Regular Eating Habits And Ailments

My husband always tells me to eat meals at regular times.

He has been advising me from the early days of our marriage about the need to eat regularly. Thanks to him I got into the habit of eating at least 2 meals without fail. This habit has prevented me from falling sick often.

Headaches, dizziness, irritability, ulcers, body aches, lack of concentration, feeling tired for no reason, feeling sleepy all the time, are all primarily causes arising out of empty stomachs with nothing to digest except air, water, tea, aerated drinks, coffee and chocolates.

Eating at home and eating outside are two different things altogether.
One must learn to make a fresh, quick, healthy and easy meal using basic ingredients everyday without fail. Even if one is very tired, one must resolve to cook and eat without fail. Once this becomes a habit, the cooking part is no longer a burden besides it benefits our health and makes such a lot sense healthwise.

Occassional outisde food is ok but not on a regular basis because ingredients may be compromised in some way with a profit motive, cleaning and washing of ingredients, the cooking vessels may not be given due weightage to cut time in such processes, which could often result in food poisoning.

When we prepare the food ourselves, we give the dish and the ingredients a thought. We can work out menus which have health benefits as well as good to taste. Since we are going to eat it, we will give hygiene a thought too.

Anyday a simple home-made Indian meal, from the health and taste point of view, is the best to keep our body fit.

Any number of combinations are available.
We can go in for different cuisines from across Indian regions like the Maharashtrian, Gujarathi, Bengali, Andhra, Tamil, Kerala. Pick the most simple recipe with basic ingredients from among the thousands now available, try them out at least once. Repeat them if you like. Write down the recipes for the ones that you like most.
Eventually practice makes perfect. Just keep trying and you will be good at it.

Self help is the best help.
Try not to depend too much on outside food often.

The simplest and easiest complete meal is the improvised delicious kichdi which can be readied under half an hour. I make this recipe this way - 1 cup of rice, 1/2 cup of moong/pesar dal, 1/4 Kg of all diced vegs (like carrot, potato, peas, beans, tomatoes), ghee or oil, 1.5 teaspoon salt, 1 tsp cummin, 1 tsp black pepper crushed, 3 cloves, a small piece of cinamon stick, few curry leaves and a handful of cashews.

I stir fry the (washed and drained) dal and rice until it gives out an aroma, then add the cloves, cinamon, pepper, cummins, salt, diced vegs, curry leaves, 4.5 cups of water and cook it in the pressure pan until it gives out 2 or 3 whistles.
Wait until the pressure subsides. This is a wholesome meal which has all we need in a meal. A cup of curd raitha is a good enough accompaniment or some pickle will also do.

3 Cheers to a simple home cooked meal every day for good health!

After all health is wealth!!

Mahalakshmi

Latur Earthquake Vs. Ladakh Flash Floods

In the early hours on the fateful 30th September of 1993 Latur, more particularly Killari experienced an earthquake in the magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter Scale which took nearly 30,000 lives besides flattening many houses (though official figures hinge between 9,000 to 10,000 lost lives).

Though the earthquake cannot be said to be severe it left India to cope with a huge loss of life and property.

Lives were lost due to poor construction of houses.
What makes construction poor or safe/good?
There was so much news about it in the papers and what I could read between the lines was poor lives were saved and the rich or affluent died! One would think God acted unkindly towards the rich in Latur.
The difference lay in the materials used to secure their houses.
The poor who could not afford lived in mud houses whereas the rich who could spend money had solid roofs, where big stones were used.

When the earth shook, all that fell on the sleeping poor was mud. Big stones fell on the sleeping rich who paid with their lives.

After Latur India had to revise its seismic zones drastically.

We talk about vernacular houses which is Appropriate Technology using indigenous or locally available materials. Such houses are simple, cost-effective, with self-help labour, green and eco-friendly. So mud, wood, ash, local soil compressed into bricks, recycled items go into such homes. Though not maintenance-free it can still offer a roof over the heads of many poor. Laurie Baker popularised this trend further on a global stage among the urbans too.

This is one side of the coin.
Let us see the other side of it too.

The flash floods, landslides of Ladakh in August, 2010 swept away many villages in the hilly region. Many went missing.
Ladakh which never experiences rain, is cool due to its proximity to the Himalayas. Its people grow mountain produce due to the moisture content in the air and dew drops. Their agri-produce is not dependent on rainfall meaning Ladakh has no history of rainfall all these years.
Global climate change was witnessed by Ladakh more prominantly than anywhere in India in recent times. Storms and rains caused flash floods which demolished the mud houses along the hills. If you have seen the photos, you would see nothing except brown mud all over with only 3 or 4 concrete structures holding ground. My guess is those 3 storey structures must be hotels or lodges built for the many foreign tourists who visit Ladakh during the July-August season to enjoy nature's beauty there.
Here it is mostly the poor who died in this calamity and not the rich who could afford a cement and steel structure.

