GRANDParent Stories: When They Meet, the stories get created themselves

 When it comes to GRAND PARENTS…I must say I was never so much blessed as my son. I grew up hearing that grand parents say lovely stories while I had never experienced so.  There were reasons also. My father used to work in different places as he was a government employee and he used to visit his village(where my other relatives and grand ma stayed)  or my maternal grandparents house very occasionally…that to hardly for a week or so. In those short periods we used to visit all the relatives staying nearby thereby left with little time to spend with Grand ma (My Paternal Grand pa was no more before I was born), Granny or Grand pa. Also they used to visit us rarely. So I had no play time or story time with GrandparentsL. I always had that thing missing in my life.

Thank God!! The missing emotions/experiences in my life have been compensated (at least I believe so) with my son having great times with Grandparents… J

GRAND PA AND GRAND SON.....PLAY TIME 

My father in Law usually keeps silence most of the time but don’t know how…but when he meets with my son… I see a different Baba (I call my FIL Baba...). There is a code language between two. They talk, they play and they listen to each other’s story. I still have to explore what kind of talking they do. My son would say it better…

My Mother in law tries every time what my son would love to eat. She says about her son’s (my husband) story (what he was doing when he was a child) to my son whom my son hardly listens. There is a different bond between the two which is beyond my intelligence to understand.

DADA DADI n The Grand Son 

My mother could never match the pace and style of my son. My son tries his best to teach Hindi to my mother so that he can talk/communicate with her properly (My mother doesn’t speak/understand Hindi while my son doesn’t understand/speak odia) but every time ends up with learning some Odia words from her. They don’t know each other’s language but I think they have one of the best communications between them as both understand each other’s feelings.

Aaditya with His Aie (Granny) and Cousins. 

My son calls her as DADI…

Right from the moment he started understanding relations, he knew that she was one of most important persons in his life. She was staying in the flat adjacently attached to ours. She had been a Grand ma in all aspects…right from taking care of him to making him understand/differentiate between Good or bad, telling him stories, playing with him and guiding us with different parenting issues and tips. If u will ask my son about his Grand Ma…he will first tell about her as he knew she is the real Grand ma while Odishawali Dadi is blood relation Dadima. That’s been the bond so far…

Sonu Beta with His Favorite Dadi

Isn’t it great when you are blessed with love/care/wisdom of so many Grandparents? I hope one day…my son will write about the time spent with Grandparents with some interesting revelation which I don’t know…

However The common thing between all is "They eagerly wait to meet each other every time" and when they meet...stories are created by themselves!! 

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.

#QuakerBowl: Better Nutrition, Better People, Better Future

We are what we eat.   

10^th April was really a super Sunday. Around 200 awesome bloggers from around Mumbai and Pune were  seating in a conference hall at JW Marriot Mumbai and Celebrity Chef The Vikas khanna was was talking about Nutrition and the has tag #QuakerBowl  (A Quaker India event has tag) trending that day in social media. Could it be more!! Isn’t Terrific!

 

Well…It was an Indiblogger Meet (do I need to say more?? I mean when I say “it’s an indiblogger meet it automatically mean it’s awesome, superb and all alike adjectives…right!!). It was the first one in this financial year and I was really excited. 

It all started with some typical indiblogger style lighter moments followed by the dramatic entry of The iconic Celeb chef The Vikas Khanna. OMG!! I never knew He would be such a soft talking person. Well…don’t go by his soft voice. Nah.., he can talk serious making audience listen to him with pin drop silence and he can make them break into laughter with his spontaneously funny gestures as well. Not just a Celebrity Chef but also a wonderful Human being I would say.yah...

OUR DISH PREPARATION 

The event had many activities like Taste n Guess, Q & A session by The Vikas Khanna and for every right answer there was a nice gift hamper. Okay! I couldn’t win one. But that was really very informative as well as entertaining. Bahut maza ayaa…

Then the talk was on NUTRITION. The Vikas Khanna just associated himself with PepsiCo as the brand ambassador and what I understood he is a damn Nutrition Conscious as a person.   

Friends…that were something really touched me most. On my return I was thinking “When was the last time I had given a serious thought to NUTRITION in the foods we eat?  Honestly it was probably when I had become a mother. That time I was looking into everything to find out the nutritive value in them. Why not?? I was concerned about my child...Right! To me his health and wellbeing was the first priority.

