In love with cooking..Invisible Apron!
04 Feb 2011 11 Comments
Aren’t you obsessed with something? Isn’t there something that’s always going on in your head and keeping you happy no matter how bad your everyday is ? What is it? Let me know, while I brag on about what’s my current obsession. Yes, the title says it. It’s cooking! I’m in love with it. And it’s like there’s always an invisible apron on me. ( and I never wear an apron while cooking btw :p) .
About 2 months back, I hated everyday-cooking. I’ve always loved baking though. Cakes, tea, pastries, snacks, puddings were my first stint with cooking and I absolutely love making them. But, everyday cooking was always on the hate list. Not anymore though.
Cooking is a good way to unwind and relax. ( I still can’t believe I’m saying this. It always gave me furious, violent meltdowns :p) But not any more 
. It’s like, while I’m cooking, I know when the dish is ready, how much seasoning is required, what goes into it, etc, etc. It sounds funny, but it’s like the tea talks to me and tells me when it’s ready. Go ahead, LOL :p. It’s all about the feeling.
This morning I saw the movie Julie and Julia (2nd time) and aaaah! What a lovely movie . That’s why this urge to write this post. Perhaps.
Everyday is a new attempt to try a new dish that I haven’t made before. Everyday is a content feeling when it turns out great. Everyday is not good, when a dish doesn’t turn out the way it was supposed to. That is how I know where I go wrong. Just like my mom says, you’ll never know how to cook a dish, until you actually try it out. 100% TRUE! TRIED and TESTED saying :p. She’s my master brain who knows why a dish turned out super great and why a dish went down the drain hehe.
So, cooking is a joy now. I no more run away from everyday-cooking.
The only problem I have is, I’m a big supporter of the saying- ‘ Too many cooks, spoil the broth’ . I hate it when my spoons are stirred by someone else. It just spoils the fun. Same thinking? If I’m making something, I’ll make it, ALL BY MYSELF! You can eat it, ENTIRELY, and I wouldn’t mind 
. I’m now on the road where it’s all about cooking and not over indulgent eating.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner is now easy-peasy :p New recipes, turn out good. I’ve also learnt that you must never, ever rush to finish a dish. It ruins everything. You either miss out on something, or skip a step or just mess up the process. So never rush.
Enough said, I’m content with what I’m obsessed with, currently. I usually tag my new try outs, ( I compare 3-4 recipes from the web, before I finalize on one) with #firsttimetry on twitter and my lovely twitter buddies always give back their response That’s another reason, why I’m loving cooking.
The reason why, you should be obsessed with what you love, is because it gives you complete joy, contentment in the moment and if you want, your life can be a collage of simple pleasures
Food bloggers all over the world are doing a fantastic job. Thank you guys!
Until next time, signing off to marinate chicken for dinner :p , happy content life!
Understand self and others
30 Dec 2010 6 Comments
in life
Yes we are humans. We’re living a life. Life has certain expectations from us and we live our life pertaining various values, principles, dos and donts, clings and clangs and millions of scattering thoughts! All of the above are hugely, I mean hugeeely affected by and varied for hundreds of other…. People!
Every Life is always in sync with many other lives. At every walk of life, you find yourself altering yourself to sync with that someone! Sometimes it works with certain people and sometimes it doesn’t. Then what do you do? You move on! But sometimes, you’re attached to that certain someone in such a way that you just have to deal with the unsynced relation all your life!
If one gets settled with life in a very early age by developing a personality and deciding what and how they want out of life, they’d live a good life.
It’s never too late.
Understand yourself before you set out to understand someone else!
Life is a big journey. You’ll meet lots of personalities. Get to know them. Get the good from them and incorporate the goodness in your life.
Relations are the toughest to build! But once the relation is strong, it’s bound to stay with you for the rest of your life!
Traditions I love/hate in Indian weddings
08 Nov 2010 13 Comments
Big Fat Indian Weddings: This is what a completely fun, rocking and happy Indian wedding should sound like!
I love attending weddings and love watching shows that take you through grand and unique weddings.
My love for Indian weddings has compelled me to take part in the Wedding Week Blogging Contest by 99labels.
All you have to do is blog about one or more of the following topics:
- My big fat Indian wedding
- What “not to do” while planning a wedding!
- My dream wedding – Simple or lavish?
- Traditions I love/hate in Indian weddings
- My wedding shopping spree!
I’ve decided to blog about
- Traditions I love/hate in Indian weddings
Indian Weddings are full of traditions and every cultural aspect is taken care of. Planning for an Indian wedding is a hectic job and I’ve experienced it three months back when my own big brother got married. Shopping is the main and probably one of the biggest tasks involved in an Indian wedding (only next to finding a perfect match )
I am a Muslim and weddings in Islam are simple, beautiful and lavish as well. Infact all Indian Weddings are rich with their own traditions and that’s why they are so much fun!
