The power of Thanks

Hello all you happy people. I hope you all are having an amazing day till now. I wrote an article called “Being Thankful” sometime ago and I am practically experiencing the amazing effect of being thankful. Continue reading to know how.

I have been telling you all in my previous articles that I moved to a new city nearly a month ago. As I am new to this city, I decided to explore this city. The best way to do this is by public transport (read buses run by local Municipal Corporation). I have two reasons to travel by the bus. Firstly buses are lot cheaper and secondly you find the real local people in the buses. I obviously do not know the bus routes so I ask for directions from the people standing on the bus stop, the bus conductor and the person sitting or standing beside me in the bus. Because I believe that real people are better at telling directions than Google Maps. I ask many questions to the person at the other end and I usually end my conversation with a simple word Thanks or Dhanyawad.

I never really knew the significance of this word until now. But now I guess I do. I believe that “Thanks” is a magical word that puts a smile on people’s face. The amount of smile might differ from person to person though. Like the middle aged ladies (whom I refer to as Maushis) and school going kids are the happiest whereas the Uncles (whom I refer to as Kakas) and the people of my age group give me a faint but noticeable smile. I think that people yearn to hear this simple word thanks. Because it makes you feel better, it makes you feel that you really are an important person. I feel so happy that I could put a smile on someone’s face and that I could make them feel important. I know the smile might last for a very short period of time but that just makes me feel good. I believe that happy people are beautiful and I just want everyone to be happy. And if I manage to make someone happy, I feel blessed.

So the next time you take even slightest bit of help from someone, don’t forget to thank that person. It might just make his/her day a little better. If you agree, then let me know in the comments below. And I take this opportunity to thank all my lovely readers. You are the reason that I am a much confident writer now. I hope this puts a smile on your face.

Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you very soon. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark), follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2) as well as on Google Plus. If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

P.S.: I hope you like this talented THanks.

Healthy Steamed Modaks

Hello all you smiley faces. I wish you all a very Happy Ganesh Chaturthi. Our beloved Ganpati Bappa is finally here. Bappa loves Modaks so today I have a healthier version of it to share with you all. So here we go.

Ingredients:

For filling

1. ½ cup desiccated Coconut

2. ¼ cup Jaggery

3. 3 tbsp. Dry fruits

4. 1-2 tbsp. Cocoa powder (optional)

5. ½ cup Milk

(I used double the amount of filling ingredients because I was going to make another batch on the next day :D)

For dough

1. 1 cup Rice flour

2. ¼ cup Corn flour

3. 1¼ cup Water

4. ½ + ½ tsp. oil

You will also need a steamer or you can also jugaad with a large vessel and a sieve. The circumference of the sieve should be nearly equal to that of the utensil.

Procedure:

1. To a non-stick pan, add desiccated coconut and milk. Mix well for about 3-4 minutes on medium heat.

2. Add jaggery to it and let it cook for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring it.

3. Add cocoa powder and dry fruits to it. Mix it well.

4. Turn off the heat after 3-4 minutes. The mixture should have lost water by this time. Keep it aside to cool.

5. For the dough, mix corn flour, rice flour, ¾ cup water and ½ tsp. oil. Roughly knead the dough.

6. To a thick bottomed pan or kadhai, boil ½ cup water. Add the kneaded dough to it. Mix well.

7. Cover the pan and let the dough cook for around 5 minutes or until it changes its colour to off-white. You need to keep mixing it after every 1 minute or so.

8. After the dough has cooled slightly, knead it well and divide it into 21+1 equal portions.

9. Make small chapatis by flattening the ball with your fingers. You can even use a rolling pin if you need.

10. Place small amount of filling into the chapati and mould it into a modak. My modaks weren’t perfect because I am not an experienced Modak maker :D

11. Fill a large vessel nearly 20% with water. Let the water boil. There should be enough gap between the water and the sieve.

12. Grease a sieve with ½ tsp. oil and place all the modaks in it.

13. Place this sieve on the utensil and cover it with a plate.

14. Let the modaks steam for around 10-12 minutes on medium heat or until the modaks again change their colour to deeper off white.

