Chinese vegetarian cooking never attracted me until I tried it !

Singapore is a heaven for Chinese food and is considered to be a real heaven for gourmets. While I was working for some time I tried my hands on local Chinese vegetarian food during my lunchtime. I will not say that my taste buds were impressed but yes I found it light in comparison to our Indian food which is rich in nature. Finally, I decided to try my hands on it, to bring some variety in our daily food menu. I was surprised that efforts were not wasted and now my family has become a big fan of Chinese vegetarian food.

I started with vegetable soup in which I used lemongrass first time and it gave an amazing taste to the soup. Using only vegetables in the soup and adding little lemon juice to it made the juice lighter and it really acted as a starter. Otherwise previously when we had our regular Chinese soup full of sauces, it itself acted as a meal. For the main course, I experimented with mushroom, chestnuts, broccoli, Chye sim,  eggplant and baby corn. Mixed vegetables with the addition of light soya sauce and vinegar and topping it with red chilly flakes made it an awesome meal to be taken with rice or noodles. Mung Bean Sprouts is the other Chinese addition in vegetarian dishes.The crunchy texture and nutritional qualities of mung bean sprouts make them a popular addition to meals.

It’s not just about the taste. It’s important that Chinese vegetarian dishes display a harmonious balance of colors and textures as well as flavors.It is worth trying and highly recommended to those who look for healthy recipes with some experiments in taste!

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

Femina, a magazine close to the heart of an Indian woman, is revolutionizing the publishing industry. The issue titled ‘Made By You’ will be compiled using stories and articles written completely by readers & fans from across the country.  ‘Made By You’, as the issue is aptly named, will unlock the power of social media to reach over 5 million women, encouraging them to submit their thoughts and express themselves.

Womenfolk lives to revolve around so many close to heart stories that can teach others a lot about various experiences in life. The sensitivity and beauty of womanhood are awesome and it helps every woman to survive in this world with her inner power and confidence. It’s a beautiful journey which every woman goes in her life starting as a daughter, then crossing various stages of sister, wife, friend, Mother, and finally grandmother. Every stage is itself a story which carries some strong message in it. Platform ‘Made By You’ created by Femina is surely a brilliant idea and thus going to help many ladies around to share their experiences.

Femina has built it’s success around its over-all connect with the progressive Indian woman in every aspect of her life.  It will feature the work of hundreds of new “journalists” and is scheduled to hit stands in April 2013. The publication will pose as a platform for real women to unveil their talent and share their stories with readers across the country. Contributors can use Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest to share their editorial ideas on a varied range of topics.

Link to an Application on Femina’s facebook page, that enables fans to submit their sample articles – http://on.fb.me/13LDVaf

Twitter-   https://twitter.com/FeminaIndia

Take the benefit of Femina’s Motto “If you’ve got a story, We’ve got the space!” and share your story with whole world!

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

http://www.indusladies.com/forums/blogs/induslady/indusladies-4th-annual-international-women-8412/

It’s not easy being a mother.  If it were easy, fathers would do it.  ~From the
television show The Golden Girls

Motherhood, though challenging phase,  is still a blessing to any woman. It has a humanizing effect on the mother and thus the child is blessed by her care and affection!

A few years back when the world of woman revolved around her family and home only, the period of motherhood was a very different experience compared to present one. In today’s time’s things have changed, women are playing various other roles too besides of homemaker.After having a baby when she gets back to work she has to be dependent upon extra help from either maids, daycare or support system in a family.So the real challenge which comes for any working mother is how to bond with her baby and provide and nurture her with motherly love and affection.

Few families in which parents of the couple are able to provide the support for some limited time find themselves really blessed.As parents are more experienced definitely they are going to take better care but sometimes clashes happen due to different ways of thinking about parenting.Then the challenge comes to make them understand the importance of their way of thinking and how it is going to benefit the baby.

Baby grows and crosses toddler stage, kid stage and then he enters that phase when his character has to be built and he has to learn about good eating habits. The challenge lies here for any mother, whether she is working or homemaker, to teach the importance of values like gratitude, honesty, and other moral values. Media and peer pressure have affected children to that limit that they have started considering their parents’ guidance as boring lectures only. When they see the glamour of media and how their friends enjoy certain things while hiding from their family, it becomes challenging for them to ignore it.