TRADITIONS I LOVE THE MOST IN INDIAN WEDDINGS:
Every religion, has its own customs and every religion celebrates weddings with the same happiness and joy!In hindus, i love the tradition of the seven pheras, where in every phera, the bride and groom make solemn promises to make each other’s life beautiful and splendid.
I love the tradition of hiding the groom’s shoes and literally giving them a run for their money.
The tradition of stopping the groom at the entrance is also fun!
In Muslims, simple traditions beautify a wedding . The tradition of taking gifts to the bride is the one I like the most! Its called sanchak and the bride is showered with lots of gifts and blessings.
Sanchak wedding trays from my brother's wedding album
Mehendi ceremony is common to all weddings and the mehendi function is full of fun and its a rejoicing moment for the bride. Mehendi/sanchak Functions are rejoiced with Yellow and green colored clothes and enjoyed with dhol, singing and lots of dance!
Few more things that i love about Indian wedding traditions:
• I love the happiness seen on every relatives face. The joy with which they come to attend the wedding is beautiful
• Good yummy food!! : Food is the soul of every party, and guests will enjoy a wedding only if there’s lip smacking delicacies to savor on! Guests may forget everything about a wedding after few days, but they’ll always remember the taste of the food
• Outfits and traditional costumes: Everybody is dressed up glam and all the outfits make a wedding rich, traditional and glamorous.
• Getting dressed: The reason why I love attending weddings is because I get to get all decked up with pretty dresses and stunning makeup 
• Get together: Weddings are like a big family gathering and it’s great to catch up and have fun with relatives.
• time stretch: Indian weddings are stretched over a number of days and all the functions like mehendi, sangeet make you have full fun and give you a content feeling of a grand celebration.
TRADITIONS I Dislike IN INDIAN WEDDINGS:
Indian wedding traditions have strong reasons behind them and they are fairly justified. I don’t really dislike any traditions because following traditions makes ones culture strong and keeps the culture alive.
Few of my dislikes in Indian weddings:
• Pestering Guests: Guests are treated like God in India, but sometimes uninvited guests or far off relatives really start acting nosy and spoil the wedding fun.
• Guest Accommodation: guests have to be treated as kings at your place/ anywhere they are put up, no matter how busy you are with the wedding. The worst part is the negative remarks you end up getting for no fault of yours.
• Prolonged Photo sessions: yes it is a special day that has to be captured, but photographers who embark on endless photo session journey are very irritating.
• ‘You’re next’ comments: haha!! annoying comments by relatives who start planning your wedding out of nowhere is a blood boiler after you’ve had a good time at the wedding :p
• Disregard for guests: sometimes the hosts do not pay attention and do not care for you at a wedding function. They act snobbish and do not attend you properly and this is a complete turn off. I dislike such behavior at weddings.
• Dowry: how much ever we try to justify that this doesn’t exist, it exists everywhere, but maybe by a different name( read gift)
My Referral Invite: http://www.99labels.com/v1/Become-Member.aspx?re=coolayesha@gmail.com
The rules of the contest are simple. Go ahead take part!
- Become a member of 99labels (If you are not a member already) by clicking on the referral link at the bottom of this post. (You get Rs 100 worth of credit free to shop!) .
- Create a log-in preferably using the email id attached with your blog. This is to protect the anonymity of some bloggers as the referral link (read rule 2) displays your email-id.
- Post your referral link on the post (This means that whoever becomes a member clicking on the link gets Rs 100, and whenever you referral buys an item you get Rs 500). To find your referral link
- Log in on www.99labels.com
- Click on “Invite friends” on the top menu.
- Go to bottom of page and look for “Copy and paste your personal invitation link” and paste the link at the bottom of your post E.g . My Referral invite – http://www.99labels.com/v1/Become-Member.aspx?re=xyz@gmail.com
- Copy and paste all the rules in your post.
- Leave a link to your post in the comments section of the contest page of 99labels http://blog.99labels.com/2010/10/25/wedding-week-blogging-contest/.
- Copy and paste the image at the end of the post and the category under which you have posted.
Crop your cribbing list
21 Oct 2010 14 Comments
I say I don’t like charging my phone.
Who loves charging their phone? I guess nobody! So off goes that crib! Life is full of small things we Iove to crib about! Cribbing and cringing is a damn good way to spoil your mood.
What do you crib about the most? Is every spoilt day of your life dedicated to a new, unique crib?
Make a list of all the cribbing and cringing you do! Reason them out. Strike off all the ones you think that everyone deals with, and those that are worthless to cringe about. Either do this mentally or write it down in a book.
You’ll be relieved of lots of tension because the next time you crib about that particular thing, you might just remember the list and maybe you had cancelled that crib out.
Try it.
I just came up with this idea randomly .
So go ahead, do up your crib list and uncheck and edit your cribs. Maybe there wasn’t much to crib at after all
Until next time, have a beautiful day everyday by filling it with happy thoughts . You are what your thoughts are.