15. Then remove the sieve and let the modaks cool a little. These modaks taste great when they are warm.

So friends I hope you like this healthy but yummy recipe. If you decide to try it out, let me know whether you like it or not. Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you soon. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark), follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2) as well as on Google Plus. If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

Skincare routine for guys

Hello friends. I hope you all are doing great. Today I have a skincare routine for guys, strange right? Skincare & beauty is usually considered as a girly thing. But I strongly believe that if you want to look good, you need to take care of your skin irrespective of your gender. There were two inspirations behind writing this article. The first one was that many of my friends & cousins come to me & ask me to give them some tips to look good & fair, mostly to impress the opposite gender ;). The other one was that I have received lot of flak from guys for writing beauty tips articles for girls. So I decided to write a sort-of-beauty tips article for those guys. That’s called height of sarcasm :D So here we go.

1. Identifying your skin type – This is the most important step for any skincare routine because it helps to choose products suitable for your skin type. What I have noticed till now is that guys are usually unaware of their skin type. No worries boys here is the classification.

a) Oily skin – If there is lot of secretion of oil from your skin, it is oily. Use products that read oil control or oil balance.

b) Dry skin – If your skin lacks oil or moisture, your skin is dry. Use products that read moisture block or lock.

c) Normal skin – If your skin has only essential amount of oil, you are a normal skinned person. Use products that read for normal skin type.

d) Combination skin – It is a cross between oily and dry. Some areas of your face might be dry and some might be very oily or you might have oily skin during summers and dry skin during winters. You people need a combination of products that work for oily skin as well as dry skin.

e) Sensitive skin - If you get lot of breakouts or your skin gets affected easily by anything, then you have sensitive skin. Use products that read especially for sensitive skin.

Many of the guys usually fall under category no. a & d.

2. Wash – You need to wash your face at least twice a day (before starting your hectic day @office and after you complete your day) with a good quality facewash suitable for your skin type. There are so many brands, namely Nivea, Everyuth, VLCC, Himalaya, Park avenue, Garnier, Ponds, L’oreal, etc selling facewashes especially designed for men’s tough skin. So on your next visit to the supermarket, just pick any one of these.

3. Scrub – Scrubbing your face at least twice a week is essential to remove blackheads, whiteheads, dead skin cells, etc. My tip here is to wet your face and apply coin sized amount of scrub and massage it onto your skin for 2 minutes and then rinse it off.

4. Moisturize – After you have washed your face, you need to apply little bit of moisturizer (with some SPF) on your skin, irrespective of your skin type. The amount may vary depending on your skin type. After you have done this, you can freely powder your face :D

5. Facial – There a tons of salons that have this facility. Facials can be done either once a month or once in two months depending on the damage caused by pollution :D. Or if you want you can do an At-Home-Facial by washing, scrubbing and applying a facepack.  I do have a pack that worked wonders for my cousin. You can read it here (http://ahappygirlwrites.blogspot.com/2014/06/multani-mitti-chandan-face-p.html)

So these are some of my skincare tips that guys need to follow in order to look good in addition to trimming your facial hair. I don’t really need to discuss about it, do I? But my tips are to use shaving products that do not contain alcohol and never to skip an after shave. I can guarantee that with proper skin care, you can get a clean and smooth skin. If you are a guy, reading this article, I just hope that these tips were helpful to you. Let me know what you think in the comments down below. And if you are a girl, do invite your brothers and friends to read this article.

Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you on soon with a very healthy recipe for Ganesh Chaturthi. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark), follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2) as well as on Google Plus. If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

Life Lessons from a Money Plant

Hello all you happy people. I hope you all are having an amazing weekend till now. Today I am going to talk about my dear money plant. It has a name by the way. I named it MadhuSudh (Combination of my amazing late grandfathers’ names viz. Madhukar and Sudhakar). If naming a plant is considered as weird, then I am proud to be a weirdo :D, anyways happy reading.

So the story begins with me planting a tiny money plant in a small water-filled bottle. I planted it just to enhance the appearance of my room. Little did I know that it would teach me so much about life albeit silently. It didn’t show any signs of growth initially but I kept on watering it regularly and waited patiently for the signs of a new leaf. After about a month or so, I saw a tiny leaf enclosed in a sheath, sprouting from the stem. I was the happiest person on the earth. My darling was actually growing up. I had somehow developed sisterly feelings towards it because I have forever been an elder sister to so many little cousins.

Watching it grow was so soothing to my soul. My academic growth had almost stopped during that time and all I wanted was to be successful. But that little guy taught me that you cannot reach ginormous heights in a short period of time. You need to take baby steps every day to be successful. This was the first lesson that it taught me.

When I moved out of my parents’ house, I wanted to take it with me. But I was unsure whether the little guy would be able to handle this 18+ hours journey trapped in a Ziploc bag. But we were meant to be together and so it did survive. It is still with me, still growing little by little every day. This was its second lesson. No matter how many hardships you face, you are capable of handling them all because you are meant to be a winner.

