy home

Now that I am a mother of 6 month old, I realise how important the health is not only of your elderly family members but also the children. Children being most prone to infections, while going to school, playing in the garden and also surrounded by many other children require special care.
We surely do not want to take risk with our kids health, while they are growing physically and their minds are being developed to face the challenges of the world. As parents we make it a point to give the best care, best food and the best of everything to our children, so why not take some precautionary measure to prevent the sickness and preserve great health. Example, if a spoonful of Dabur Chyawanprash  can protect the children from illness, it is our responsibility as parents to inculcate the habit and feed them with it everyday.
Along with healthy eating habits it is also important to give them a sense of freedom and try making them as much independent as possible. A few practices, I follow with my child are listed below-
1. She loves to swim and I have been taking her for a swim since the age of 5 months
2. She loves to play with our cute little dog, neither I nor my husband stops her from playing with her little friend
3. She loves to taste, what we eat. Being complete foodies we make her taste each and everything that we eat, be it spicy or sweet
4. Going through the teething stage, she loves to put everything she gets hold off, in her mouth

I understand how difficult it is to say 'No' to children and how more difficult it gets as the children grow up. We need to also discipline our children and are required to tell them what is right and what is wrong. At the same time also giving them an opportunity to explore. With Dabur Chawanprash we can at least be assured of the kids well being and giving them the freedom of let them eat and play the way they like. Hence, reducing the number of 'No's' to be told to them.

Here is a recipe for all the mothers for their lovely kids-

Honey Rice Crispies

Ingredients-
3/4 cup puffed rice
1 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar, 1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter, 2 tbsp raisins (kishmish)
1 packet of gems

Method
1. Grease a plate with oil or put butter paper
2. Combine sugar, honey and peanut butter. Mix well
3. Add puffed rice and raisins
4. Using your hands, shape mixture into 1" flat balls
5. Place a gem on top and refrigerate for 1 hour or till it becomes firm
6. Serve immediately or place in a tightly covered container