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My food exploration journey so far…

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Food may be essential as fuel for the body but Good Food is fuel for the soul……

By Malcom Forbes

 

-Food as Nirvana

This Life Class is Nirvana for me where I experienced a state of perfect peace, harmony, the joy of togetherness, and happiness in the world of food along with passionate food explorers. 

 

-Food and Experiences

I have never seen or heard about the food in 7 dimensions and I experienced it in this life class through immersion of all the senses and realizing its close connection with so many aspects of life

 

-Food and Memories

On the first day itself, I connected myself with it. It was a quiz where we were shown some pictures and asked to identify the desi vegetables/fruits.  I was really surprised during that activity that I knew those fruits and veggies and could vividly share fond memories of them from my childhood.

 

 

– Food and Cooking!

I can cook enough to survive but inspired by the monsoon mood when we decided to cook momos I undertook the challenge of making Thukpa (my first ever) and I surprised myself when everyone relished it bowl after bowl and asked for the recipe!

– Food and Culture

The ONAM SADYA experience was one of its kind where I cherished the cooking of an elaborate 18-course menu and relished it traditionally on a kela Patta wearing a beautiful golden border saree and gajra along with some very beautiful souls. What an amazing way to experience and immerse in a culture and celebrate togetherness!

 

 

-Food and Heritage

When roaming the streets of Rander I realized the rich heritage of Surat which I have never ever seen or heard of. Not only I felt privileged to visit these charming heritage sites and hear their stories but it also doubled my appetite and joy of eating a delicious bowl of Randeri Khawsa 

 

 

-Food and Travel

Food as a traveler???? Ya each food has a story about its origin- history and its evolution. How it traveled around the world and how it got modified and adapted and how finally it comes to our plate. Amazingly interesting and shocking as well! Pizza is one such example that we explored.

 

-Food and Togetherness

When we all work together I never find any errors, blunders, or any mess even when we face challenges or limitations. Only a deep sense of connection with each other and a sense of effortlessness. Be it the Onam Sadya where we had a gigantic task of cooking an 18-course menu for more than 50 people with barely any exposure to Kerala food or when we had to flip the pizza in the air at Dome!

 

-Food and giving-receiving Joy

I experienced the joy of giving or I must say the joy of receiving during Onam Sadya and lunch at Dome with Jumbish kids. I felt so satisfied when I saw a smile on their faces. It wasn’t giving but receiving deep satisfaction that swelled up my heart.

 

Last but not least Food and Gratitude:-

Thank you so much @fontainheadschool to give such a wonderful life class

I am forever grateful to this opportunity suggested by you @shalininandkumar

and Shahnaz ma’am for unforgettable moments, and for the best experiences, we had together.

 

Chocolate – before and after!

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The first ever reaction that comes to anyone on listening to chocolate is pleasure and comfort. It makes the world go round. It is the ultimate happiness that anyone can savour. We would all agree that everything is good if it is made of chocolate. Most of us would relate chocolate as a way to deal with feelings instead of to satisfy hunger. 

 

We were all super-excited when we learnt that we were going to learn about chocolate. And this is the first thing that we got to read.

 

 

Imagine our disbelief when we learnt that our delicious chocolate has been termed as something that is suited for the consumption of pigs! And then we learnt that what we read was one of the first detailed accounts of the original chocolate that comes from the History of the New World (1564) by the Milanese Girolamo Benzoni, who travelled in Central America. 

 

So the story goes like this. In the early days, before the 16th century, chocolate wasn’t this creamy, rich, sweet, sensuous, soft, decadent and super addictive food that we know of. It was extremely bitter, gruelly, coarse, crumbly and too heavy to eat. More than a treat, it was a treatment, used as a medicine or fed to soldiers as an instant energizer to prepare them for war. 

 

It is only through the human desire to improvise, innovate and derive pleasure that we got the chocolate that we know. It is a great example of human ingenuity in action.

 

So if you were born before the 16th century, your experience with chocolate would have been very different. So different that if you time travelled and reached this day in Switzerland and tasted chocolate, chances are you wouldn’t be able to make any association of one with the other.

 

And this is the short video about the history and evolution of chocolate that we watched,

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibjUpk9Iagk

 

Chocolate has been known and loved for many centuries, not only as food but also as medicine. The process of how chocolate is created right from the cocoa beans that grow inside the pods of the cacao trees that are native to central South America to the bars that we relish was worth learning. 

 

So the next time you find yourself craving some chocolate, don’t dismiss it as simply craving for a sweet treat. It could be an important signal that your heart is in need of love. Give in to the desire and buy yourself a big bar.  

 

Me and my ramblings – an inward journey (7D food exploration)

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What is a person who is not a cook by choice doing in a food workshop? Well, learning to like the 7-dimensional experience associated with food, that’s what!

What enticed me to the workshop possibility was the wonderful collage of videos and associated big ideas that came my way as this year’s life class possibility. I filled it up just because it was something different. Something that seemed hands-on. And the workshop has not disappointed. If anything it has helped me learn a lot about myself as a person.

