SPIRIT OF MUMBAI

The cheerful faces of excited children blushed the red roses at the World Vision India  Partners Meet in Mumbai on 27th February. I know there are too many adverbs in a single sentence but can not help praising the World Vision India. Such was the exhilarating , refreshing and mood-boosting atmosphere at the partners meet that, all of us first time visitors are grateful to World Vision India for absorbing us in their Multi-Dimensional activities. World Vision India is a Christian humanitarian organization working to create lasting change in the lives of children, families and communities living in poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, caste, race, ethnicity or gender. Spread across 174 districts in India, World Vision works through long-term sustainable community development programmes and immediate disaster relief assistance I am passionate about children-cause so I grabbed this opportunity to blog for World Vision India...

First thing's first. The first time I glimpsed   Tea Villa Cafe , Hill Road, Bandra, I was in an auto. I wanted to rush in, to have a closer look but it was house full on Sunday noon at 3 pm. So I decided to try out my luck on Wednesday , with blogger-buddies. Bandra is the queen of suburbs and Tea Villa Cafe is Senorita of Bandra. As soon as you enter  Tea Villa Cafe , La Senora De Villa , the Cupsy ( the pun is intended ) , curvy statue grabs your attention full on, And then there is no looking back literally as there are so many pretty, cute nick-knacks to keep you enthralled. The  Tea Villa cafe   is specious with 4 levels.   First,  entrance-level, 2nd - 2 steps bellow ( big area ) , 3rd - dining plus live kitchen   serving freshly cooked food  and 4th - Upstairs, kind of balcony ). The entire feel is full and still not stuffy.  I am more than curious to know, who the talented architect, interior decorator of this lov...

Prasaadam ( Blessed Food ) - A Matter of Pride ' Anna he Poornabrahmma'  - a very famous Sanskrit proverb, means the Food is as Important ( Holistic ) as the whole Universe. The one who cooks the food lovingly and feeds it to his / her loved ones with all heart is the God / Goddess. Godly ( blessed by God ) food is called ' Prasaadam ' in Sanskrit . Naturally cooking is a matter of pride and Love . Being a loving, caring Mother / Father and nurturing the child to an accomplished adulthood is an achievement. This grown up child then becomes the loving , caring parent of his own child, an exact replica of his / her parents. The common link between the generations is the FOOD , cooked and fed with heart full of tender Love . Cooking and feeding our family and friends can never be a chore as it is the matter of Pride for both .    The food may be as simple as Dal, Rice , Subzi and Roti but as it is cooked with the intention of making our own people ha...

Don't just 'Say Cheese' , say  #GoCheese  Why?. Read on... Seeing is believing and that's why the food bloggers from Mumbai were invited by Femina to visit the #GoCheeseWorld located at Manchar village, Pune for FAM trip.  On 19th March 2016, we set off from Bandra to Manchar (  Parag Milk Foods  - #GoCheese plant ) to the tune of Antakshari.  Ms.Pooja  Khanna   2blissofbaking.com    Best Baking Blogger  and her   daughters made our 3 hours journey sweet n swift. The prettiest, nutty brownies I had ever eaten, were baked and generously shared with the whole lot of bloggers by Pooja.  Geeta Shridhar  FoodExpress from Chennai   , khilaaoed Idli-podi to all, Cadbury chocolates to some and gave her share of Brownie to ME. Our chirpy hostess  Ms. Sofia Event Manager of Femina , distributed boxes of Mongini's snacks.  To top this all Food fun, our travelling from Mumbai to Ma...

Being a Journalist, that too a Woman, I had always received special invites and attended a lots of  International Women's Day  events. So this year was no big deal.  Ahaa... But wait , this VWash-VWoman of the Year 2016 ( organized by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals )  invite was absolutely a MUST-attend, Most-awaited event as my dear friend Mrs. Geeta Shridhar was the AWARD-Winner. I had known Geeta, since my Facebook-winning spree. Most of the times, we were co-winners of the various social media contests. Our communication was restricted to 'Congratulations .... Same to you... All the best ...'. We had never met in person.  We first met at the Indibloggers meet after Geeta joined the Blog-wagon with ' Food Express from Chennai ' . By then I was a pro with my ' Spirit Of Mumbai '.  I introduced Geeta to other IndiBlogger-members and new blogging communities like Blogmint, Blogadda. Geeta took to blogging with the same zest as she had been a...