Wednesday, August 20, 2014

year long craving, not yet satisfied! :(

Since my first experience of the Sacramento's scorching heat, I have always longed for anything cool.. Like my hubby, the cool guy around me ;) taking showers for an hour or more (it's only on peak summer days i stop being a water conservationist) Smoothies, cold coffee, ice tea and of course sharbats like roohafza or the rose syrup coolers. And yet I haven't quenched my thirst which is beyond just the taste  because I have lately been craving for one such sharbat  that I tasted almost 10-15 years back and which still remains one of my favorite (Ok may be that's an exaggeration that a person might consider something favorite by just experiencing it once in life) but right now my craving being at its high, has made me go to all the Indian and middle Eastern stores around in search of it. But all in vain :(
Of course I did try the online store where their shipping charges is five times the price of the product. Looking at which I tell myself "No! Do be a despo. Control your cravings, you don't have to waste your buck on one bottle rather than buying the shock enough for a lifetime to enjoy"

And I'm here still craving for this long forgotten taste of the green sharbat made from vetiver roots -khus syrup

Guys, if you know where I can get this amazingly good product to quench my year long thirst, I would be grateful and would also share its refreshing recipes with you. Please, please help me!!!


Friday, August 15, 2014

What do you do for your country?

I am quite impressed by India's new PM's agenda through his independence day speech. May be we can look forward to a positive 'corruption-free' development for the next few years under the new govt. here are the highlight of Mr. Narendra modi's speech.
What caught my attention most was his talk about the issues of rape, development of villages for the over-all country's development,integrating the poorest of the poor with bank accounts and also giving an insurance through debit cards for upto 1 lakh rupees.

"I want to ask every mother and father, you ask your daughters 'where are you going, who are you going with'. But do you ever ask your sons these questions? After all, those who rape are also someone's son."

True, when we talk about rape our heads do hang in shame. I totally agree with what Mr. PM said. But In this case I would even blame the girls  who are also responsible for such a situation to arise. Not just that, one should be educated about sex - the good and bad about it from the age the individual reaches his/her puberty, or may be even younger. But one thing i notice in most Indian families is, there is always an embarrassment among the family members to even a mere utterance of the S word, which i feel would also lead a young adult to this situation of confusion on what is right and what is wrong. It might also be a struggle between his/her animal instincts and morality. Moreover, as far as my knowledge goes, only from the colonial era, many of these sexual liberalism (so many of the ancient sculptures show only nudity) in India got stigmatized later to a better establishment or rather colonization of the Indian minds with European values
Making the long story short, i would say, parents/guardians or any elders in the family should also take responsibility in talking about issues like child abuse, sexual abuse and rape seriously to their children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVDAuevGq98

"If we want to develop India, we need to develop villages."

Having a goal of developing at least five villages by every Member of Parliament, by the end of five years is a big deal. It would be amazing if they do succeed. It all sounds good to the ears of every citizen, but are we all doing our bit of  work to improve our society?  Every individual's mentality is such that when there is a change in the govt., they will wait for a year and see if there are any good changes made by the govt. if they aren't the blame the govt., and even if there is a  slightest change, they wouldn't be satisfied. People should realize one thing 'Rome was never built in one day'. In this case may be we can substitute it with "the Taj Mahal' ;) 

Every individual should take responsibility in doing atleast one or two of the following thing a day to the society, it would not just give a personal satisfaction but also, others  will see and learn from us.


Easier said than done, but we should at least not do bad, if we cannot do any good to the society or people.
Hoping for a better India. Jai hind!