Families in today’s era is using all modern gadgets and that too is available separately for every member of the family. Whether it is Laptop, iPhone, Ipad, Game console, kids are aware of the gadget lingo and have the expertise to use it. The challenge lies here for any mother to how to allow the controlled usage of gadgets by kids and how to save them from the negative effect of using such gadgets.

Being a mother every woman wants best for her child and puts her very best efforts to give that atmosphere at home which can help in inculcating good habits in them.But the way society is changing mothering today is really becoming challenging!

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

THIS ENTRY WON THE FIRST PRIZE IN THE BLOG CONTEST!

It’s interesting to know about writers Prachi Gupta and Dhruv Gupta’s book on the topic of weight loss-‘Loosing It’.The contest organized by them for sharing of different experiences related to journey in weight loss is good chance to know about real life stories regarding weight loss efforts.Visit http://www.losingit.fitho.in/the-losing-it-contest/
to know more about the contest.

I was never fat! But married life and motherhood gave me reasons to enhance my awareness regarding ways to control my weight and be fit.The thing which I always resisted was spending money in the gym for weight loss. Therefore I was alert, always, to take a note of weight loss method which can be carried from home.  

Motherhood experience brings the major change in any woman’s body.I also put 10 kgs extra weight after my first pregnancy.I was not able to take it. My inner soul was desperate to try all lovely dresses and get back to my previous jeans as soon as possible. Because somewhere I had a feeling if once I put on weight it will be very difficult to get back to normal. So I had to act instantly.First of all, I started having a vision of the shape I wanted for myself. I strongly believe in the concept of visualization where you have to create a vision of your dream in your mind. I have been working from home most of the time, this gave me the right time to devote for my fitness regime.Then I focussed what things can I follow regularly to keep a strict discipline for my weight loss regime. I started walking and made sure that I was listening to music during my walks… It gave me immense relaxation. Slowly I observed that the more I was relaxed the more mindful I became about my eating habits. Yoga came as a blessing to me for getting more relaxation in life.  As I started getting mindful, it helped me in positive parenting too.

Being an Indian I love Indian food.I just can’t resist fried food. After being mindful I got back to my normal food habits. I never curbed my desire to eat my favorite food, but I focussed on the quantity. I experienced that the more I curb my desire to eat my favorite food, the more fat I was putting on, because though I was not eating but I was visualizing fat food in my mind, so this affected negatively for my weight loss efforts.I got back to my normal weight in 6 months time.It requires discipline, and the only discipline to lead a healthy life. My discipline helped me to adopt healthy lifestyle forever.

Being slim not only helps me look better but I feel active too. Its all about that feel which gives me confidence and motivates me to take care of my family with passion!

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

“I have 2000 friends on my facebook list!”, one of my friends boosted during our coffee meet. She was glowing with confidence that she is socially so well connected that she doesn’t need real-time friends and is really happy in her virtual world. “Who has time?”She reasoned out.Office, kids, husband, home, relatives, so many things to attend already in life. In such scenario virtual world of Facebook is really giving satisfaction to her  as it is satiating her desire of having lots of friends.

I am not in authority of any psychologist that I am questioning about the reliability of online friends. Initial pleasure of people getting added to my facebook list gave me a social boost and perhaps to my business but somewhere I was missing personal touch of chai sessions of my friends. I mean, how can you enjoy friendship virtually by just liking one friend’s status, or photographs or sharing about whats happening in our life. Social media sharing appeals to me as I am living in a foreign country and it gives me a feeling of being in touch with people, friends, and relatives whom I am not meeting regularly. I really admire Mark Zuckerberg creation which has made the world smaller.But he himself must be having his closed friends group with whom he must be meeting personally and not virtually:).

Friendships cannot be carried virtually. The personal touch of gossip, leg-pulling, sharings cannot be compared with online sharing of friendship. As it is said, “True friends are like jewels, precious and rare, false one are like autumn leaves found everywhere.”Don’t take your real friends for granted. Give them your time because they deserve it.At the time when you require your friends most then only real friends come to you and not your virtual friends.

Don’t let your real friends go away from you because of your virtual friends. You are a living being. Start living your life in real terms and not virtually!

