Merry Merry Month of May

So blue so green 

In the beginning of the year, I had written that 2013 is the year of hope on my blog. So far it has not turned out the way I have planned. But then I remember one of my favorite verses from Gita to keep me going

“In this endeavor there is no loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.40)

Most unnerving question:
Often times during the interview process, I have been asked about my leadership skills. Most people think that the “Tell me about yourself” question is a curveball for them, however for me it’s the leadership question. They (the interviewers) typically ask me “What do you think are the qualities of a true leader?”. Thank God I came across this sensible article summarizing what it takes to be a true leader. This is what the article says:

1. Share Authentically— Unlock The Power of Vulnerability

2.  Express Authentically— Unlock The Power of Individuality

3. Listen Authentically— Unlock The Power of Presence

4.  Acknowledge Authentically—  Unlock The Power of Appreciation

5.  Serve Authentically—  Unlock The Power of Other-Centeredness 

If you want to read the entire article, please click here. 

Last week:

Most of last week went in attending one seminar or sessions after another. There were quite a few interesting sessions going on climate change and urban resilience in the wake of Sandy. I made sure to be a part of as many as possible. 

Climate Change event @ Asia Society, NYC

It’s interesting to see how people perceive the issue of climate change coming from different walks of life. Personally ultimately it boils down to being all about money and politics. 
I also attended an interesting event at Accenture in NYC for building up skill sets in US for jobseekers like me. This was organized by my favorite organization Upwardly Global.

Cooking at home:

One thing that I did was to cook a lot at home all of last week. I am really hooked on to breakfast smoothies these days.  Like I mentioned earlier, the beauty of the smoothies is that you can add any and everything edible that suits your palatte and give it a whirl. Voila smoothie is ready! To make things extra healthy, at times I throw in almonds and dried figs for protein.

Breakfast staple now

I also made aaloo aur hare pyaaz ki sabzi (scallion/spring onions dnd potatoes curry) after a very long time. I paired it with ghiye/lauki ki sabzi (bottle gourd’s curry). Mimi and Juhi’s recipes never fail!

As good as it gets.

Rohith was in mood for some aaloo ghobhi ki sabzi (cauliflower and potatoes curry), so this also featured one of the evenings for dinner.

Here you go

Rohith volunteered to make pasta for dinner as I had backache last week after beginning my 21 days challenge. It was as good as the last time.

Labor of love

With all the leftover veggies at home, I quickly assembled the mixed vegetable stuffed sandwich for breakfast one of the morning last week. I will share the picture of the ingenious gadget that I have got from India for making sandwiches in my next blog post.

Product of an ingenious gadget

Over the weekend, Rohith again displayed his culinary skills while making breakfast for us. He also threw in some authentic has browns!

Restaurant style

Juhi teased me over the weekend with this cook off pic, which she made and shared on Saturday. 

Masterchef Stmaford, MA: Mrs. Juhi Gupta!

To curb our taste buds, we decided to settle on something doable. Since we had not given the baigan ka bhartaa (Indian eggplant/brinjal curry) a try in a while that featured on one of the evenings over the weekend at the Roy’s household.

Mouthwatering. Isn’t it?

That green paint like stuff in the bowels is yogurt in hare dhaniye ki chutney (cilantro/coriander’s chutney). Don’t be turned off by it’s look. It tasted wonderful when paired with the bharta.

Mangoes appeared in our local neighborhood market, so here you go.

Dessert, Indian style

I told Rohith about one of my childhood stories. During the summer vacation at our Nana Ji’s (Maternal grandpa’s) place in Delhi we used to choose the number mangoes equal to the number of cousins for making the mangoshake as dessert. The reason being the pits of those mangoes were later equally distributed between us. Those were the days my friends!

Workout at home:

I have been pretty disciplined all along to continue my 21 days Best Body (BB) challenge so far. This is what I am doing all along if you would like to try too

• Get rid of muffin tops in 5 easy moves
• Battle of the bulge: Yoga sequence to get rid of muffin top
• Get rid of muffin top and get 6 pack abs.

It takes me a total of 45 minutes to do the entire routine. I have divided it between morning and evening sessions to stay motivated. 

I have ache in hamstrings, gluts and back, however I am not backing down for sure.

Weekend ahead:

We have a long weekend coming up as it’s  Memorial Day in the US. The plans are not yet concrete as there are two or three options to spend it. I will let you guys know next week what we did. 

Have a rocking weekend ahead folks! xxxx

Question of the day:

• Do you have any plans for the long weekend?
• Is there any unnerving question that you faced and what was your answer?

 Do write to me at pallavibhar at gmail dot com or comment below.