Another characteristic of the money plant is that a new leaf grows from the stem attached to an old leaf. And the new leaf is firmly attached to its parent leaf. So this is a lesson for every one of us. No matter how successful or independent you become, you should never forget your roots. You should never leave your parents. I mean you might move away from your hometown and settle at some other place, but you should never leave your parents alone. Always stay connected with them emotionally. The happiness of your Mom and Dad should always be your top priority.

So friends I hope you enjoyed reading this article and if you agree with the teachings of MadhuSudh. Let me know in the comments section, whether you liked this article or not. Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you soon. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark), follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2) as well as on Google Plus. If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

At Home Cardio

Hello healthy people. I hope you all are doing great. Today I am going to share with you some of my favourite cardio workouts. In my words Cardio is anything that gets your body sweating. So if you want some tips to get your body working, read on.

1. Spot Jogging – This is the best cardio workout for beginners. All you need to do is keep your body straight and jog on the spot. Always start by jogging slowly and then gradually increase your speed. Initially lift your feet (one at a time of course) about an inch from the ground and then slowly increase the distance between your feet and ground. Move your hands as well so that this exercise gets your whole body moving.

2. Jumping Jacks – This is again full body cardio workout. Start with your feet together and arms at your side. Then take a small leap in the air, bring your legs to your side and land in this position. The only tip to avoid injury is that make sure that your feet are perfectly parallel to the ground, when you land. 

3. Skipping – This was the exercise that I hated doing when I was a kid. But now I am in love with it. You can also do the skipping action without a rope. I mean if I can do it, you can as well.

4. Knee Highs –  This exercise is just the exercise for your lower body. Stand straight and then lift your leg as high as you can. Repeat for other leg as well. This action should be performed swiftly or else t won’t be considered as a cardio. You can even move your hands because more you more, more you lose.

5. Walking – This might not burn as many calories as the other cardio exercise, but this is great if you are new to cardio or exercising in general. Half an hour of swift walk everyday gives you a lean body.

Tips to remember-

1. Always do some stretching exercises before and after doing cardio. It can be bending down to touch your toes, a side stretch or just any stretch.

2. Start by doing first 4 exercises for 30 seconds each. So, one set will be of 2 minutes.

3. After you get used to this regime, say in 2-3 days, increase the number of sets. Take 30 seconds break in between each set.

4. Do not over exert yourself. If you cannot do 4 sets at one go, its fine. Do 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening.

5. Wear comfortable clothes for cardio because you sweat a lot.

So friends here are some of the exercises that I love to do in order to get my body working. If this article inspired you to start a cardio regime, let me know in the comments. I will surely come up with a part 2 of this sans internet available pictures. Goodbye friends and I will meet you soon. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark), follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2) as well as on Google Plus. If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

DIY Rosewater

Hello beautiful ladies. I hope you all are doing great. Today I have a Do-It-Yourself Beauty potion to share with you. I am going to show you how to make your very own rosewater at home. It is very easy to make and it is very pocket friendly. It is nearly four times cheaper than the store brought rosewater. So let’s jump into the recipe now.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup Rose petals

2. 3 cups of Water

A tip here, use organically grown roses that are sold as Desi Gulaab at your local florist shop. As you can see that I was making a lot of rosewater. This was an experiment so I had to make a large batch to check its durability. But 1 cup of rose petals would be enough for you all.

Procedure:

1. Wash the rose petals with clean water and put them aside to dry.

2. Bring the water to a boil.

http://ahappygirlwrites.blogspot.com/2014/09/diy-toners.html3. Put the rose petals into it. Mix them really well.

4. Cover the vessel with a lid and let the petals soak in the water for about 2 hours. After 2 hours, the rose petals transfer their colour as well as smell to the water.

5. Strain the water and let it cool completely. This will take 2 more hours.

6. And then store your gulab jal in glass or plastic bottles. The colour of your rosewater will depend on the colour of your rose petals. This rosewater has a shelf life of 1 to 1 ½ months. You need to store it in a cool place.

Here are 5 different ways to use incorporate this fragrant beauty potion into your beauty regime.

1. It works as a great toner to close all your pores. I had mentioned this earlier in my post that you can read it here (http://ahappygirlwrites.blogspot.com/2014/09/diy-toners.html).

