Kiran Manral's Blog, page 51
March 15, 2015
Friday, March 20th, aPaulogy Worli 6 to 8 pm
Friday, March 20th. 6 to 8 pm. aPaulogy Gallery Worli. Four wonderful writers. Parul Sharma, Meghna Pant, Anjali Kirpalani and Aastha Atray. And yes, me. Do come if you can. It promises to be fun.
March 12, 2015
Glow With Dove
The other evening, the good people at Dove invited me to moderate a panel discussion for an event they were doing. The panelists included well-known dermatologist Aparna Santhanam, celebrated yoga guru Deepika Mehta and celebrity nutritionist Shonali Sabherwal, and the premise of the discussion was “Beauty begins with Care”, as a precursor to an experiment they conducted to show that beauty does not require elaborate rituals; that beauty, in fact, comes from the simplest acts of care.
It was a premise that sat well with me, given I am of the old school of thought that believes in minimal fancy stuff but stick to a stringent daily care routine of minimum fuss. I must clean and moisturise and use sun block every single day.�� I must clean my face and moisturise face and limbs and feet before sleeping. I�� must oil my hair overnight at least thrice a week. And that’s where I end. I visit the salon furtively, quick hurried visits primarily for hair cuts and defoliation. My last facial must have been when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, no seriously, the last I can remember is the day of the brat’s naming ceremony. He’s 11 now.
It was an interesting panel discussion, and here are some highlights.
From Dr Aparna Santhanam : Use a moisturising cleanser–soap or body wash in the shower so you don’t need to moisturise again. The first thing in the morning fill your mouth with water while you wash your face. Cleanse, tone, moisturise and apply sunscreen every single day even if you aren’t stepping out of the house. Be mindful of what you do, create certain daily rituals of care.
From Shonali Sabherwal : Eat right, be mindful (that wonderful word again) about what you eat. Stay hydrated, but don’t over do the water intake. Cut out the processed food, try to get as much colour from natural foods into your body. Brown rice, pumpkin, greens, nuts, you can’t get enough of these.
From Deepika Mehta : Start with your posture, stand straight, sit up straight. The right posture will automatically energise you. Be conscious of your breathing, do simple exercises in your chair that help you relax your body, five minutes of de stressing through the day can only help.
Some pictures from the evening.
And yes, what the experiment was all about here.
March 8, 2015
Of when the brat was on Mad Stuff With Rob
It all started the day I received a call from a kindly person from a music label asking me if I would kindly come onto a show which is quite the bee’s knees with kids keen on what one might call, the artistic instinct. Given that the only artistic instinct my offspring displays is limited to drawing the slogans of each individual WWE player or Pokemon, my first instinct was to demur gracefully. But then the offspring has always been one for “being in a shoot” given a number of his acquaintances have been so immortalized, and he has long gotten over the high of his debut appearance in a Tangerine Home Couture commercial we did a while ago, and I agreed. The show, as you might have guessed, is Mad Stuff With Rob, and the brat was chewing his nails down to the knuckle at the prospect of having to display his non existent artistic skills. “Should I practiss my drawing?” he asked me in hushed serious tone the previous night, hoping to rectify in a couple of hours, a lifetime of not taking putting crayon or pencil to paper in a serious bid to create a work of art. “I’d rather you practice your Math right now,” I replied, given that the final exam is doing the Damocles sword act over our combined heads. The next day, after school, we arrived at the appointed hour at the studio. Rob was hard at work in front of the camera for another episode featuring the interesting premise of converting rocks into Stone Age people. We stared on, from the shadows, fascinated at how his hands worked swiftly, to literally breathe life into a rock. I also had to perfect the art of clamping a hand on the brat’s mouth in order to get him to stay zipped when his natural inclination to declaim loud and clear took over, despite the “Silent” warning as we tiptoed in, given the shoot was on. Of course, when the shot was done and Rob came across for the “ShakeHand” I must confess, the offspring hid his starstruckness rather well, asking me on an aside when Rob went off to change for the next shot whether he could ask for an autograph. Then we were on. Let me not give away what we did on the show, but let it go on record that the brat didn’t protest the make up slapped on. And that he learnt a rather scary prank which would have unwary souls tucking themselves back into their skins after they’ve been at the receiving end of it. Here’s a still from the shoot. The episode will be out on the Youtube channel in April. 