Here are four things I have understood about myself through the 6 days journey:
1. I have a cooking preference – being an introvert by nature, I like my kitchen space to myself. I don’t like people hovering and I am a stickler for authenticity in names (“Dhosa” vs “Thosai” #IYKYK)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BfiVwZuXsSu9bTfa9

2. I need to learn to let go of my perceptions – when I sat down to relish the Onam Sadya meal myself I was surprised at how authentic it tasted despite being cooked by people who knew little to nothing about the dish. I learnt that letting people enjoy a challenge is not bad after all! I assumed that people with varied backgrounds will find it difficult to learn how to cook a typical dish – but the Onam Sadhi dismantled that perception, and how!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZYVksDbRumjfMb6A

3. It is not bad to watch a youtube video and learn how to cook a dish – when I did that with the momo-making exercise, I was pleasantly surprised that I could do something that I had been making fun of for so long. I now watch these Instagram reels on making food (watch, not make, so don’t consider yourself invited!)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XkeStGu6ipqckxSPA

4. In giving we receive – the visit to Dome Pizzeria was one of the most beautiful learning experiences about being a kind/non-judgemental teacher (Thanks, Shrey). It also underscored for me the assumption that children who are ‘underprivileged’ need us to ‘help’ them. What we did there was not charity. It was something we did to make ourselves feel good (compounded by the fact that the Pizza and Iced-tea we served them is not the kind they enjoy).
https://photos.app.goo.gl/81rfzGYVrbu1eHbF8

Thankful for the experience! But if at the end of it, you ask me ‘why the name 7D?’ I’ll say, just because Shahnaz is extremely creative!

Growing through Learning

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As rightly quoted “You have to expect things from yourself before you can do them”.

Emotional intelligence is all about learning about 5 major Domain that is self awareness, Self regulation, Motivation, Empathy and Social skills.

Through the process of Scaffolding, we are learning each Domain and understanding how to expect from oneself in order to implement it.

How small gestures of Mindful listening, Mindful Talking, Being Mindful for your action can help you balance relationship at personal and professional level.

 

Happy Learning!

How to achieve the best person in you, via awareness of cognitive biases

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The Critical Thinking session on days 3 and 4
After a long and interesting discussion about different Biases, I conclude with an understanding, that humans can’t live without Biases. Biases will always appear in every action in the face of memory, Social, Learning, Belief, Mony, and politics. but when you ask yourself that
Why I have taken this action?
Why I am thinking like this? or
Why the other one is thinking like this?
What is my perspective or the other one’s perspective?
It helps to find the answer to what is right and what is wrong. and
We didn’t caught in our assumptions, conclusions, and beliefs without having proper knowledge which may lead us to wrong decisions.
As we see in Mahabharat and Ramayan the great role models with great tolerance and a great influencer.
The one who live with rules and values The one who set new rules and values
Beautiful examples of critical thinkers and in Hinduism,
It is called योगस्थ बुद्धि who is a very balanced thinker and who can take decisions with the end in their mind and didn’t judge anyone with Biases.
50 Cognitive Biases in the Modern World

Emotional Intellegence

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सबसे पहले तो रितू जी और पिंकी जी का धन्यवाद जिन्होंने Emotional Intelligence क्या है और आज हम जो VUCA world में जी रहे है इसमें यह कितना ज़रूरी है | मैंने यह भी सीखा कि किस तरह से mindfulness practice को develop करना है और हमें हर परिस्थिति में शांत और धैर्य रखना है | मैंने यह भी सीखा कि pleasure, passion और purpose किस तरफ से एक दूसरे से inter -related है | मैंने यह भी सीखा कि आत्म-जागरूकता भावनात्मक बुद्धिमत्ता का प्रमुख क्षेत्र है जो अन्य सभी को सक्षम बनाता है | मैंने resilience क्या है सीखा और समझा कि दुर्भाग्य या परिवर्तन के लिए आसानी से समायोजन से उबरने की क्षमता ही resilience है |

Emotional Intelligence

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I had just heard the terminology of emotional intelligence before the start of this life class, but now I realize after attending four sessions how important it is in my professional as well as personal life, and how this skill is very much required in today’s VUCA world. What are the three types of happiness and how pleasure, passion and purpose are very much interdependent and how these forms are of happiness are related to motivation and what are the three steps process of motivation, how I have to align my work with the values I possess, what are the values the famous personalities used to possess, and how resilience is going to help to overcome from the failure.

CT Day 3-4 Baises and Ethical Delamas

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My learning from CT Day 3 and 4:

  1. I got to about the different types of biases. In real life, we use all the bais. Knowing about bais will help in to think from different perspectives, everyone is right in their way. Keeping aside the affinity bias will help me to take a fair decision.
          2. Ethical dilemmas- Knowing about my own moral values and understanding that every individual has their own moral value that varies from culture to culture.
          3. Research work – While the research task, I learned that asking questions to myself helped me to know the truth about the topic/issue.
Overall: Respecting an individual’s perspective as everyone belings different culture but when needed we should also be making a decision based on universal truth.

 

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