Latur and Ladakh come to mind as a contrast about buildings, housing, mud huts, RCC structures, of the affluent and of the poor.

Mother nature has her own way. She is very unpredictable.

Just after the early morning quake of December, 2004 and the tsunami in Chennai, builders would advertise that their upcoming buildings as quake-proof, unshakeable, etc.
Mother nature will not spare the strongest of buildings if it stands in the way of the fault line. That is the ground reality.

How vulnerable are we humans against the mighty mother nature.
That is the reason why ancient people revered nature in its many forms.

Whether vernacular or solid structures, all are prone to the vagaries of nature.

My two cents!
Mahalakshmi.

Enjoying Our Kids' Childhood

I remember so distinctly even now of the aged rickshaw puller who would come to fetch my sons to school.

At 9am both will be waiting in neat and crisp white shirt with navy blue half pants, black shoes and a red and blue tie. Their hair swept back to look smart. They would carry books weighing more than 5 kgs on their backs plus the plastic bag containing a lunch box, a snacks' box and a bottle of water in hand would complete the picture.

I and mom will be at the gate to see them both off to school. We would watch them climb up and then turn back to wave bye-bye as the rickshaw sped away briskly. That sight would always bring tears to my eyes just watching them say bye-bye to go to school each morning.

Come evening, we will be ready for them with biscuits, sweets, peppermints, peanut-jaggery candy popularly called the kadala urundai in small cups and plates and a glass of milk. They would open up their homework and finish it off while snacking.
When I ask them what they remember about their childhood they would say they remember eating those biscuits, chocolates, etc while doing their school homework.

They won a bicycle as a prize in some slogan writing contest when they were in their 5th grade. They learnt to ride the bicycle very fast. Soon after they wanted me to pillion ride and when I did I had tears in my eyes. I can never forget the first joyride each son gave me on their bikes when they were barely 10 years old.

I enjoyed seeing them grow along the years.
I had to take up projects and freelance a lot to be able to do that. I am happy with whatever I have seen and experienced of my sons.
My children have been and continue to be my greatest teachers.

I have learnt a lot through their questions.
I have learnt to be a lot more patient because of them.
I have learnt from them the value of being silent in times of pressure.
I have taught them what I knew - in good faith. But I have learnt more from them than what I could teach them.
I still continue to learn from them but now it is online :D

Happy learning.
Mahalakshmi

Parents' Worry Over Kids' Safety

Today while returning back from work, saw a couple riding a bike with 2 young kids, one dangling from mom's hands, the other almost sleeping in upright position sandwiched between dad and mom! It looked dangerous to me. The sleeping kid could fall off the bike anytime in the heavy traffic.

It brought memories of a fear which I experience even now after so many years.
My twin sons were just 10 months old then.
Myself and my husband were travelling to Vadalur, a town in South India by a late night bus which was going beyond Vadalur.
We had to be vigilant and get down at Vadalur at around 2am and both of us would keep conversing so that we din't fall asleep. If the bus moved on then it would mean we had to look for a transport to get us back and that too very early in the morning with two babies.

Both of us were holding one baby each tightly as we sat through the whole journey. Somehow we must have fallen asleep and woken up with a jerk. We thanked that the babies had not fallen down, though our hands were holding them a little lightly. Shudder to think what could have happened to them had they fallen off from our light hold in the bus which was travelling at a high speed.

Even now I fail to understand how I could have held the baby just like that without fastening him to myself with a harness or long cloth to secure him. It would have prevented any untoward incident even if I had slept out of fatigue which is a natural thing to happen while travelling in a fast moving vehicle. Luckily neither fell off our hands on that journey. It was God's Grace I think.

God saved us in one more way that night. I spotted 'Vadalur' Sign post just at the right time and cried halt so we could reach home with our two bundles of joy and a lot of luggage too!
Wonder how we could travel with so much risk and all that luggage.
But I learnt a lesson which I never forgot ever.
Later I would see if the kids were secure and safe whenever we took them out.

Cheers!
Mahalakshmi.

School Photo ID Of My Kids

My husband was searching through some old set of papers yesterday.

We soon forget what exactly we were looking for as we rummage through old memories.

Our sons' ID cards right from their LKG to just before they left for higher studies abroad came out. Each photo was such a pleasure to look at. Thanks to the St.John's School, Besant Nagar, for insisting on such a practice of taking photos of students each year for the ID card. For us parents' it is a sweet record.

The best of the lot were those of their LKG class. Their faces revealed a rare quiet and innocence. To me they look so beautiful in those photos, I could watch it for hours on end.

Thanks again to my husband who was meticulous in safely preserving their photo IDs. Later when we bought a scanner for our business needs, he scanned all those photos which have all gone into our computer folders.
It is there to see whenever we wish to revisit those fond memories of our kids' younger days.

Cheers!
Mahalakshmi