To Cook is an Art

Food is an integral part of our life i.e. our basic need. Before 50 years food had got significance and need locally. Means Maharashtrian family used to cook Maharashtrian food, South Indian family used to cook South Indian food, North Indian family used to cook north Indian food, US family used to cook American food and in Korean family used to cook Korean food. But as we saw that globalization happened due to various jobs or businesses this food culture has been revolutionized tremendously. Slowly people started preparing inter region cuisines then cross country cuisines, even we have a huge contribution of social media tools like you tube, instagram, facebook's contribution a lot in this. And at present we get to know any kind of cuisines we ask for through these different medias.

But at present food is not limited to eating only ; it has developed a completely new branch in education and business which is flourished like anything in these days. Culinary skill which was considered as supposed to be in the families; now has got many professional degrees in Universities and good job openings and businesses too. Even entry of men in this field also drew lot of population in this field. And so the competition is also increased. Culinary skill which was supposed to be taught in restaurants or in bakeries locally to other men or women has got entry to various professional degrees in universities. Previously only ladies used to cook food. But at present i see many best men chefs who cook the best of food and even i acknowledged it that some relate their recipes to their mother or grand mother's recipes. 

When we talk about cooking. I believe anybody can cook. Joke apart if you are really foodie or have love for cooking then you will enjoy this film as Ratatouille ( This film set mostly in Paris). But anybody can't become best cook. In previous time only women used to cook , hardly some men used to cook. A women should cook it was unsaid rule. But as women started working outside due to job or business in short for their career a new unsaid rule came that men is expected to cook to divide the family responsibilities or to run the family smoothly. Whatever it is. It is completely different aspect. But i am to the point that a women must know cooking.

If a man know cooking it is good too. But a women must know cooking. It is not i believe this because i have some orthodox thoughts or something. But i have different view point to this. Physically and biologically God created men and women altogether differently. Both have strengths and weaknesses in their own. Women is very strong in herself if she decide she can do anything. And here we take only positive side of her , so provided it is a good motive. A women is a pillar of a house. If she is only a daughter in a house then also she can better give wisdom thoughts to everybody in a house. She unknowingly start taking care of the family. Her presence itself can bring lot of positivity in the house. Her lookout to pay attention to small small things in the family surprises everybody in the family. In short she has very positive vibrations in herself. Many girls or women have strong intuition about things in life also. Like every individual ;  It depends on her ; whether to get married or not. But if she get married then she has that much power to change the life of the person in a very positive way. 

Here i am talking from women point of view only. Not talking about men otherwise it would be altogether different topic to discuss. She can either make a family or break a family. She can make the other person's life either heaven or hell. In short i mean to say her positive vibrations, the good manners she has been brought up with, quality like having contentment in life, kindness and love for family can make a loving family and if such lady cooks the food for the family with love it nurtures the health of the family. It can help to keep the family's health in a good condition. I know some of the women who doesn't know cooking. They might laugh on these all things that how she is relating all these things to a good family health. But a wise and sensible women can easily understand what i mean to say by this. But in this era any lady who proudly says she doesn't know cooking  ( i came across some ladies who are very proud to say they don't know cooking)  i feel pity on her. As food is so important part of life and it makes our health, so complete dependency in this matter it totally inconvenient. And we already know if a lady do so much for the family but it is again a question how much she is paying attention at her eating habits. So i believe that a women should cook and that too to be a best cook in the family and should be knowing what kind of food she is eating and feeding to the family. Today's women is quite blessed that she has got so many opportunities and such a freedom to develop her career but being a woman we should not forget that cooking could be our basic skill as it provides the basis for life.

As anybody can cook but the real task is to become the best cook. Cooking is an art. It is the art which is watered with the expensive ingredient called love. Why i say expensive because anybody can cook but to cook with kindness and love all the time is real skill. And i learned this skill from my mother. I see she can cook with equal enthusiasm, patience, love and care for her family. With cooking we understand what kind of food we are feeding to the family. What is getting extra and what is lacking. A gourmet can easily figure it out. When i was in 7th standard i started cooking experiments. Actually because of my studies for 10th, 12th and then Engineering my mother never used to ask me to cook. Though i was liking it a lot. She used to say after you finish your studies then you do. But as i was liking to cook i used to cook in between, used to do different experiments in cooking; the first recipe i tried khichadi (Indian traditional dish made of dal and rice and some spices) and then later when that led to biryani i also don't know. After i finished my studies then i joined IT company that time also i used to ask my mother to teach me cooking( though till the time i was able to cook properly but i was expecting to cook most of the Indian traditional recipes) otherwise how i will learn it. But she used to say you can do it, it is not that difficult. And as the time passed today i can cook almost everything in Maharashtrian, non Maharashtrian recipes and best of some Maharashtrian recipes too. 

