Happy Makarsankrant 2019

It’s 2019, new start, new refreshment, new goals. Wishing all of you, a healthy, happy and positive 2019.

Makarsankrant: It is the first hindu festival of 2019. The festival itself suggests having a new start without keeping any disputes in your mind with anyone and have healthy relationship. As it said, “Tilgul Ghya ani God God bola” (it’s in Marathi, means take the laddo of til and talk sweet). Forget whatever happened in the 2018 and have a new start to your relationship. So guys I will suggest you to take the advantage of this festival and strengthen your broken relationship.

Image : google.

India is diversified country where the one festival is celebrated all over India with different name and rituals. It has different names like it is called Makarsankrant in Maharashtra, Bihu in Aasam, Lohri in Punjab, Pongal in Tamilnadu and Bhogi in AndhraPradesh. January is the harvest season where you can find multiple of local produce abundantly which is worshipped on this day. The method of worship is different according to the region. Every ritual suggest to destroy all your negative thought on this auspicious day and have positivity towards your life. Try to apply from this day and have wonderful year ahead.

Image : Google

Generally we celebrated by making delicious food and distributing Til Gul, yes or no guys? I love this festival, specially love to prepare and eat Tilgul Laddo. How many of you love to eat this? And now my daughter is also going on the same track. She love to eat this laddo. Just finished one batch and we already eating half of them.

I love to make our family favorite rice kheer along with this Laddo. For detail recipe please click on this link : https://memoryflies.blogspot.com/2016/10/first-anniversary-of-memory-flies.html

Image : Memory Flies

In Maharashtra the delicious food is prepared like Bhogichi Bhaji is made by using variety of vegetables. Laddo, Tilachi poli - til (sesame) and Jaggary mixture, and Puran poli - chana dal and jaggary mixture.

Image : Google

Our festival teach us to stay with the root and enjoy each rituals with this. Every food have its own nutritional value according to the season and we must eat that which is much healthier option rather than packaged food. Todays in this readymade world I would suggest that we should prepare all this seasonal recipe and teach to our next generation. Otherwise our Marathi dishes will get lost. I request to all Mommies, please take out the time and try to prepare all this dishes with your kids.

Image: google

I am signing off with  “Til Gul ghya ani God God bola”. Don’t forget to comment down below with pictures of your delicious recipe which you made on this Makarsankrant Day ?

Happy Makarsankranti 2019.

Kahwah- Kashmir Tea and Kesar Farm

Hi all,

This post is from my Kashmir Diary. We explored so many things over there. Kahwah was one of them.

How many of you know Kahwah? Wondering what is Kahwah?  

It is the special tea of Kashmir which is made by boiling green tree leaves with Kesar (saffron strand) and all dry fruits.

You will not get our regular ginger-cardamom tea in kashmir but you will get KAHWAH at every place which tastes awesome.  I don't know whether it will give out the same taste in Mumbai or not. We have humid weather compared to the Kashmir and every place has its own specialty. I believe the things are special due to its place and weather.

The first time we had Kahwah on Gulmarg visit in a tiny hut. The old man boiled this tea in a copper kettle on coal. Then at every point throughout the whole tour of Kashmir even on normal tea stall, we had the same drink with a little bit of variety in taste. 

Shopping is always an invitable part of any tour. We tourist love to shop special  things belong to that place. We followed the same rule. This is a shop - a wholesale shop where we had 😊 shopping of Kesar (saffron), dry fruits, and this Kahwah.

Once we tasted kahwah at Gulmarg we started to search it at every point. We got the stall and without wasting a time, I rushed to the stall because he was making a Kahwah in front of us on a stove. I try to collect information about Kahwah as much as possible because they did not speak proper hindi. I think it is one of the awesome drinks in the world. According to the tea stall person there are three types of tea masala, which make Kahwah i.e. Zeber, king, and pine. This was his specialty only. You can get varitey of masala all over the Kashmir. He did not add any tea leaves but added the tea masala and little bit of sugar and many dry fruits. Have a glimse of it.

cashew, almond, cardamom along with the boiling water

We all had it and purchase the Kahwah from the shop.

