Manu's Medley

Brinjal is known as "the King of vegetables", for its beautiful purple body with a crown and rich nutritional value. There are umpteen varieties of brinjal and is known by different names grown across  the world - eggplant, baingan, aubergine, garden egg etc. This versatile vegetable can be easily turned into a variety of mouth watering dishes. In many recipes, it is also used as a substitute to meat. When I come across people who don't eat this wonderful vegetable, I silently laugh inside knowing what they are missing.  Fortunately, everyone in our family loves brinjal in whatever form it is prepared - sambar, fry, nune vankaya, guthi vankaya, vankaya pachadi (chutney), katrika kootu, katrika karakuzhambu, aloo baingan, baingan bartha, baba ganoush (mediterranean eggplant dip), grilled eggplant, eggplant parmesan (similar to lasagna) and the list goes on..... Baingan ka bartha is a very popular Punjabi recipe. As a pre-preparation, we have to roast the brinjal on direct ...

No one is born fully equipped with all the necessary skills to handle motherhood and the surprises it brings along with it. A mother is born when a child is born. With every passing day, we learn and evolve as mothers. Every mother's journey is unique and mine is no less. In this post, I would like to share the 3 mistakes I made as a new mom, their consequences and how I addressed those. 1. Loosing sleep over milk supply We all know how nutritious and healthy mother's breast milk is. It is the purest form of food for  newborns. Though I intended to breast feed my child, there was a delay in the milk production due to c-section delivery. Adding to the bodily complications after the delivery (stitches, abdominal pain, vaginal bleeding), frequent nursing, stress of not able to generate sufficient milk for my child didn't allow me to sleep in peace.  Due to the stress, milk production got delayed further and had an adverse impact on my sugar levels and recovery. My (gestational...

The Henna Artist is first of the Jaipur Trilogy - The Henna Artist, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur and The Perfumist of Paris, written by Alka Joshi. Alka was born in India and moved to US along with her family when she was nine. She did her BA from Stanford University and had written advertising commercials and marketing copy. She enrolled herself in the MFA program in creative writing at California College of Arts at the age of 51. Later she went onto write her first fictional novel - The Henna Artist, which immediately became New York Times bestseller.  For this debut novel, Alka drew inspiration from her mother's life. Her mother had to discontinue her studies to get married at the age of 18. Both her parents got into wedlock, against their personal choice. Both had dreams and goals to achieve. Sooner they had children and her mother couldn't have the life that she wished. Alka is known to have mentioned, “I can’t change her life, but I can change it in fiction. I can create ...

As someone said "There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family, or more happy, or more exasperated, or more secure." True to this statement, no family is completely happy or 100% perfect. It is a mix of every emotion that binds everyone in the family together. At the end, family is family!!! The web series Happy Family Conditions Apply portrays the same. This Hindi language series is directed and produced by film-makers Jamnadas Majethia and Aatish Kapadia of the Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai fame; and the star cast includes seasoned actors like Raj Babbar, Ratna Pathak Shah, Atul Kulkarni, Ayesha Jhulka in key roles, supported by Raunaq Kamdar, Meenal Sahu, Sanah Kapur etc. This is one of the titles Amazon Prime India announced in April last year.  Unlike other series, Amazon released only the first 4 episodes of Happy Family on the 10th March 2023 and went on to air the remaining 6 episodes, 2 episodes on every Friday, with the last 2 released on 31st Mar. It is a family co...

Ugadi, also known as Samvatsaraadhi is celebrated as New Year by people of various states in India like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur etc. It is also regarded as the spring festival, which falls in the Hindu lunisolar calendar month named Chaitra. So usually, Ugadi falls in the late March or the early April as per the Gregorian calendar. Ugadi is observed by oil baths, new dresses, rangolis, ugadi pachadi, sweets, a lavish festive spread, special prayers at temples and panchanga sravanam. At our home, Ugadi is celebrated with lot of festive cheer, with all of those listed above. Times since I remember, on the day of Ugadi, apart from rangolis, we decorate our home with toran made out of mango leaves, symbolizing prosperity. Mango leaves is known to keep out the negative energy. My father/ brother head out and bring fresh raw mangoes and neem flowers required to prepare the festive special Ugadi pachadi, while Mom and me work on the festival delicacies. ...

Your super hero is gearing up to celebrate his 1st birthday? By now, he would be able to stand and take baby steps with support. Starting from this age, babies are always on the move and busy doing something or the other. So parents, brace up yourself for the fun time ahead!!  I have listed down few activities to give you an idea as how to engage your kids as he steps into the last quarter of his 1st year. If you want to know how to engage your 6months old, do check out the post here . These activities may trigger new ideas in you to help your child develop physical, motor and communicative skills. Also remember, each child is different and so is their growth. Do not compare your child's development with other kid's milestones and loose peace over it. In case of any doubts/ concerns about your kids growth, consult your pediatrician. What to expect from a 10-12 months old? Sits without support Pulls up and stands with support Walk with support Have better hand-eye coordination C...

Indian web series aren't new to us. Recently, multi-starrer web series, that too combination of performers from North-South film industries is on the raise. Farzi falls into the same category, with Makkal Selvan Vijay Sethupathi foraying into web series along with Bollywood's heartthrob Shahid Kapoor. Farzi (meaning Fake), is an Indian crime thriller web series, from the creators of Family Man series - Raj and DK. It is released in Amazon Prime on 10th Feb 2023, in multiple Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada). Raj and DK have directed and cowritten this series with Sita Menon and Suman Kumar. Apart from Vijay Sethupathi and Shahid Kapoor, the star cast includes Bhuvan Arora, Kay Kay Menon, Raashii Khanna, Zakir Hussain, Amol Palekar, Regina Cassandra etc. Michael Vedanayagam (Vijay Sethupathi) is a fierce task force officer, on a mission to eradicate counterfeit currency mafia in India. He is on look for the Indian counterfeit network head Mansoor Dal...