Sandhya Raju

Most of our weekend trips are instantly planned depending on the week ahead, kid's homework schedule and of course the travel budget. One such Friday evening, when we suddenly decided lets do a drive , as always options were aplenty.  When we decided we will do just one day with no overnight stay, the obvious choice was Pichavaram. Fortunately my whole family loves nature, beach, water and it is so easy to agree on a location, the only flip side to it is the fight for the camera, though we take two every time when we travel. Unlike earlier where my hubby insists that we go minus the food preps and eat locally, the kids now prefer otherwise - they love the typical picnic style. And it is such fun to stop on the highway side, eat, jump, click with curious on-goers' looking at our madness at display. And the drive on NH45 itself is something  to enjoy,... Factoring the time that  will take to reach our destination, we decided we will visit Chidambaram temple first b

As  a mother, I have always had inhibitions on cooking instant foods and a definitive no to the aerated drinks, though sometimes I do succumb to the kids pressure, as otherwise I was seen as a villain to simple pleasures of living. Man what a joy - am quite relieved now and it gives me so much happiness that I have all the authority now to refuse these food items into my kitchen without being questioned anymore. Thanks, the Maggi row was indeed a blessing in disguise to me. It does raise a few questions to ponder ~ how global brands have been quick and smart influencers on our food habits ~ by aping westernisation we have become a victim to all the junk that the world has to throw on us ~ how in the process we have dug the grave for all the desi brands Long ago, just when the pepsis and the cokes were infiltrating, we had numerous brands big and small in my state who were not only great brands but was not causing any health hazard too. It is heartening to see them come back to

What drove me to write on this is two things - a post by my journo friend  questioning the way we are living today and a related article that I read on happiness index and how India fares very poor in this , in the 117th place much below small countries like Bhutan.  And I just cant resist sharing the pride that I had when my son's teacher had penned in the report card that he is a happy child -  a remark that I really take more seriously than even the academics. And when we met in one of PTA, she did not forget to mention this too.   As a mother of two, I had always been firm that academics will not be on top of my agenda and that I would rather see my child being a sensible thinker and being humane rather than a topper. Now coming back to being happy, happiness is a relative term and can there even be a yardstick to measure it? For me, happiness is measured by the smiles per day, and it helps me also do a quick check if otherwise. A person who cant smile at even stupid weir

For the generation that went to school in the late 80's , skill development may not be a new term. At least for me, am able to relate to this all new buzz word, quite instantly. Rewinding to the school days, I remember we used to have one dedicated period a week called SUPW - Socially Useful Productive Work. We had the options to choose from carpentry to plumbing ; embroidery to various other art and craft work. It used to be more of  fun coupled with learning and a period we used to look forward to relax.  But sadly, the race for engineering and other professional courses diluted the need to carry further such skill based learning. Down the line, as the education system started aping westernisation, we have lost track of some of the basic skills that the school prepared us for. Today schools are more like factories producing ranks than imbibing conceptual learning or values that are essential. The plight of the colleges/ universities need no mention here, as the country churn

Reproducing the content that I wrote sometime back for one of the online property portal..... -- Much like the e-commerce, online realty portals is gaining a lot of traction with competition extremely heating up and portals trying to stay afloat with constant innovation.   For instance, when the Chennai based IndiaProperty.com announced the 3D interactive Virtual Property tour, commonfloor quickly followed suit. While the features and apps might not be much of a differential factor, what would probably put a portal in the lead position is the number of projects that they are able to list under any new feature. It is after all a number game here too. Realty portals are also quick movers in using technology. While the debate on the use of drones for commercial use will sooner or later gain momentum, online realty portals like IndiaProperty.com have already been putting drones to good use for video reviews of listed projects. Using drone cameras, one can get a complete aer

For long I used to avoid having green tea at any of the coffee/client meetings that I have, for some reason I had an aversion towards it when I tasted it once just for the heck of it. the bitter taste did not interest me much, until one fine day I had an opportunity to host the Glendale Green tea launch in the city.  Most of the people who consume green tea either have it for health reasons or for making a statement. But how authentic is your green tea? How many of us do really know how to make an authentic green tea?? Gets you interesting.. Read on..... The green leaf of tea plant is highly oxidative, meaning it absorbs oxygen very fast and change its chemical constituent. When the tea leaves are subject to Oxidation the tea becomes Black tea which gives Reddish brown liquor with aroma of Tea. Whereas if we arrest the oxidation process of the tea leaves by a process called ‘Fixation Process” the colour of the tea leaves remain green and we get green tea. Since the oxidatio