Manu's Medley

When we are away from home, almost every meal we make brings back the memories of home. Festivals are no less. That too when we are from that wonderful generation who has witnessed and experienced festivals at their best, undoubtedly our hearts get full with those fond memories.  Deepavali is celebrated with much pomp and show and is considered the biggest festival in Tamil Nadu. Undoubtedly, festivals bring in a different vibe and of course new dress(es), good food and family gatherings. But Deepavali is much bigger than this because of the brightness it brings along with it, yeah the fireworks undoubtedly. When I was a kid, we start prepping for the festival for almost a month before - thorough cleaning of the house, shopping for clothes and crackers and the most interesting aspect for me was preparing special sweets and savories. Mom and I used to make at least half a dozen varieties of sweets and snacks. The constants used to be muruku and mixture.  A week before the festi...

The Light We Carry, my latest read is written by Michelle Obama. This author needs no introduction. She is well known as the Former First Lady of the United States of America. She has authored three books so far - American Grown, Becoming and The Light We Carry. I loved her memoir Becoming and this my second of her works. In Becoming, she took us through her life, right from her childhood to the time she spent as the First Lady of US. In The Light We Carry, Michelle Obama focused on a more specific topic. She provided us a glimpse of her habits, practices, attitudes and beliefs she follows to stay balanced and confident, even during times of high anxiety and stress, both in her professional and personal space. She calls them as toolbox which she developed over time based on her life experiences and calls it as her own ongoing process of “Becoming”. Through this book, Michelle Obama discusses about finding personal power, communal power and the power to override feelings of doubt and he...

The day you first held your little one, the first time he smiled at you, those first steps, first tears, first words, first bike ride... You would have experienced countless firsts with your child so far. Before you knew it, your kid is just few days away from a very important milestone - his first day of school.  If your kid is starting kindergarten this academic year, I totally feel you. I was in the same state of mind, exactly an year ago. After tending to my son for more than 3 years, that too as a stay at home mom, he is very attached to me. I was with him literally 24 x 7, except for those very few minutes I sneak into the washroom. The thought of how he would survive those 7 hours of school without me, haunted me for days. Next his preparedness to face the whole new world (without us) was dreadful. I had infinite questions/ doubts in my head. It is quite natural if you have an endless loop going on in your head. In this post, I sum up my experience of preparing my child and ...

If you are from 80s, like me, it is most likely you would have started your reading journey with a Sidney Sheldon's novel. Hands down, he is a master story teller known for his thrilling plots, inspiring characters, suspense and unexpected twists. Looking at the name of the book  Sidney Sheldon’s The Silent Widow , don't mistake it for written by Sidney Sheldon. Tilly Bagshawe is the author of this book.  Tilly Bagshawe is originally known as Matilda Emily Mary Bagshawe. She is a fictional writer who has written many international best-selling novels like Adored, Flawless, Temptation, The Show, The Bachelor etc.. Sidney Sheldon's estate thought Tilly's writing style is similar to Sidney Sheldon and chose her to write under his name. Thus far she has written 8 books as part of Sidney Sheldon series. Coming to the story of The Silent Widow, Nikki Roberts is the main character and she is a psychologist. She lost her husband in a car accident and since then is heartbroken n...

Are you moving abroad? Whether you are planning to move to another country as a student or on an official deputation or as a permanent resident to a country like Canada, I am sure you have innumerable questions - amongst which " What to pack? " tops the list! Should I carry my certificates, daily essentials, food items, clothes and the list is endless. And this is one of the most frequently asked questions in social media groups and (or) amongst friends/ relatives/ colleagues who have travelled before.  While some genuinely respond, I have seen many mocking the asker, quoting it is too stupid to carry lentils, tooth brush or any basic essentials that will be available at the destination or just brushing it off as a dumb question. There is no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid answers. In this article, I shall try to answer your question "What to pack while moving abroad?" as much as I can. If you find this article useful, please don't hoard it to yours...

Before We Say Goodbye by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is the 3rd book I read this year. The 2nd was Meet Me in Mumbai by Sabina Khan. I have posted its audio synopsis and review on my you tube channel - Our_Bookshelf. It is available in this link . Meanwhile, if you wish to read my latest articles and watch the content I create, follow me on  Instagram  and  Facebook !!  Before The Coffee Gets Cold is the first book as part of the series written by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It was originally a play written in Japanese in 2010 that turned out to be a bit hit. Later it was published as a novel in the same language in the year 2015. Due to its popularity, the book was translated into English. The author published sequels Tales from the Cafe, Before Your Memory Fades, Before We Say Goodbye, Before We Forget Kindness in 2017, 2018, 2021 and 2023 respectively. All except Before We Forget Kindness have been translated into English and the fifth book is expected to be released in English ...

The web series Heeramandi , The Diamond Bazaar, written, directed and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is a historical drama based on the life of courtesans (tawaifs) during the pre-independence era. Ever since Heeramandi was released on Netflix, the internet is flooded by Heeramandi's success parties, reviews, interviews and memes. But what is the true story of Heeramandi? I will try to share few insights I gathered, along with my review of this 8 episode series.  Heera-mandi translates to Diamond-Market in Urdu. The story dates back to Mughal period. The then Prime Minister of Punjab (undivided India) Heera Singh Dogra, established a Market (Bazaar/ Mandi) as an economic center to promote trade. The place was named after him - Heera's market, so Heeramandi. To promote the economic hub further, they brought women from different places who were well trained in various art forms like dance, poetry, music etc. to make it a cultural hub too. A fort was constructed closer to the ...