Behind this shop, there was a kesar farm. Yes, saffron grow in this field. But due to off season we have to satisfied with this plain farm only. 😌

And this is the KESAR, which is a highly expensive product

I love this packaging. It cost around approximately Rs. 3500/-, Rs. 2500/-. Rates are varied as per the quantity. 

It was really difficult to find real KESAR. Most of the people will sell you duplicate saffron. You have to be very careful while purchasing it. The shopkeeper guided us on how to find it. We had a test for real Kesar and then only we purchased it. We put the saffron strand in water for a while and after some time the colour of the water changes to yellowish one.  We kept it for some time as we spend almost one hour there to shop variety of products. We shopped some of beauty products too. 😉But the saffron water and colour does not changed at all. Finally we purchased it from this shop in a bulk. 

One of the most adorable was the APPLE FARMS. Kashmir is well known for it's apple, we all know this and when you have a chance to hop in 😎, voila! On the way of Pahalegam, we stopped for our lunch and exactly opposites to it there was a big apple farm. We hopped on the farm like small kids, took so many pics and had lot of fun. These are the baby apples. We travelled in wrong season due to which we miseed many things.

Baby apple 

Highway of Pahalgam.

  It took almost 4 hours to reach Pahalgam from Srinagar. But the nature beauty was awesome. You will never get tired of this travel because of the nature. Just do one thing, switch off the phone and enjoy it.😊

The most interesting part was, almost for three times the Army Soldiers checked our bus. It was really a thrilling experience to saw the soldiers with the cap, metal gun.  Checking was for our safety but felt conscious.😑 This was one of the most critical tour in our lifetime. 

I love this apple farm. 

Have you taste Kawaha in your life time? Do you like it? Have you been to apple farms?

I would like to know your experience. Please share it in comment section.

Till then, 

Happy Travelling

Shikara Ride on Dal Lake

Srinagar is Largest City in Jammu and Kashmir that is lie on Kashmir Valley and on the bank of Jhelum River.  The arc of Green Mountain and soothing climate surrounds the city. The city is famous for its natural beauty, Shikara ride on Dal Lake, landscape gardens and most beautiful handicrafts items. I loved about the city is that constantly a green, snowy mountains follows you wherever you go and Jhelum river is with you across all the streets. The water fountains on the Dal Lake and all sky touching slanted tress are like a painting.   No wonder, from this place only the artist get the inspiration for the nature painting. Srinagar is the place where you can seat with your love one for hour and hour without whispering a single world. It is like soaking the beautiful moments where Mother Nature has gives out plenty of blessing to you.

pic source : google

You should go with your loved one; either it is your boyfriend, girlfriend or else your spouse. The Romantic climate called out to be a mesmerized with the nature by forgetting the real world. It is like a meditation on Himalayas lap. I will not stop to describe the beauty…so let’s jump into today’s post i.e. Shikara ride on Dal Lake.

Dal is the longest lake in Srinagar, which is also known as Jewel in the crown of Kashmir. The shoreline of the Dal Lake is encompassed by Mughal Gardens, parks, houseboats and hotels.  The Mughal gardens are like Nishat Bag, Shalimar bag, Chasmeshahi garden which all built by Mughals Emperor Jahangir, which is Char Chand of the Srinagar.

pic source : Google

Shikara are nothing but small Oak wood boat that is floating on the lake in which you can see the reflection of Snow Mountain.  While on shikara ride, you get to see the 8 points that is all built on water. The main beauty of this Dal Lake is everything including daily lives too is floating on the water.  We saw the normal houses where actual people live other than tourist. We use auto or bus to travel from one place to another, but these people are using small boats. Not only male but female also sail the boat very well. You can see the doctors, museum, shops, stores, garden, fishing, etc. all in one floating on this lake.

