Nine (t)1(mes) nine is a (w)eighty one

Let’s talk food. Listen to this blog post on my podcast “Questy Musings” on Google, Spotify, Beaker and Overcast. The anchor link is embedded here.

“Les Français font trois repas par jour. Les enfant prennent souvent un goûter après l’ecole.” This is what a french book says. The french take three meals a day. Children often take a snack after school.

https://anchor.fm/srishti-rajeev-menda3/embed/episodes/Lets-talk-Food-eh7mek

Here in my part of the universe we have 3 meals, 2 snacks/fruit/salad breaks, 3 tea/coffee breaks and 1 anytime snack.

This is us. And if I miss any of these at the end of the day… I feel incomplete. This is how we are. Food is an integral part of our life. I am saying this on behalf of all the people I know well. If anyone is offended, I switch to I henceforth. ( As If I care)

Food is comfort, food is energy, food is a means of continuing our journey on this planet. The diet-freaks, the sportziastics, the homme d’affaires, the mannequins of France, the Judges of reality shows, the Anchors of Breaking News and  we – bloggers, all love food. I am totally in love with Shilpa Shetty’s Sunday Binge and her rolling eyeballs.

The nine so-called food/drink (pun intended) breaks are a reason to break the mundane routine.

The first is the honey-lemon water for the ones interested, plain warm water for others and for the rest is hot chai or coffee.

Break-fast that begins the day with healthy oats, aloo ka paratha, upma, idly-sambar (my favourite), boiled eggs and Juice. Then the snack between break-fast and lunch, mostly pre-lunch in the form of salad to offer solace at 11:45 as lunch is only after 12:30 (work-place rules/school time-table). Before that is the tea-break anytime between 10:15 and 11:15. This tea is magical, the moment to enjoy the day if breakfast wasn’t super kinds.

Moving on to Lunch, cold lunch for the office-goers, unless you have Dabbawallas or Milton, businesswomen/men and corporate women/ men come home or plan a working lunch (ha..ha..) to work and EAT, of course they can multi-task. The rest have a meal with pickle, papad and meetha to add flavour.

Then is the evening chai again (another favourite of mine), thinking of it, I can sense it in the air, the hot vapour and the crunchy smell of chai patti (tea leaves), another motivator to extend the day and continue working. Biscuits are a no-no for me, others can have masala biscutis, murku, nippet, ghatia, mixture, pakora or anthing that is salty and masaledar.

Later a snack before dinner that handles the temptation from chips or a bar of chocolate. and then the Final Dinner that culminates the days cravings. I say “sorry Akshay Kumar” when I eat dinner post 8:00 p.m but promise to  walk a kilometre extra the next morning.

Questy Musings is a musing with a question. Which is your favourite meal time? I believe we need to eat/drink/snack regularly each day and also at the same time. What do you think? 

Anytime Snack is a personal choice, “je vous laisse.” I leave it to you to have your kinda snack at your time.

 

 

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Post Eight Years

Its been eight years that I started teaching (in a big way), and the satisfaction is immense. My website’s name itself is “apprendre24” that translates into learn/teach 24 hours a day. Some people find it uninteresting to learn as “Learning happens only in school” and nobody wants to be “taught”. But I stick to my guns and go ahead saying each moment is a learning experience. It is only a matter of understanding.

Anyway today’s learning is about teenagers. The teenager in the house is always docile until it has something to with making him (no gender discrimination, here it is a he) move himself from his cozy corner, be it in front of the computer or on the corner of the bed. The second time he reacts (unpredictably) is when a family member (me, of course) asks him to set the dinner table. Otherwise he is the most calm, fun-loving and enthusiastic person at home.

I realised they have to be instructed only once about a certain subject and then never to even breathe about it any time until completion of the task (a watsapp message in case of deadline tasks). The task will be completed. Converstations must be a listening activity (like in a foreign language class) with a few hmm…’s and okays. Suggestions must be without any expression or gestures. And there you are with a best friend for life.

The teenagers have only seven years at their disposal for the coveted title, and let us enjoy these years along with them asking them to do all that we don’t want them to do which they surely will. Latest example : I just told my teenager son to turn off the songs playing on his mobile that were invading my thoughts while typing this blog and voilà… there he is with the fancy earphones doing exactly what he was asked not to do. All’s well that ends well. Until next time. Au revoir

Smile the years away

 

Seven colours of you

We often talk of the seven colours of the rainbow, primary colours and secondary colours.  A rainbow has always fascinated me a a child (apart from being the most colourful picture in the science text book). I always wanted to see a rainbow and would stand in the balcony immediately after the rain (irrespective whether it was sunny or not). This nature’s glory is always on my mind when it rains during the day. Soon I started associating a Rainbow to life. When it rains it dark and cloudy, the sun comes out as a relief and so does the rainbow with its seven colours. Nature has its way of communicating, one must comprehend.

Wikipedia defines it :

“A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multi-coloured circular arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun.”

A rainbow is beautiful and so are you. The beauty of a human being is reflected amidst chaos, after a storm, when things settle you remember that one person who was compassionate and patient throughout. Stand out as a rainbow and win over the situation. In French, réflechir means to think/rethink/mull over a situation. Here too the spectrum of light appearing is caused by reflection.

Seven is a number associated with several thoughts.

1. Stephen Covey, a coveted author writes about the seven habits of highly effective people.
2. The Seven Contrary Virtues which are specific opposites to the Seven Deadly Sins: Humility against pride, Kindness against envy, Abstinence against gluttony, Chastity against lust,Patience against anger, Liberality against greed, and Diligence against sloth.
3. Seven days of the week.
4. The hindu to-be-wed couple takes seven rounds around the sacred fire.

There are many many more references to the number 7, with minimal googling, I conclude that The Rainbow is the prized one colouring our lives and helping us stand up for ourselves.