Today, 7 out of 10 videos on social media are related to food, out of which half a bunch are on lunchbox recipes. Every thing that gets packed into the lunch bag, isn't prepared straight-forward. If you accidentally click some random video mesmerized by the aesthetics, your social media accounts will be flooded with tons of such videos/ reels. I recently came across someone preparing peppa pig idlis, flower dosas, all nuts (cashew, almond, walnut etc.) chutney (instead of the regular idli, dosa and chutney). Someone packed colourful pooris (as part of their holi-lunch series). Another person made variety rice, dal, roti, egg curry and amrakand - all from scratch for the lunch box. And there are millions of similar videos on internet from all over the world.  After watching few of my food videos, even my friends ask how I make those varieties daily. I politely respond and move on. I post videos (under the name Manu's Menu, on my youtube channel) only whenever I think it might he...

My knowledge on Buddha and Buddhism is limited to my school text books and some documentaries. I always wanted to know more about Buddha, his preachings and the philosophy of Buddhism. Few months back, I reached out to a book recommendation group on FB. Just within minutes, I received multiple suggestions on books on Buddhism, out of which I chose "The Art of Happiness" (the one with the highest number of recommendations). I decided to read it as the first book of 2024.  If you had been following me regularly, you would have known I wasn't successful at meeting my yearly reading goals. So unlike previous years, I wanted to adopt a different approach and goal towards reading, that could enable me to read more. I have explained about it at the end of this article.  For now, let me get into the topic "The Art of Happiness" is authored by the 14th Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. His Holiness Dalai Lama needs no introduction. HH Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of th...

Idiyappam, is a well known break fast item in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Sri Lanka. It is also known as sevai or string hoppers (in English) and is primarily made out of rice floor. Like idli, idiyappam is made through steaming using no oil, making it very easily digestible and light on stomach.  When I think about idiyappam, I remember 2 instances from my childhood. One of my friend's mom, used to feed her 2 year old with different colourful sevais for evening snack - white, yellow, red along with a liquid version of it too, almost 3-4 times in a week. Later I learnt from her elder daughter (my friend) that they are coconut sevai (sweet version), lemon sevai, tomato sevai and rasam sevai. Though born and brought up in Chennai, we aren't much into idiyappams.  I don't remember eating them until I crossed 10 years. Whenever we visit a doctor with fever, our doctor used to give a list of food items - kanji, bread, idli, idiyappam and rasam rice, which I was usually averse to even...

After reading the title of this post, don't mistake me for a health expert or a lifestyle coach who is going to lecture about the importance of sleep. I am also not going to explain how loosing an hour of sleep is going to impact your gut health, circadian rythm or your overall well being.  Loosing an hour of sleep is an usual phenomenon experienced by those living in North America, parts of Asia, South America and Europe, once in an year though and at different time period for each country. Typically it happens around spring/ summer. Yes, I am referring to Daylight Saving Time (DST). For someone who is born in India like me, it never made sense to observe daylight saving time, until we moved to North America. In fact I hated DST, as my Onsite meetings mostly with my North American Clients and colleagues (while I was working at India), used to get delayed by an hour and run into my late evenings and nights. For those who are new to this concept, Daylight saving time is the period, ...

It still feels 2024 just kicked in. But we are almost at the verge of the second month. Most of us begin every year with a set of new resolutions, but they aren't for me. I once tried to welcome a brand new year with lots of hope and a list of action items. I couldn't achieve even one. So why unnecessarily pressurize myself. That was the first and last time I made a new year resolution.  Leaving aside the so called resolutions, year on year, I definitely look up to reading books regularly. Last couple of years had been good. But in 2023, with a lot happening on my personal front, I could only finish a handful of books, most of which I have already shared my review on this site. So for 2024, I have a different approach to enable me read more. I will explain more on that while I write about my first read of 2024. For now, here is a quick recap of the books I read in 2023. In this post, I am also sharing the navigation to detailed synopsis and my review for all those books. Hope y...

More than a decade ago, one Saturday morning, my brother casually started to discuss with me about a documentary he saw. It was about the lifestyle of a person in Japan, who had very limited material possession - wardrobe with couple of formal pants and shirts in shades of grey, few t-shirts and shorts, couple of foot wear, a table, chair, bed and very few essential cookware to meet the needs in his daily life. Upon my brother's insistence, I too watched the video and his apartment (though very tiny) looked pristine and simple.  But growing up in a society which believes more stuff = more joy (or power or status), and already living in a house full of items (2 sets of sofas, 3 beds, tonnes of clothes (in different sizes), dozens of footwear (mine alone) etc.), many of which we seldom use on a daily basis and most the items which we don't even remember exist, I simply laughed away saying "the minimalist lifestyle is a hoax" and doesn't work in the real time. That w...