My mother herself is best in cooking. And the Diwali (Indian traditional festival in Hindu culture) homemade sweets which she prepares that i like only from her hand and not prepared by others. Even i could achieve some expertise in some of the Diwali sweet items from her. To this point honestly speaking my mother never taught me cooking formally but she made me to observe her unknowingly when she was cooking and like that i learned cooking. So one day she said i was knowing it is easy for you to learn cooking you just needed to observe me how i cook. And now i myself can cook best as others say. I am not a foodie. But i like to cook different recipes. I have good collection of recipe books also out of which the one of my favorite is Mrs. Jayashree Deshpande, wife of Pu La Deshpande's(a well known author from Marathi literature in India) book. Even if i see some new recipe on social media i try to customize it as per my liking and prepare it. But what is basic thing i have in this is liking for cooking. Which is very important. 

Cooking is not easy as it is like preparing food for a "यज्ञ कर्म" (yajna karma). Like when we perform यज्ञ (yajna - from Indian tradition, in Hinduism, yajna is a ritual of offering to the Gods that involves a sacred fire and also known as Havan. Yajnas are purposeful and can be performed to sustain the natural order of the Universe. Yajnas are performed in front of a sacred fire, often with mantras. The ritual requires the performer and objects used to be pure and the ritual to be performed correctly.) that time we put so many items in it to satisfy the five tattvas in the Universe. When the food you prepare is best and eaten by somebody you are satisfying their test buds, fulfilling the hunger of their stomach and satisfying their soul. Which gives you blessing that's why you become one part in the chain of delivering food to the hungry. If you know the food chain then it is this way; first the God who makes the grains or seeds available then it the farmer who sow the grains or seeds and grow crops, then the supplier who buys it  from farmer, then the shopkeeper then the household owner who buys it then the one who cooks the food and makes it available to you for eating. So after eating that food we should express your gratitude to all the people in the food chain who makes the food available and ready to eat; this including the God and after eating the food we should say "अन्नदाता सुखी भव:" (Annadata sukhi bhava) to express the gratitude towards them. 

So for becoming best cook you should be first liking to cook, then liking for different vegetables and fruits. If we see every vegetable is unique in itself with the shape, color(even in green we have lots of shades in green vegetables), texture, touch and smell. A gourmet cook can just smell the raw vegetables, green leafy vegetables and say whether to buy it or not. Just by seeing the Indian spices smelling its aroma ; it can get to know whether they are quite fresh or very old to use or not. Indian recipes are knowing for the handful use of spices. So with cooking one should be expertise in this also. Even if the person try some different dishes outside ; may be in restaurants, it should understand easily which spice is more and which is less. And it is very delightful task. Those people who underestimate cooking or those ladies who proudly say they don't know cooking i say they are unfortunate to miss such a bliss from nature. Because when i hear some lady proudly saying she can't cook i smile in my mind that she is missing this joy in life. But after all it is everybody's choice whether one should cook or not. The different kind of vegetables we see; just take example of Indian pumpkin. If you are a cooking lover or just a foodie also see the texture and the design which is there on the outside shell of the pumpkin. It is so unique in itself. 

Every pumpkin fruit has different design, different shades, some dark green, some orange itself so many shades some light and some dark shades, some light green with the unique designs on the pumpkin. You just keep on observing it. And when i see the color and design i could say only this statement " Wow what a creativity. God is great,". Such a creativity He has. If you know about Zen system in spirituality, Zen creates different patterns with pebbles in such a way that every pattern is unique and should not be repeated again. So once you keep on looking at the pattern the person gradually attains the state of thoughtlessness for some time. Thoughtlessness means the state of having no thoughts at all. And this can be achieved for some microseconds/seconds/minutes. When the person starts looking at the Zen pattern the motive is this only to make that person thoughtlessness for some time. Then that person get one thought and then the other thought so the time span in between these 2 thoughts that is expected to get increased by microseconds, then seconds and then minutes in this. It helps the person to control the thoughts. It is not about this one statement only. This process may take lot of time , may be days, months depending on that individual. Likewise when you keep on seeing the different designs on the pumpkin itself for the fraction of seconds we forget the other things and just keep on observing it as it is so unique and beautiful. And it gives us happiness by praising that creative work of God. 