2. Add rosewater to your face pack to make it work better. I already have a face pack with rosewater as a key ingredient. You can read it here (http://ahappygirlwrites.blogspot.com/2014/06/multani-mitti-chandan-face-p.html)

3. Add a tbsp. of rosewater to your bath water to reduce body odour.

4. Put some rose water on a cotton ball and put it in freezer for half an hour. You can use this to soothe your tired eyes.

5. Dab a cotton ball soaked in rosewater on your lips to make them look pink and rosy naturally.

So friends I hope you like this easy DIY home made rosewater recipe. If you try it out, the let me know in the comments below. Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you on Tuesday with a Beauty DIY article. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark), follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2) as well as on Google Plus. If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

What is real beauty????

Hello all you beautiful people. I hope you all are having an amazing weekend till now. Today I am going to talk about a topic that is extremely close to my heart and that is real beauty. I wanted to write this article ever since I started blogging but for some emotional reasons I had been putting it off. But finally it is here. So enjoy reading.

Few days ago I read an article titled “This will change your perception about beauty” or something like that. As soon as I read this title, my mind drifted back to my teenage years. I was never BEAUTIFUL or PRETTY by “normal standards”. The reason was, I was dark with no sharp facial features, had bad acne, and was short and plum. Back in those days, many people used to tell me that I am not good looking and that it will be so hard to get me married. This was the reason why I had a really bad inferiority complex when I was teenager. I was also surrounded by BEAUTIFUL friends and family members and this in turn made me feel even worse about myself. The only thing that I ever wanted in life was to be fair and slim, in short beautiful by the standards defined by our society.

But that was ages ago. Cut to the present, the condition is different. I somehow became a little fair and the acne just disappeared and I also lost weight. So now the same people, who had labelled me as UGLY, refer to me as OKAY-LOOKING. But the most important change in me was that I decided to love myself for what I am and soon the inferiority complex disappeared. As for my heart, that very few people noticed. Well, all I can say is it is still the same or maybe it became better with age. This is the reason why I feel beautiful from within.

I never really understood why people just look at the outer beauty and label you as BEAUTIFUL or UGLY. Why can’t they see a beautiful heart? Why an intelligent, educated and caring person regarded as ugly just because he/she is dark or fat? Is this kind of discrimination really needed? My answer is no. In my life till now, I have seen so many good looking mean people as well as not so good looking but amazing, lovely people. Now-a-days there are dozens of brands selling so called fairness cream and weight reducing tablets. (This does not mean that you should be overweight or unhealthy) And then there are CELEBRITIES whom we idolise. Every girl wants to look like Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif or Deepika Padukone. But little do we realise that they are made to appear BEAUTIFUL to us. But this is how the society works. We can’t really do much about other people but what we can do is to change our perception about BEAUTY.

I always believed that the real beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. And your eyes are the reflection of your soul. So a person with a beautiful mind/soul is BEAUTIFUL. So even if the society labels you as UGLY, it’s fine. They don’t really understand what REAL BEAUTY is. Just be yourself because you are amazing and most importantly you are UNIQUE. So love yourself for what you are. So friends this is my story as well as my perception about beauty. I did defeat the inner demon called inferiority complex and I did arise as a confident girl. If I can anyone can. So share this article with anyone who needs a little help. If you agree with me, then do tell me so in the comments below.

Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you soon. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark), follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2) as well as on Google Plus. If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

Healthy Gopalkala for Janmashtami

Hello all you smiley faces. I hope you all are doing great. Janmashtami is just around the corner so today I am going to share with you a very simple and quick recipe to welcome Lord Krishna. The best thing about this recipe is that it requires no cooking at all. So let’s get started, shall we?

   

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups of Jowar Lahi

2. ½ cup poha

3. ¼ - 1/3 cup apple (diced)

4. ¼ - 1/3 cup cucumber (diced)

5. ¼ - 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds

6. 2-3 medium sized green chillies (finely chopped)

7. 1 tsp. chana dal (soaked for 3-4 hours)

8. 6-7 tbsp. yogurt

9. Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Mix lahi and poha in a large bowl.

2. Add in apple, cucumber and pomegranate seeds.

3. Add chana dal and chopped green chillies.

4. Add salt to taste and mix well.

5. Add yogurt, 1 tbsp. at a time and keep on mixing the gopalkala. Adjust the consistency as per your taste. The gopalkala shouldn’t be too dry and it should not have too much yogurt either.