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

“Meditation is defined as a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness either to realize some benefit or as an end in itself!”

I came across this definition somewhere and I was perplexed.  I always wondered how come mind will have time to think to train itself for some relaxation. I have been working from home mother most of the time in my life.At times it’s really challenging for me to manage myself when inflicted with lots of emotions at the same time. As per friend’s suggestion, I thought of trying out meditation to balance myself.Cannot forget the first effort as I simply laughed at myself that how is it possible to sit for a minute also without thinking about anything. How can I even think about it?Our mind is always cluttered with thoughts and idea to make it thoughtless was not digestible to me. But still, I was curious that why it is getting so popular.I started trying and it took few years to have a feel of it.I am still not that good in meditating, but yes I have started having a feel of it.As I am growing, especially after becoming a mother I realize how important it meditates every day. In a way, it should be taken as a regular habit for us and we should not take it for granted. In fact, practice of meditation should be taught in schools so that present generation can become strong enough to face life adversities in future.

In the rat race of life, we almost forget how to live and get used to a robotic way of life. Every individual in a family is running towards his goals to achieve abundance and success. The happiness we want to seek by achieving the material goal is momentary only. Meditation helps us to realize who we are and where are we going, besides it also helps in relaxation.Our life is revolving around digital devices and in a way we have started living in virtual world.24/7 we are thinking about how to win this rat race as if we are going to miss something by not participating in it.Happiness cannot be quantified and we are only happy when we are growing in all aspects of life whether it is physical health, material life and also the most important aspect of our life that refers to spiritual health. As we have become too individualistic and consumer-obsessed it’s very important for us to be in real touch with our true self, and meditation helps us in this journey.The benefits of meditation include better health, higher creativity, and better personal relationships. Meditation helps us to reduce stress by guiding us to switch off from worries. Meditation is an opportunity to spend time with ourselves, and be comfortable with ourselves. Spending 15 minutes in quietening the mind and focusing on the present moment, makes us more relaxed and effective decision makers.In fact, researches have proved that mindfulness achieved by meditation helps us to increase a density of grey matter and thus making our brain more active.Finding from the other research proved that meditation helps in reducing heart diseases.

The healthy body helps in living life happily with passion. So why not try something which helps you to achieve a healthy body. Happy Meditation!

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

It’s my love and full attention I want to give to my baby!

This was the first thought which came into my mind when I  delivered my baby. I never knew that journey will be so challenging. Mindful motherhood talks about being present to needs of your baby and giving full attention to him. Its all about being present for your baby needs and attending to his requirements with the presence of mind. It’s very practical for my mother as she thinks to be a mother this should be my natural behavior. But honestly, it’s not. It’s really challenging to put my all thoughts and attention for my baby as in today’s fast-moving world there are so many inputs and outputs to attend.

Thanks to authors who write parenting books which really guides us about facts of parenting which we can only realize once we read it. “Mindful Motherhood’ is one book which really opened my eyes regarding mindful parenting. Casdsandra Vietan, the author of the book, guides you about practical tools for staying sane during pregnancy and your child’s first year.Casandra emphasizes that “Mindfulness can help you meet the challenge and approach every experience with your new baby with open eyes and an open heart”.

Chapters like ‘The observing self’ and ‘The train of thought’ are amazingly described where you get a new vision about yourself and handful tips provided at the end of the chapter really helps in giving you new insight for motherhood.

Motherhood is a journey of bonding with your babies forever. Don’t miss those precious moments of life in the everyday rat race. The best gift which any mother can give to her kid is ‘ Mindful Motherhood’.

The world is full of distractions and thus its very important to live in present. I am grateful to God that I came across this book while browsing parenting section of a library. The way different topics are discussed and various ways are suggested which can help you to follow mindful parenting are really helpful but only if you practice!

To be mindful always is really a skill which has to be developed by practice.

Charu Mehrotra

Promoting Excellence in Women!

Womenlines is proud to present Women of Substance Ms. KV Godha, Founder-Shubharaagam School Of Music, having 18 years of experience in the field of music. Here is the excerpt from her interview-

1.Please share with our readers a little bit about yourself?
I am a Graduate in Dietetics from the University of Madras and holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. Married to a very supportive husband Sowmithri and a mother of two lovely boys Tejas & Surup. Music & Interior designing have been my passion. Loves to be cheerful, creative and always enjoy the company of optimistic people.