                               

After this also for preparing food you should have well being thoughts for others who eat that food. Care, love and kindness for others. For the best food if the other person is generous you may get praise for the best preparation but it is the secondary feeling. The feeling from your side should be to prepare the best food because it is again the creative work which requires skill.
So i say cooking is an art it is not like just to cook food. But to cook the hygienic and best and tasty food and then the part comes to decorate and present the food in best way.

Corporate Communication II

In the previous article of Corporate Communication I (https://chhayashinde.blogspot.com/2019/03/corporate-communication.html) we have seen the basics of communication in professional life. In this article we'll see some more tips of how to achieve effective corporate communication. Today's world is competitive world. Everything is moving fast and with a greater pace with time. The one who is updated with new technologies and a move on attitude survives otherwise the one stage comes where one become stagnant and stops your progress. The mantra of this era is ‘Jack of all and Master of one’. One should have a learning attitude always. For working in IT field for over a decade i understood that there is no alternative to continuous learning. May be it is related to technology or soft skills. But it is very important to keep ourselves updated with the present market trend.

With respect to above concept I would like to mention that in previous article of Corporate Communication I; I have mentioned some etiquettes to communicate with your colleagues, your superiors and your subordinates also. Many times we mention that books are the best friends to make you learn many new things or make you aware of your hidden talents, or helping you to grow morally, intellectually and financially. Actually I would say books are the one of the best friends in your life which gives you the treasure for a lifetime that no one can snatch that from you.  Now we see many books in market which gives you knowledge to improve your corporate communication. These books really help you if you identify your weaker points and can try to improve it with the help of those books. Now in this article we’ll see some more things which will enhance your corporate etiquettes.

Though one is an engineer it is also important that he should have some knowledge of other fields also, could be related to medical, education, social causes, bio-tech and agriculture. It is difficult that one could get mastery in all those(though in previous time we had many examples who were master in engineering, architecture etc.) but at present at least one should be Jack of this to know overview of these fields. But one has to take care that while acquiring this knowledge one should be enough careful that is not gathering the false information. One should always have expert’s advice about this. Even choosing the expert or right mentor in that field to refer the literature or guidance is again a task we need wisdom. Now you will say how it is related to effective corporate communication? So as we gather the right knowledge in that field, with a better understanding; it boosts our confidence. With confidence you can put your points constructively and without hesitation. There wouldn't be 'i think' concept and there would be 'i believe' concept with the right knowledge. So it is important to increase your knowledge in a right way.

E-mail skills: 

In corporate communication it is very important that you should have better mail writing skill to communicate with the stakeholders; the business points that you want to communicate. It is said that if you are clear about what you want to communicate through words then it becomes easy for you to put it in writing. If you are good in writing business mail that is good, but if you are not then you should increase reading about it or take the occasional internal trainings in the organizations to improve your E-mail writing skills. The better you have writing skill the more sorted your thoughts are or vice versa. The better you will put your points in front of others. So it is very important that you should have better mail writing skill. The first thing you should keep in mind that the E-mail should be in simple language, no need to use very hi-fi language in it. E-mail writing skill include many things; small small things like addressing the person's first name, difference between hi and hello, specifically using first name of the person as it create more influence than the surname. The author should be knowing what he want to communicate through mail. Put it in points, don't beat about the bush or more stretch the point but write to the point, try to keep it short and sweet and in different sections(no need of paragraph but different sections).  IT company’s have acquired the trend of using the first name of the person specifically which they call as first name culture. So a fresher or intern find it difficult to adapt to it. But the mentor or the seniors should make them aware of this. So it is in practice that when we write mail that time addressing the first name of the person is a sign of fair and healthy communication. When writing corporate mail we should use business shortcuts; as there are many but can give some examples like OOF/OOO,EOD,ASAP and ETA etc.