6. You can serve it just like that or keep it in the refrigerator for half an hour before serving it.

I just love this sweet and sour recipe. It is a very healthy, yummy and colourful power packed snack. Jowar lahi has lots of carbohydrates and proteins whereas Poha is a very good source of iron. Yogurt, a different form of Lord Krishna’s favourite makkhan, is a great source of protein. Pomegranate is a great source of vitamin C whereas my favourite cucumber is a low fat vegetable packed with many types of vitamins as well as iron, potassium, calcium, etc. Do I really need to say anything about apple, the fruit that keeps doctor away? :D

Friends, I really hope you give this healthy version of gopalkala, a try. Let me know in the comments whether you like it or not. Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you soon. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark) and follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2). If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.

आई (Mother)

Hello all my lovely friends. I hope you are having an amazing weekend till now. Today I am going to talk about the loving person called as Mother.

Few weeks ago, I was at a temple. As usual I did my darshan and then came to the Chappal stand to put on my soles for life (my floaters). While I was doing so I saw a little boy who was running towards the Chappal stand with tears in his eyes. I wanted to go and calm him down and ask him why he was crying. But a moment later, a lady came out of the temple calling out the boy’s name. That little fellow rushed to that lady, who was obviously his mother and hugged her and continued crying. The mother asked her child if he was crying because he couldn’t find her in the temple. To this the kid simply continued crying and hugged his mother even more tightly.Me and my dad both witnessed this incident and it indeed did made us emotional.

This incident took place when I was still living with my mom. I didn’t realise its significance then. But now that I am away from my mom, I realised how lost a person can be without his/her mother. Had I been as little as that kid, I would have been completely lost without my Aai. But I think that my mother has made my wings so strong that I can go out and fly even in the storm. And I can’t thank her enough for that.

We never realise the importance of a person unless we move away from him/her. This is the normal human tendency, isn’t it? The same happened with me as well. I never realised how important my mom was until I moved away from her. It is said that a month after you move out of your parent’s house you start missing even their taunts and scolding. I guess I am not the only who experienced this. I am sure many of you must have felt the same.

What else can I say about the most selfless, loving and kind person on this planet. No word can define the greatness of a mother. She is god’s angle sent to protect, nurture and help you in every walk of your life. All I can say is respect her, love her and pray for her just as she does for you every day, every minute. Lastly I would like to thank my Aai for just being there for me. And I would like to salute your mother as well my dear reader friend for bringing such an amazing person into this world.

So friends I hope this article touched your heart and if it did do comment below. But before doing that call your mother to tell her that you love her. Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you on Tuesday with beauty article. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark) and follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2). If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below. 

Rules of Exercising

Hello all you smiley faces. I hope you all are doing great. Today I am going to share with you some of my tips before, after and during exercising. So here we go.

Rule 1- Have a fixed routine for exercising. Always exercise during the same time period every day.

Rule 2- It is always better to exercise in the morning. But you can also exercise in the evening as per you convenience.

Rule 3- If you are exercising in the evening; make sure that you have your lunch at least 3 hours before and 2 hours after that. You can have some light snacks before and after exercising.

Rule 4- Schedule your shower at least 1 hour before and 1 hour after exercising. And use lukewarm water.

Rule 5- Before you get into your actual exercise routine, do some stretching and warm up exercises. It actually does help to get your body in the exercise mode.

Rule 6- Always keep a bottle of water with you. This is because you sweat while exercising so you need to keep your body hydrated. So make sure you take drink breaks while exercising.

Rule 7- Exercise in a peaceful environment. This will help to keep your body as well as mind healthy.

Rule 8- Follow the correct procedure of a particular exercise. If you do not follow this rule, you might get injured. Trust me friends when I say been there, done that.

Rule 9- If you are a beginner to a particular exercise routine, start with fewer repetitions and slowly increase the sets/repetitions.

Rule 10- It is okay if you cannot do a particular exercise. Just keep trying; you will surely be able to do it in few days or probably a week. This tip is exclusively for all my fellow yoga lovers.

Rule 11- Right after you finish exercising, you are tired and shaky. So it is better to do meditation for at least 2-3 minutes right after you finish exercising. This will help to calm your body.

So friends these are some of the tips that I follow while exercising. I hope you found this article helpful and if you did then let me know in the comments below. If you have any rule that you think I should follow, leave it in the comments below. Friends always remember that regular exercise is the key to healthy life. So enjoy exercising.

Goodbye my dear friends and I will see you soon. Until then Keep Smiling. Please do follow my blog, like the facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Happy-Girl/292903830872974?ref_type=bookmark) and follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/A_Happy_Girl2). If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below.