2.So when did you venture into this field? And what inspired or motivated you to take a plunge into this venture?

I started my music performances in 1993. I was performing in youth programs in AIR Chennai, both Light & South Indian Classical Music (Carnatic). I came to Singapore in 1995 and from 1996, I joined Singapore Indian Orchestra & Choir – People’s Association. Through this, I got many opportunities to perform in several prestigious National and International Festivals. I also started performing vocal Solo concerts in Local Music festivals & temples. As a Music teacher in an esteemed Indian International School, I learned about various genres of music. I also realized people were interested in learning Carnatic Music but wanted classes closer to their homes. This urged me to take PA Trainer’s Licence. All these motivated me to take Music as my full-time profession. This lead to the Birth of my own Music School – Shubharaagam School Of Music, Singapore in 2011.

3.Can you share with us, some of the challenges you faced during your initial days?
Not having a degree in Music, it was first important to make people understand that I was proficient enough to teach good music. Getting chances to perform was not easy too. But through supportive contacts, I started getting chances to judge National Level Music competitions, do Artistic Directions for various shows, a few television projects through which I gained good recognition as a musician.

4. So how do you balance your personal and professional life?

When you are in performing arts, most of the performances & Festivals happen during weekends when you really need to spend the quality time with your family. During the weekdays I teach in the evenings at various CC’s and weekend I work only on Saturdays. On Sundays, I try my best to spend time with my family. But all this would not be possible without the immense support and encouragement I receive from my husband and my kids at home.

5.What would you suggest to other aspiring women who want to venture out on their own?
Every woman has a talent. Just having talent is not enough. You should share it with your family first. Then once family understands your value, I am sure they are there to encourage and support you to venture into your field of passion. Look for the niche around you and you ‘Must’ believe in yourself. Now it’s time to take that very “First” step. And remember, “Dedication” is the Key to Success!

6.Is there any person who has mentored/supported/inspired you?

My first support is my husband. I would like to thank him and appreciate him for all the support given to me all these years. The other one person whom I would like to show my gratitude and thanks is Mrs. Lalitha Vaidyanathan, Resident conductor of PA’s SIOC, who has supported me from the time I am in Singapore and of course my loved ones and friends.

Charu Mehrotra
Promoting Excellence in Women!

Facts you must know about regular cotton/ no.-organic cotton:
* Cotton covers 2.5% of the world’s cultivated land yet uses 16-25% of the world’s insecticides, more than any other single major crop 
* High levels of agrochemicals are used in the production of non-organic, conventional cotton. Cotton production uses more chemicals per unit area than any other crop and accounts in total for 10-16% of the world’s pesticides (including herbicides, insecticides, and defoliants)
* Chemicals used in the processing of cotton pollute the air and surface waters.
* Residual chemicals may irritate consumers’ skin (specially babies since their skin is much more delicate than that of an adult)
* Decreased biodiversity and shifting equilibrium of ecosystems due to the use of pesticides
Surely, this is not what we want for our children, our families. It may be difficult to comprehend how pesticides sprayed onto cotton can stay on it even after its turned into yarn and fabric and then be absorbed by our skin when we wear it. Simple. Think pain relief or nicotine patches. If the ingredients in these patches worn on your skin can be absorbed by the body, travel through your blood stream and affect the target organ (your pained muscle or your urge to smoke), so can residual carcinogens on the fabric you wear. Remember, these fabrics are there on your body continuously, day after day..year after year. Its not the same fabric our parents’ generation grew up wearing when chemical farming was not the order of the day. Unfortunately, our generation and that of our generations to follow, will not be as lucky, if we do not take a stand today. If the demand stops, the supply will too! And don’t think its too expensive to buy organic clothing. Kill your urge to buy 20 cheap and toxic, brightly coloured clothing’s for your babies in favour of 5 quality, organic ones and you will be easy on your pocket! After all, what goes into your child’s blood, into his cells and organs is more important than what you put on his body!
What should you clothe your babies in: Organic cotton or organic bamboo clothing, look out for GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards) certification
Where can you find them: Aphea Boutique Organique

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