 As I mentioned the most important thing in corporate communication is E -mail writing skill. Work on it and you would be able to write authentic mails without struggling much or asking somebody every now and then to review it. But if you are not better in writing, you feel like you can miss some points then you can ask some of your colleagues to review it also. In corporates keep most of the things in written. Let whatever it is daily tasks, your project related important things, your KT plan, your daily engaged time – like report, the daily task assigned to you in terms of deliverables or to your juniors for which you are answerable. Because at the end of the day you will find it better to keep track of things.

Corporate communications always include things to have open and empathetic communication with your colleagues including your juniors and seniors. You should give equal importance to every person. If you are a Team Lead/Manager you should have clear communication with your team members about your expectations from them; from their role and responsibilities in the team.  If you are finding some of the team members are over efficient you should get their talent focused to your superiors. When you make progress in your work you should keep in mind that you should be always helping others as well as keeping a selfless and open mind towards other’s progress. You should be also helping some of your juniors by putting their progress to a higher level in the organization because your words matter somewhere. This is healthy professional attitude which also help you in your corporate communication. While handling the team I got to know that it is very important to be helpful to junior team members where you find that they are having some weaker points and as a Team Lead/Manager you have authority to improve their weaker points by putting them to specific trainings may be technical/non-technical. There are people you will come across who have negative attitude towards the work too. I believe everybody should have mindset to have a motto of ‘Work is Worship’. When you are in a position where your words matter, some people follow your way of work ; you should have better knowledge of judging people’s attitude and training them on their weaker aspects. When you try to implement these good habits in you ; you don't need to pretend anything. You actually become that person and it brings lot of good benefits for you professionally and personally too.

This subject has more small small tips also to note down here but it is individual’s responsibility also to improve his/her personality with the help of reading more and more articles, keeping a learning attitude, improving work methodologies, practicing empathy in communication, working hard and remaining honest with the type of work they do, having transparent communicating and by reading the nature of the people they work with. It is also important that our point of view changes our vision towards world. So it is individual’s responsibility to create a healthy environment around them in the organization so that it could motivate the person itself as well as spread the positive vibes for all.

In The Loop Of Thanks and Sorry

We as humans are social species who likes to be around people. Likes to interact with people. Likes to exchange thoughts with people. Likes to spend time with people. Sometimes our thought process and going in life match with some people and with some it doesn’t match.

1. Role of Personality:

Our personality is made up of what situation we brought up in, how we communicate with others, what values we carry while living life, what is priority for us while living life, are we kind and generous towards others or are we callous towards others, are we empathetic towards others, are we courteous, are we confidant with our thoughts, do we believe that we owe something to ourselves as well as to the entire humankind. These all aspects make our personality.

We all brought up in totally different environments depending on our cultures, our family values, our outlook towards life, our role models and our idols in life. Based on that we carry our emotions. We build some perspective towards life. We may develop some beliefs towards some people based on communicating with them. Which can generate positive and negative feelings for such people in our mind. We also carry our ego and superego with us from our childhood. Ideally while living life both should be in moderate and shouldn’t be overdo otherwise it disturbs the balance in life and creates different problems. We should protect our self esteem and other's too when we deal with others. We should not suppress by somebody not to aggress to somebody. And any person having too much ego is nothing less than having a disease. Generally, the ego may boost in anybody as per the knowledge of the person increases or it’s what kind of brought up the person get from the childhood. But to have a successful peaceful life this ego should be always keep in check though the knowledge and skills may increase in life. So the ideal situation look like as Albert Einstein says –

More the knowledge less the ego. Less the knowledge more the ego.

2. Era of Luxury:

If we see; in this era, we are living quite a luxurious life as humans. We have so many luxuries, so much comfort in our life as compared to human living in previous generations. Technology has really changed our life in a better way for daily living. If we look back to the previous times before 5-6 generations, the life was quite different with less luxuries, we had wars too, due to those times the challenging circumstances, too much load on the government, on the people living in the countries, disturbing economic conditions as well as disturbing ecosystem in the nature and so it was quite a disturbed life for human living in those countries also. In the present time we are blessed as we don’t have wars; we don’t have adverse living situations; we are living in peaceful era. Those who always grumble about something small small things are not good in the world they should look back to history and the painful and challenging times those people had gone through. On the top of that if we are living in the country like India, we are blessed by nature by both the hands. Thereafter to mention this that this blog is not only for citizens living in India. It is for all those who read this blog. So here count your blessings what you have rather than what you don't have. We have 2 magical words in our life i.e. Thanks and Sorry. If you use it timely and wherever needed then it changes your life in a much positive way, only the thing is that you should not use it for the sake of saying. Otherwise there is no meaning in it whether to say it or not.