Q&A U&Me
15 Oct 2010 16 Comments
in life Tags: experience, life
I love getting to know people, their story, their experiences and then I try to imbibe all their goodness in my life. So let’s get to know and discover each other
5 questions and 5 answers
Q1) Every morning, what are you grateful for?
Q2) Are you a gyaan taker or a gyaan giver? :p
Q3) What do you most miss about school?
Q4) How did college change you?
Q5) Which one person in your life, do you have the best of the conversations with?
Post your answers as a comment
Until next post, take care of your precious life .
Chicken soup for Indian Teenage soul is inviting stories!!
05 Oct 2010 4 Comments
in blog Tags: stories, writing
The first time I read Chicken soup was back in school and though I’m not an avid reader, I loved the book! Short interesting stories, amusing funny statements, I really loved them all! It’s Almost like you’ve experienced them in your life at some point or the other.
Imagine getting your own written story/poem, published in Chicken soup for the Indian Teenage Soul!! You also get paid for it! I’m not much into writing stories, so I’ve submitted my poems! and I may give a try to writing poems that have a story in it and also a short story article perhaps!
The reason why I’m sharing this post is because I’m helping spread the news for Raksha Bharadia and also, I’ve come across so many people who’ve got wonderful blogs up there and who do an incredible job in writing stories and poems, and its a must that they get to know about this!
So if you’ve got friends,family who are good at it, tell them about it and make them famous !
Read on to know what you’ve got to write about! Good Luck
Inviting stories for Chicken Soup for the Indian Teenage Soul on Love and Friendship
Publishing house: Westland
Please send your stories to:
rakshabharadia@gmail.com
Last dates for accepting submissions: 30th October 2010. I will close as soon as I have selected my 101 stories for the same do do try and send them fast.
The write-ups will carry the contributor’s name. Westland pays Rs 1000 per story and two copies of the book. We carry a 3-4 line profile on all contributing authors. We accept blogged and published work too provided the authors get the reprint permissions. The copyright of the stories stay with the author. We have carried up to five stories per person so multiple entries are welcome. We accept poems too (provided they have a story in them).
One need not be a teen to write, you could write in reminiscence or about a teen you know.
Recipe for a Chicken Soup for the Indian Teenage soul on love and friendship
A Chicken Soup for the Soul® story is an inspirational, true story about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They are personal and often filled with emotion and drama.
Chicken Soup stories have a beginning, middle and an ending that often closes with a punch, creating emotion rather than simply talking about it. A story that causes tears, laughter, goosebumps or any combination of these. A good story covers the range of human emotions. The most powerful stories are about people extending themselves, or performing an act of love, service or courage for another person.
Guidelines
1. Tell an exciting, sad or funny story about something that has happened to you or someone you know. Make sure that you introduce the character(s).
2. Tell your story in a way that will make the reader cry, laugh or get goose bumps (the good kind!) Don’t leave anything out — how did you feel?
3. The story should start with action; it should include a problem, issue or situation. It should include dialogue and the character should express their feelings though the conflict or situation. It should end in a result, such as a lesson learned, a positive change or pay-off.
4. Above all, let it come from your HEART! Your story is important!
Story Specifications
Stories should be non-fiction, ranging in length between 300-1200 words.
Chapters/Themes
Falling in love
Breaking up
Friendship
Tough times
Family and love
Acts of kindness
Growing up
P.S Please forward this mail to friends and family who are interested in submitting stories!
Hello all, to the cling n clang of life!
04 Oct 2010 6 Comments
in blog Tags: blog, introduction
I’ve finally made my new blog. I really wanted to keep a different space for all my poems, that’s the reason I only write poems at http://ayesha-s.blogspot.com (good promotion eh? )
Cling n clang: I don’t really know what these words sort of stand for, but for me they sort of describe life and the world. They stand for noises, colors, celebrations, voices, clutter, clean and tidy, dump, etc etc.
Maybe cling and clang stands for all the voices in our head. Actually yes! Maybe :p
So that’s the reason I chose that name! ( originally wanted ‘allthat’ , ‘thisnthat’ and other names but sadly they were all taken grrr)
I also like these cool lyrics I came across on google:
from stop the dam song:
make the natural flow
It sort of freaks me out
We need to unplug the dams
You cannot stop the natural flow of thought
With a cling and a clang
So what’s this blog anyways going to be about?
Well.. Maybe everyday historical moments, worth noticing things, some bollywood gup shup perhaps, lots of fashion talk, and most importantly cosmetics gyaan . I’m an absolute makeup junky and I love trying out new eye makeup styles. I like trying new recipes too. Maybe I’ll write about that as well. Sandals, clutches, jewelry, make me go week in my knees =)
I’m sooo looking forward to fill the blog
Welcome to cling n clang of life people!