OUR DISH
Picture Courtesy - Indiblogger

 I always want him to become a good human being whatever profession or livelihood he follows. And nutrition is the first step to it. I remembered the wisdom I had from my parents. They used to say…you may imagine anything in your mind but it’s “Your Body” that will make you to accomplish it. And your body’s performance depends upon the food you eat.

When we were children our parents had taken best care of the nutritive input to our body. But as we grew up we had drifted away from them and our eating habits had changed. Today most young people suffer from lifestyle ailments. Why? Because no one is serious to monitor “what he/she eats?

It’s not like Quaker Oats were never around. But that day I had really a different and better perspective of it. Oats are healthy and full of nutrition needed by the body. It can be taken by anybody irrespective of any age or ailments. Moreover it can be added to anything to improve the nutritive value or can be made into a completely new dish or different things can be added to it to satisfy the taste buds breaking the monotony. I mean in which way you look at it, its consumption always has an upbeat face for your better health.

That's Me taking picture Our Dish In iPad
Source - Its From Prachi's Post

It’s as simple as it is. Better Nutrition makes a better human being and better human beings means a better future …always. It is true for an individual as well as for the entire nation. 

That's Vikas Khanna Tasting Our Dish...
Image Source - Again From Prachi's Post..Read Here

Hey…Bahut ho gayaa nutrition ki baatein. We really had great fun in making some awesome dishes with Oats and other given ingrediaets. It was a competition actually to explore our creative culinary skills. We were divided into Teams. Ours was Team 1. We had a made a dish “Mixed Vegetable Oats (Savory)”. It was a close second but there was only one prize for winners.

I met some lovely bloggers. Made friends with them. Varsha, Richa, BellyBytes. At last Had a yummyyy lunch... 

Sunday couldn't have been more fun and frolic. Could it be?

One more thing…the title of my post is partly coined by Bellybyte and partly by The Vikas Khanna. Here is my Tweet that was re-tweeted by The Vikas Khanna. Awesome moments!!

Better nutrition better people better future #QuakerBowl @TheVikasKhanna @indiblogger #JWMarriot @unishta @QuakerIndia moral of the session

— Tina Acharya (@tina_acharya) April 10, 2016

RETURN GIFT

As I’m traveling since the next day of the event, honestly I haven’t opened up the Quaker Oats pack gifted to us along with the recipe book, so I haven’t tried out any dishes. But I’m sharing one of the dishes that I had experimented once and had thought that I would prepare it for my diabetic father when I would meet him which never happened. At the juncture of his Second Death Anniversary I’m dedicating this dish to him…

Name: Bitter guard and Sweet (Sugar free) Oats.

Ingredients:

Oats, one small bitter guard (karela), Chopped carrots, green peas, onions, green chilies, tomato, oil, black salt, sugar free sweetener, cumin seeds, curry leaves, and a small piece of jaggary and water.

Procedure:

Take around 2-3 table spoon oats in a pan and roast it properly/evenly and keep it aside. Peel the bitter guard and chop it to small pieces and half boil it and then drain the water. Similarly half boil the chopped carrots and peeled green peas and drain the water. 

Take a pan on gas. Add tea spoon of oil to it followed by cumin seeds, curry leaves, chopped green chilies and onions. After few minutes add chopped tomato and a pinch of black salt to it followed by a small piece of jaggary.   After a minute add the half boiled bitter guard and let it cook for a minute. Then add half boiled carrots and peas and let it cook for two minutes. Then add a cup of water (around 150 ml) to it followed by 2 tablets of sugar free natura and let it boil.

When it is boiled add the roasted Oats with continuous stirring. Within few moments it is ready. Serve in a bowl with just garnishing a cherry on the top.

Sorry Guys...I'm at a different place. so can't share pictures.once i get back to home...i will share the pictures.

It tastes bitter sweet with a flavor of salt and jaggery. The reason for making this Dish this way because my father had a sweet tooth and he never liked Bitter Guard. I thought he wouldn’t mind eating Karela (bitter guard)  this way. 

check out other pictures and moments at Indiblogger Face Book Page 


YEEEEPEEEE!!! I'm one of the winners with this blog post!!! :) :)