YouTube: www.YouTube.com/MadStuffWithRob
Facebook: @MadStuffWithRob
Twitter: @MadMadRob
Instagram: @MadStuffWithRob
In the company of men.
Originally posted on Therapy Sherapy:
In the company of men.
So my Facebook and Twitter, is filled with people sharing India���s Daughter Documentary. I wonder if this is perpetuating a prejudice of it���s own kind, I understand there are men out there, with an attitude documented, but I have a different story to tell.
So I choose to look at men like my husband, brother and a lot of my friends on my Facebook list who are some of the most compassionate, sensitive and beautiful human beings. These men are what I call humanists, they felt the same pain as I felt when the Nirbhaya incident happened. They were hurt, tormented and wondered how we could change it. To stereotype, Indian men and put them in a box, I don���t think I agree with that statement. I read a post about an Indian student, who lost their internship abroad due to this prevalent bias that���
View original 150 more words
February 23, 2015
My Yowoto post this week: The Brat Is Introduced To Deadlines
It was late at night and all through the house, nothing stirred, not even a mouse. The offspring was hard at work, cutting, sticking, drawing and writing. If anything, the offspring���s approach to school projects has convinced me that he works best under the pressure of impending deadlines���an ability he has indeed drawn from me. He needs, like me, the rush of adrenaline pumping through the system to get cracking.
It began a few weeks ago. Nestled among the stash of stray sheets in his school bag came the neatly stapled set of papers which every term would put the fear of god into my heart. This fear would turn me to drink if I didn���t have deep calming breaths. To not turn to the first option of reaching out with a shaking hand for the spirit that cheers is always an uphill climb. Project Guidelines, says this bunch of stapled sheets, rather innocuously on its cover sheet. Contained within are the guidelines and deadlines that tell us what needs to be done and submitted for the projects for every subject.
I skim read through them nervously while an anxious eye made mental notes of all that had to be collected. Pictures. Information. Material that would necessitate a visit to the stationery store. In my super-efficient, cape on supermom mode, I quickly made a list of the materials required for each project, the submission deadlines for each, in my diary and resolved to collate them all well in time so that the offspring could work on each project in a leisurely manner. Did you just snort in derisive laughter?
I should have known better, you say? Well, I should have, but what is that about hope rising eternal in the maternal breast, etc, and all that holds the universe together being love, hope and duct tape. Yes, I got the duct tape too. And the chart papers. And the thermocol. And the satin ribbons. And the decals. And the blank sheets. And the scrap books. And the brown paper to cover the scrap books.
Read the rest of the post here
February 19, 2015
A twitter chat and a FB chat
Was on the Verve Book Club twitter chat about Romance in Contemporary Times yesterday.
And today, am on the She Reads South Asia RomFest 15 Facebook Chat where 14 romance authors talk about romance over 14 days.
February 18, 2015
Mathematics-Fun, Fact and Fiction by Riti Prasad
A brief conversation with her about how the book came about:
Why did you write this book?
Learning never stops and that is the entire idea behind the book. I would like parents to use this book as a learning journey or discovery exercise wherein each time you read the book, you find a new angle or concept for it. For children in the age group 6-8 it would be more like a great story with some mathematical concepts. For older children it is more to do with the mathematical idea and problems at the end of the stories. Apart from that there is knowledge of new cities, their culture, or even something totally unrelated as the challenges of a rabbit farmer. The book sort of grows along with the children
What was the inspiration behind this book?
I enjoy cracking mathematical and logical problems and that is what inspired me. Add literature to it and it is a potent combination for someone who enjoys all the above subjects. The book was a sort of expression of my own interests in a tangible form and something which I hope other parents and children will enjoy as much as I enjoyed writing it.
What sort of research did you put into collecting the stories for the book?
I mostly used available material from the internet and delved deep into my memory for the stories that I had heard which had a mathematical connect.
I focused on collecting material from across the world ethnicity so that it would have an element of traveling the world through stories. For example the story about weighing the elephant is based in China and the Counting story is based in the Horn of Africa.
It would be fun for children to point out the countries and continents in a globe as they read so that each concept is etched in their mind like a picture.
You can order your copy of the book here.
And some covers not mine own I have a soft corner for…
…been honoured to give cover quotes for some lovely books. Here they are, in no particular order.
��
