Lock-down birthday party

Lockdown is still continuing here in Mumbai but most of the work has started. Very much confused about what is happening around us? Everything is so much confusing and stressful. Don’t know where we get such patients in spite of taking care of everything. In our area, we used to get a new corona positive patient in each 15 to 20 days😖 and it is really frustrating.

 

I hope all of you are safe and healthy. Due to lockdown, we are used to making our celebration inside the home whether it is a birthday, anniversary, or any kind of party. Homemade cake and food are such a blessing. But the party without our friends is always incomplete, right?

Finally, we are accepting that we have to live with this virus. After UNLOCK 1.0 we are a little bit free with the restrictions. So we decided to ease out our stress to some extent with all precautions. “Social distance” is mandatory but we are allowed to have a gathering of not more than 10 people and maintain a distance between each other at least 6 feet.

Yes, we had a Birthday celebration with our friends at my home.😀 This is a birthday girl.

It was her first birthday which she celebrated with us. Though we can’t force each of our friends to be a part of this celebration still we invited to all. The presence of these 5 people was such a blessing. Birthday is the happiest day of every person and I believe we should be the part of that happiness. It is such a blessing that the birthday person wants to make a celebration with you. Thank You, dearTanu.

PS: Birthdaywishcard.com

Wish you a very happy birthday and May god fulfill your every dream.

Here I am sharing a few pictures. I keep sanitizer at the doorsteps. I welcomed each one and after sanitizing their hand ask them straight to wash their legs and hand again with water and soap. Precaution and precaution.😨 

Here is the birthday cake. This one was for her family which was baked by me and glad they all love it. Very grateful.

Party food was simple and homemade. Chicken biryani, cake, wafers, and some fun. 😀

The worst thing was on that day we did not have a light for a whole day. A light came around 9 pm. but still we enjoyed it because of our “Inverter”.

 the picture is a blur but wants to save the memory

Some dance masti and lots of chit chat and ha ha ha 😂😁 some video calls and with delicious food, the party ended up.

This Zola 😃 was filled with lots of love, presents, and blessing.

"I wish you always have a happy life and May God make you the strongest woman to handle each hurdle in your life."

Here are some tips on how to celebrate a birthday in lockdown:

# Make all homemade food as much as possible.

# Bake your cake at home as it will be more precious.

# Try to call if possible your near and dear ones within reach.

# Do not forget to take each and every safety precaution.

# Make a video call to the loved one so that you can feel they are also part of your birthday celebration. A virtual celebration is quite worthwhile.

# If it is a small kid's birthday, please decorate your home with lots of balloons and birthday garland.

# Don’t forget to tune up the music and have lots of Masti.

# Prepare a gratitude list on this day. This will make you realize many things.

# If you like then prepares a bucket list for you.

# Most important “BE HAAPPYYY”!

 

Wrapping up the small birthday party, hope you liked it.

How do you celebrate your birthday during this lockdown?

 

 

Happiness is selfmade

It was 1^st January 2020 when one of my subscribers asked me to write on “HAPPINESS” and I did not write at that time. Because it was a really challenging one. I did not want to spread any negativity from my post. I tried but it seems to be more negative. Then I looked back to my life and observe, what is really Happiness to me?

Thank you, dear subscriber.

As it leads to me in deeper thoughts.  Since my childhood happiness is not equal to me. Then I thought, “NO” there are more countable days when I was happy. Like I was happy when I had my degree, my first job, my marriage, my house, my vehicle, my kid, etc. I think these are the milestone in everyone’s life and everybody tends to achieve it. Yep, it is a different thing that we want something else and we get something. 😊 This is called DESTINY. You will get what you DESERVE!

But,

As human beings we tend to think about such things which we are not able to achieve. Might be for satisfaction or passion. It is perfectly natural. 😀

All I want to say we do more struggle on what we don’t have rather concentrate on what we have. When we are able to draw a line in between this, we will be the happiest person in this world.

I am not professional but yes like to pen down my thoughts on this through “SPEAKEASYCHALLENGE”. Please don’t forget to put your valuable thoughts in the comment section below.

I am follower of Buddhism and it really works on our life. We read a message or put this quote on our social media wall. Is this only limited to that? The answer is “NO” Because everyone is suffering and search for happiness.

What do you mean by our feelings?

Feelings are attached to the current situation. The situation may not sustain for a longer period of time but our feeling remains throughout life. Every situation is temporary. We generate our thoughts with that situation and stick with it forever. Try to live in the present, yes it is quite a tough but not impossible. When the situation gets over after some period of time then why not our thoughts? Live your life more mindfully. It will bring more satisfaction and happiness in your life. Don’t try to scratch any feeling forcefully.

For Example: As a mother, we are always lined up our work. Sometimes our child shows us a tantrum in unexpected ways. That will ruin our whole day as it will be the root cause of the delay in every work. And our anger develops. Our kids will forget within a span of time but we do not. We used to push our anger on ourselves, on the whole day and sometime this will be carried to the next day too.

We should learn from our child that everything is temporary. We should forget and forgive.

“Always do those things which makes you happy”

As a human being we are wearing many hats as a daughter, son, mother, father, daughter in law, sister in law, a list will never end. We always in dilemma what society will say? Right? Who cares, this is your life and you have a full right to be happy. Never hurt anyone for your happiness but yes, always do such things which make you happy. Happiness is lying in doing small things and not the big achievements. Don’t forget to enjoy a tiny moment when you will look back you get to know how big that was.

“Accept the things the way that occurs”

Indeed. It is really not the easy one. It is not possible to always accept things. But instead of digging on – why, how, where, acceptance makes it easy. The more you dig yourself the more you will suffer.

If your near and dear one not behaving the way you want and in spite of your every trial then leave it and accept their behavior. If anyone angry with you, accept that anger. His anger also temporary due to some incident and it is ok, sometimes people get angry, sometimes people get sad, sometimes people get jealous and sometimes people get happy too. Accept the way they are instead of indulging in why. It does not mean that you should withdraw from the situation. This is the way where you can stop overthinking. Acceptance helps in maintaining your inner peace. Other behavior should not empower your mind. Our mental peace should not disturb by the behavior of outside people.

Realistically it is not possible that we live in a present. Our life is a reflection of our past. We tend to interlink our everyday situation with yesterday. This interlinking brings more problems to the present life. I know we are just a complicated human being and not saint, but yes we should try on these things which are actually normal and we always make it complicated. If you adopt “Let it go” you will be more able to live your life at that moment.

Finally,

What do you think, what is happiness?

According to me, Happiness is our thought only. If we thought we are happy we will be happy and if we thought we are sad we will be sad.

So,  

@choose your thought carefully.

@Do not stick any temporary feeling.

@Learn to live in the present, and moreover learn to live each moment happily.

@Try to forgive so that you can have peace.

@ Try to detach with the person, situation, and relationship. The more you detach the more you will find peace.

I would like to sum up here only with wishing you a lotttttssss of HAPPINESS.  Especially moms, don’t forget, if we are happy our whole family is happy.

 

Till then,

 

Keep smiling 😊

 

This post is written for Speakeasy Blogging Challenge 2020 by Ruchie & Dipika.

PS: All buddha quotes images from pintrest

How to teach more than 30 words in a 15 minute

When you start to read aloud with your child it improves their listening skills. Listening helps to increase vocabulary. Practice and repetition make a habit that will enhance your child’s vocabulary. If you still haven’t started reading to your child just start it.

Image Source: Pintrest

It is very important to build up the habit of reading at an early age and it can be started from our lap only. Do you know why children don’t like to read because they are not able to identify the word. I am sharing how you can teach more than 30 words to your child within 15 minutes. This is especially for the age group of 4 to 7 years.

Listening will be the basic part when there is the question, how to teach words to small kids? Most of the time parents tend to rote learning because we have been through this. Ratta, and ratta and ratta, but seriously it will not work at all. If your child misses a single letter of the particular word he will not able to memorize the full spelling. Yes, there are some words that need to memories but ratta is not the option.

Phonics plays a very important role in early learners.  The more your child reads the more he will be curious to know the new word and the more he will eager to learn the new word. Today I am sharing how we are doing this. This is my strategy which I am practicing since my little one was in kindergarten and it is really effective.

We are still learning phonics. Always go with the word family which makes a child a better learner. The child learns lots of new words within a minute. When a child gets to know that he can read more than 30 words in a short period of span he will be happy and his interest will increase. Learning should be always in a happy mode instead of the forced.

First we need to teach the child to recognize this blend and then ask them to read the whole word with this blend. Create the above chart and first practice this blend only. Once he recognizes blend then go with the word family. Example PL is the blend and words which start with this PL blend are plants, pluck, plan, play, etc.

During this lockdown my child is not at all ready to study with a pencil and notebook. Yes, she is more interested in teaching on board. So I thought to use this whiteboard. I create a reading wall and write a bunch of words on an alternate day. I ask her to read the words from this reading wall which hardly take 10 or 15 minutes, yes, only 10 or 15 minutes. Check out the video it might be helpful for you.

 

After reading gives a different kind of activities related to this word. The same which we used to give to our kindergarten students like match up, guess the word or write the word. The more you practice this kind of activity the more your child tends to learn without ratta.

The same pattern goes with the other language study too. These are some Marathi word which we practice.

I hope the article will help you, parents. Comment below which technique you use for your child. So that I can get a new idea from you.

 

Till then,

Happy Learning!!

An accidental visit to the Apple Farm

I am belonging to the west coast and love to roam freely with mango orchards especially in the summer holiday. It was an awesome feeling to have Alphonso mango tree around you at reachable heights from where you can pluck mango easily 😀. We have mango once in the year and yes that “AMARAI” looks awesome.

(PS: Amazon)

Since my childhood, I always wonder how the apple is cultivated. The same question is now asked by my daughter too. She is an apple lover and I am not. Glad that my child loves to eat apple more than a banana. As I grew up I came to know the details procedure and wished to have a visit to the Apple Orchards once in a lifetime and yes, my dreams come true.

(PS: India Mart)

It was on Kashmir's visit when we were on our way to Pahalgam. A visit to Apple Orchard was not on our tour list. Still, wherever we went we saw only and only rose and apple tree. Each house had these trees in front of their door. This is the way nature is cultivated and preserved by this society. 

They do not have tall buildings, big complexes, and tons of vehicles. That is why Kashmir air is so fresh and you can feel the cool breeze. Nature is always showering their love to humans but it is “WE” cannot able to sustain it. If we can preserve in a little bit manner I think everywhere will be the greenery.

Yes, that is why now nature tested us. Nature giving abundantly and we humans start to misuse it. We deserve this "CORONA" and all other natural calamities which we are facing since March 2020. These all are a big punishment by nature. Let's understand and accept that nature creates us and it is only and only nature who can destroy us. And that also within a blink of eyes. Respect and preserve nature.

Back in the story, we had our small van and at one point of highway-side, we stopped for our lunch. Oh my God! The rush of the hotel was terrific. You will be surprised to know that we have to stand behind the table like we do in the marriage ceremony😆  and turn by turn we all got our seats and the magic was our order came on a table within a few minutes you can say, 10 minutes. But the waiters were very rude or I can say they have to act rude so that more customers can have their meal.

After finishing our meal we stopped on the other side of the highway for photo-shoot! You know, we can’t miss a single chance of photo-shoot. Near our van, there was a small shop of Apple Juice and we were talking with him. He said here is the Apple Farm. I ran with my friend on that farm with his permission before anyone enters because we have to complete our photo-shoot.😎 jokes apart but yes once you go with the big group it is very difficult to manage them without hurting anyone. 