3. Expressing Gratitude by saying Thanks:

Now in general if we talk about sunrising and sunset we have daily sun rising at specific time to begin the day with and sun sets at specific time to end the day. No major challenging climatical conditions, so many varieties of flowers, fruits, plants, trees and vegetables. For the entire world if we see Lord Sun is doing His duty tirelessly. Lord Sun is not only doing His duty tirelessly but with such a discipline, sincerity, equilibrium and still He doesn't have any ego of this work. He does this for all the living beings on the earth. God creates the living beings and Sun plays a role of nurturing them with its sunlight. But if we see human create artificial things and still for doing small work also, human carries so much ego of that. So human need to learn a lot from the nature. Human in general owe a big thanks to the Lord Sun. Because of His this work the entire life is nurturing on this earth. 

Now the question is why the discussion is diverting towards the nature. So, to tell we as humans are living on earth have so much variety of green vegetables, plants, trees, birds, small and large creatures, animals and beautiful nature to look around in different seasons. Seasons automatically changes and Mother nature does it’s work accordingly. We owe a big thanks to Mother Earth for all this. Then to Mother Nature. Mother Earth is extremely tolerant. You can’t count its tolerance. She bears so much from all creatures living on this earth, still she forgives all. Such a big heart. So much courtesy she has. Do we express gratitude to Her? If no then we must be expressing gratitude to Her, to Lord Sun and to Mother nature. And to mention to Mother Earth we should daily express our gratitude and ask for her forgiveness for touching Earth by our feet. Mother nature showers so much love in terms of variety of blooming flowers, changing seasons, growing different vegetables, fruits, kind of plants, the beautiful colors around us in nature. It made our lives so much colorful and beautiful. If somebody ask me about my favorite color I could say I like all the colors because all the colors are so beautiful God created in nature that how can we differentiate between these colors. All these colors carry a sense of unique beauty in them let that be nature’s dark green, leaf’s parrot green, Cassia’s blood red or orange, the cyan or light blue of sky, the white of jasmine or the yellow of champak etc.  It makes our day delightful. Daily we should express our gratitude to Mother Nature to surround us with so much beauty. We must say Thanks to Lord Sun, Mother Earth and Mother Nature for all this. Now this is about nature.

If we start implementing same thing in our daily life or having a habit of gratitude towards the good things happened and happening in our daily life it really makes a lot of difference to our lives. A very important habit is a habit of looking at what you have in your life rather than what you lack in your life. When we can make ourselves happy then only we can create a happy environment around us. A small thanks to anybody around us who make our life happier by little too, will help us only to lighten their face. So why we become miserly in this. We shouldn’t let our ego or shyness or judgmental attitude to come in between that. Express gratitude wherever and whenever necessary.  We should not let the judgmental attitude to come in between expressing gratitude to others who help us some or other way.

We should express gratitude to our family members or friends too. Generally, we take our family members or best friends for granted and don’t feel like expressing gratitude towards them. Taking some relation for granted or some person for granted could be a big mistake in life. Because we are all humans made up of blood and flesh and we all have emotions. So, everybody needs appreciation, thankful gestures in life. If somebody say they don't expect appreciation for something then they pretend to say so. Only a true spiritually ascended person may not expect any appreciation from any human because that person is already above all this and very much interested in pleasing God and not to humans.

So, appreciate with the open heart your family members, your friends, or best friends, to your colleagues, to the strangers who help you by some or other way. A simple thanks from the heart or the habit of expressing gratitude bring us a longer delightful feeling. As well as it helps you to keep your feet always on the ground. Some people have habit of expressing gratitude for 5 good things happened to them in a day. It is really very useful habit. It boosts your morale. When saying thank you to anybody don’t hesitate, don’t have second thought, as it is said that we learn some or other things from each and every person in this world. So, keep habit of saying thank you whenever and wherever necessary and if you feel you don't have ego that's good. But if you feel it could be your ego because of which you are not able to say thanks to somebody then also work on your ego and don't let your ego to come in between it. Otherwise, if you realize that you owe a thanks to somebody still if you don’t say then you always carry a silent guilty burden on you in life.

