Sarika | Plants, Balcony Gardening & Simple Living

In this metro city Mumbai at times truly feel blessed to be surrounded by nature. T here are many big old GulMohar, PilaMohor, Coconut trees along with bushes and flowering plants.10 15 minutes of walk here during any time of day is super refreshing. As I walked across this tree today, familiar fragrance took  me miles away from Mumbai to city of Pune. She had this    Anant plant at the entrance of her beautiful bungalow. "Mazhi Mai Mavshi" Remembered her so dearly. Lovely garden crafted around the bungalow with Roses, Sayali Mogra ,Madhumalati ,Aaboli all flowering plants.I used to make flower garland and flaunt in hair.She never ever stopped me from plucking flowers.Rather she used to help me with exploring her garden.She would hand over curry leaves , ginger ,coconut from her garden to all her guests. This modest white flower of Ananta has special place in her Poojaghar. Wooden Poojaghar in kitchen with frames of different deities. Anna would perform his daily Pooja a...

#Seven Wants The difference between want and need is self-control.”--That is straight out of four more shots:) When I started writing about 7 wants this is the first thing that cross my mind may be because it was the latest that I bing watched on Netflix :) On serious notes..all the learnings of my inner engineering online course started a replay on my mind automatically. (a must must course for those who want clarity on this I would say. ..not giving much details as don’t want to dilute gyan with my interpretations :) Wanting is life and there is no life if there are no wants, so just choose your wants wisely. This was take away for me and since then making conscious efforts to do so. At this hour when we all are at unlock mode but scared to venture out , no doubt topmost want for everyone would be Get vaccine for Corona After close to 7 months of  mastering skill of being 'Atmanirbhar' ,we know now we have to live with this for rest of the life. Hope the doctors/scientists be...

In this pandemic situation ,Ganesha festival has managed to bring some cheer and joy to otherwise mundane routine.Last two weeks we all were super busy trying make decorations for Bappa, home clean up and other preparations.Days with him flew like blink of eye.After saying Goodbye to Bappa yesterday, suddenly morning felt so empty today and then I escaped into my balcony garden where peace is guaranteed. For two weeks these babies were kind of neglected.*But I could feel they were happy to see me back.Or was it other way round ?I was the one who was super delighted to be amongst them and that joy was getting reflected on my babies like a mirror? Indeed I was surprised to see how many things can happen in two weeks. * *There is this a baby plant sprouting in my Gulbakshi Pot. * *I took one abundant pot to plant something new.This pot was may be neglected for months.To my surprise there were these tiny stems of apple mint still hanging there.They must have survived for months without pro...

Aam Panne or "Kairiche Panhe" is a traditional maharashtrian drink. Every family usually have its own version of this recipe. If you have not tried it you must give it a shot this summer. It is super easy to make and super refreshing and healthy too. Ingredients 2 medium size raw mangoes (Kairi) which approximately makes 1 bowl of pulp 1 bowl sugar 1 tsp cardamom powder 1 tsp cumin powder 1 tsp black salt Steps Rinse raw mangoes well. Remove small section near the top. Put in a bowl, pressure cook with some water added. After 4 whistles turn off the gas. Scrap the pulp of these boiled mangoes. Add sugar, elaichi powder, cumin power and salt to this pulp. (1 cup of sugar for 1 cup of pulp .You can adjust sugar proportion as per your taste but Aam Panna real taste is slightly sour.   You can also replace sugar with jaggery in equal amount.) Blend it in a mixture and your Kairi Panhe mix is ready. Refrigerate for some time. Add 3 table spoon of this mixture in...

"Mumma are you happy?" I overheard innocent voice while crossing the road and could not help turning back. Little one was holding her mumma's hand and crossing the road too. She was not looking at me so couldn't catch her expressions. Sayomi was in same class as Aryan.So knew her mother.There was smile on her mother's face.Was it for me or for in reply to Sayomi's question? I was not sure.I smiled too. But was mumma happy? Smile on her face couldn't revealed the answer. Sayomi was too curious to know.She kept repeating "Mumma tell na." We crossed the road. Sayomi got into car from one side.Her mumma took driver's seat and then vanished in few seconds. I was lucky enough to get auto. But "Mumma are you happy?" the unanswered question kept buzzing in my mind. How much marks she must have got? For third grader ,marks that he/she scored .. does that really matter. Good marks bad marks aren't these relative terms.Goo...