So this is the Apple Farm. Do you know what was the cost of this Apple? Rs.20 or Rs.10 Per kg.  I wished I can bring as more as I can, the red, green KASHMIRI APPLE.

He was telling us about the farm and showed us the baby apple. April is not the season of apples but yes it is July and August. He took that baby apple in his hand and said, madam, you can take photos too. I was so happy that we got an entry into that apple orchard and also had some pics. It happens very rarely. See here is the bunch of tiny apples. 

Both sides of each highway were filled with only and only apple farms. Seriously nature gives us everything without charging a single penny and we have to preserve this for our next generation.

{PS: Amazon}

If you want red chicks just stay for some days in Kashmir and eat too many apples and within one week you will have red chicks. You don't need to apply any blush. Our kids had such natural blush on their cheeks within a week.

Do you like an apple? Comment down, please. I hope you enjoy this virtual farm visit where I can able to take you. Stay tuned for more such exciting travel post.

Till then stay home and take care.

Tour of ND Studio

Hi, all,

Finally, the lockdown 4 is announced and I think it will be going on continuously. We all are aware of the situation. Will our Mumbai will be locked down for 6 months? Guessing and guessing, the saddest thing is we can keep only guessing and nothing. 

Image: Shutterstock.com 

" HOPE" is the only thing which we have. So never lose hope. These days will be passed and we will have a fresh restart again. 

 We are locked in our house so I want to take you all on tour, 😇, what do you think? 

Q: Where?

Ans: At ND Studio.

Q: Why? 

Ans: Because you all are stuck in a home so for a change come with me.😊

Q: We know it already?

Ans: I guess,😎 it is good. But still, those who do not know they can have a tour.

Q: Where it is?

Ans: It is in Karjat.

Q: What is there?

Ans: Actual Film Studio, as the name suggests ND Studio. It is designed by well know architect Mr. Nitin Desai. The whole studio is beautiful and extremely large beyond our imagination. Each set up is marvelous.

So, are you ready?

Lets, go................................😝

This is the outer wall and you might have seen this when you passed by this karjat road. Love the stone carving of these legends,

Entrance and ticket window where you have to buy a ticket. Do not go on the weekend because there will be a rush and you will get fed up. Try to go on weekdays when tickets have a discount and no rush. you can have a whole tour with patience and can have fun with your friends and family. 

Tip: Do not go with small kids below 4 years or babies. It will be exhausted.

The whole studio is designed by Mr. Nitin Chandrakant Desai. You will get the details on google. It is a very big studio. I will try to show up the main things as possible.

Everything is so huge!

You can have your photoshoot, pre-wedding photoshoot, videos of course by paying the huge amount😐

After the entrance, you will be asked to enter a theater where they will show the picture of the whole ND studio with information about everything related to the studio. You will also have one guide who will be with you for the whole tour of the studio.

This is LAL Mahal, see how big it is,

The Prem Ratan Dhan Payo - Palace,

Flooring is awesome.

Check out this video for this palace:

This is one of the historic palaces- JODHA AKABAR set.

From outside

And when you enter :

 Most of the shooting is from here. 

The seating place of King Akbar.

Love this Palakhi and velvet curtain

Kon banega Cororepati Set:

Our CSMT 

The main interesting is the WAX Museum:

I feel that the real one is standing in front of me.

Tom Cruise

Imitating Angelina

Mr. Bean

These are some village sets :

Stone made Saint's Statue

My little one like this garden due to dinosaur :

Actual it is very big

After so much of roaming, you might be hungry. Don't worry the food plaza is there where you can get a variety of foods with icecream and drinks.

Food Plaza

Agadi gharasarkhe jevan..

The studio is very huge and I can not compile each and everything. Some of the tours I captured in a video form. Don't forget to check out the video on TikTok. Try to show as much as I can. 

Check the above video. 

Do not forget to check out my TikTok id: neetakadam68 for ND studio tours.

Have you enjoyed it? Which place you like the most? Comment below please.