4. Saying Sorry: 

As I mentioned before while living life, we understand that our thoughts may or may not match with others, may be with the family members, colleagues at work or friends. Now when dealing with somebody you may do mistakes so you must say sorry to them and come out of that situation to bring peace to the situation. When we are at mistake that that time to say sorry to other person is a normal expected behavior, which should be done. Thereafter I have seen some people male/female though grown ups or elders quite immature and egoistic and find it very difficult to say sorry for their mistakes also. They find saying sorry is like climbing a mountain. And in such situation some in order to cover up their mistake don't say sorry but they do some more weird things which lead them to do immoral things also. Which again increases their problems. So it is needed to keep it simple and sorted.

Many times, we noticed that if it is not our mistake too still we are blamed. And if the opposite person is quite immature or egoistic then to patch up, to lessen our trouble or bring peace in the situation we need to say sorry. Here we should know what is important to us whether peace of our mind or revolving in these unpleasant situations. Having ego is different than being egoistic. Everybody should have ego for their sustenance only but not to act as egoistic.

Now when we are not at mistake then also it's ok to say sorry or forgive the other person. Yes, when you are not at mistake and other person may be fool, or egoistic or not able to adjust with situation then also you to say sorry to the other person is not a big deal, this way you can bring peace to yourself and to the situation. After that if you want then you can ignore the other person also. Our ultimate goal in our life should be to live peacefully and happily and not to waste time in useless chaos in these situations. But before all this it is important to analyze the situation from neutral point of view and then to say who is at mistake. If you are not able to analyze the situation then try to get the analysis by a third person's neutral point of view. And forgive the person. Later you can decide whether to ignore the communication with the other person in order to bring peace to you. It requires a courageous heart to forgive others. A courteous nature to say sorry when you are not at mistake. If the other person is not able to adjust with the situation in spite of their mistake you can adjust for your emotional wellbeing. 

There is joke for this. 2 people are going on staircases one is climbing the staircase and other is getting down. And at one point they come face to face where one has to climb the next step and other has to get down from the staircase. Now who will step back. The person who was getting down says 'I don't move for fools.' So the person who was climbing the stairs he step back, smiled and he says ' But i do.'  😄. So just by saying sorry or forgiving another person you actually do nothing; you just come out of that unpleasant loop. So just say sorry and come out of that. This way you do favor to you. But when you don’t forgive others for their mistakes you actually play in the wrong hands and create more harm to your emotions and yourself.

This is just simply writing it but is it that simple? The business of forgiving somebody or saying sorry for their mistakes. Absolutely not. It requires higher level of maturity and a big and courageous heart to forgive somebody who harm your emotion wellbeing somehow, let whoever that person is whether a family member or outsider. If you are lucky in life you meet some quite wonderful people in your life who change your life miraculously in a good way and if you are unlucky somewhere then you find some bad; or not so good people in your life who really mess a lot with your emotions and then you find it impossible to forgive such people. Till you don't forgive them you play a constant battle in your mind. And that one should not do. 

We should always move forward in life and not to look back and not to be in touch with those people who once created problems in your life. Because if again you come in contact with them you are doing harm to your emotions and move back and forth in your emotions. If you think that the person may have changed; it never happen so. If you again keep contact with them some or other day again you will see the unhappiness caused by them in your life. 

The impact of somebody does bad to you is more than good may be that’s why a human has general tendency to remember something bad somebody done to you rather than what good that person does for you. The more one live with reality and practically the more good it is for the wellbeing of the person. If we need to learn something from nature to this ; is that when you see how a river is flowing,  continuously though some small, big stones come in her way and that too in the forward direction. So like this human life's should be always flowing and that to in the forward direction, no need to look back and not to be in touch with not so good connections.

To summarize this i don't mean to say sorry, sorry and thank you, thank you all the time; not at all. But whenever and wherever necessary say it, say it from heart , don't hesitate. Because we live in the world ;in the loop of thanks and sorry. And especially for gratitude feelings and expressing gratitude to others ; when you do it;  it works like magic, it draws lot of good vibrations towards you in your life and you yourself feel the difference.