pic source : google

Choose your boat as per your preference, lay down back on the Shikara with your family and enjoy the beauty. Cost of Shikara ride per person is Rs. 100/- to 150/-. Yes ….you need to bargain…we bargain almost for 30 minutes. To have a romantic and soothing view of Shikara ride please check out the video on my FB page, the link is :

Important tip: Do not waste your time in taking tons of photographs, ☺instead seat with a peace with your loved one to enjoy the paradise of the earth. I have enjoyed a lot with my family and friends. Hence not able to take photographs. That is the reason you see many pics from google. I took a very few photographs but yes shoots lot of videos. If you want to see, the video just let me know in the comment section below so that I will post a link on my FB page.

Dal Lake is another floating city of Srinagar. Whatever you want to buy, the boat will landed at your favorite shop so that you can get it down and buys the product. You can get many things like shawl, handicraft items, carpet, sweets, kashmiri salwar suits, gift items, medicine, milk, bread, fruits, even grocery. Yes, this is the floating market. Just have a look….

Another interesting thing is while your Shikara floating on a lake, most of the seller selling the fruit salad, kabab, handicraft items in a boat and convince you to buy them.

Looking funny na….!!!

I like this Kashmiri girl photoshoot. Yes…..the photographer sail his boat with kashmiri suits for Raja Rani with ornaments and flower bucket. He can take a multiple photos and give the hard copy until you finished your ride on the seashore. One copy cost around Rs. 140/-

Floating garden

This is one of the floating gardens, which is cultivated in the season. Right now, it is in this condition. You can see many birds floating on this lake that you never saw before. We saw the various types of plants, which are under this water. The people continuously clean this flesh. Lake is also known for fishing. We saw a variety of fisherman seating on seashore and some of them fishing while sailing on the boat.

plants /flesh under the water

So How was your ride guys….enjoy na ….!!!! Let me know in the comment section.

Don’t forget to like, share and comment. It means a lot to me.

Welcome to Srinagar

What is your Dream Destination for holiday? Everyone has a dream to visit one of the unique places. I love our India and want to explore each state and culture. You all know that Nitin and I are travel lover, we love to travels a lot and collecting our memories.  Once I visited Kanyakumari one of the south pole of our India map and wished from next day to visit north poles i.e. Jammu Kashmir. Yes… Jammu Kashmir is one of my dream destinations and my hubby fulfilled my wish on this 2018 birthday.  It was one of the most memorable birthday gift from my hubby…! Thank you Mr. Hubby.

Let me take you on Kashmir tour with us. Stay tuned through the Kashmir tour to feel the beauty. You will come to know why Kashmir is really called the Heaven of the Earth. I strongly recommend you; please try to visit Kashmir once in a life.

How to go:

It is very simple; just take a package from any Tours and Travels company. There are toons of Tour agent who will keep following you until you took the package….ha ha ha….Jokes apart.  However, it is difficult to find one of the good travel agents who will fulfill our wish list as per our priority. We always prefer to have comfort travel with reasonable rates.

This is not a sponsored post. I am writing as per our experience. We always plan our tour with this guy and having lots of fun and comfort. Comfort in terms of travelling, travelling vehicles, hotels, food, side seen, guide, shopping, and hospitality of the hotels. He is one of the person who gave us the best hotels as per our demand at a reasonable cost. As you know we go with small kiddos so our priority to be kid friendly hotel with food stuff and all other required arrangement. We are very happy with our Kerala tour and northeast tour. Thank You Mr. Vivek Pandit.

You have to book flight either Mumbai to Srinagar or connecting flight. We book our connecting flight Mumbai to Delhi, and Delhi to Srinagar. We fly with Vistara very first time and love the service. Review will be coming soon.

Pic source : NDTV com

Travelling Tips

# Try to select the flight that has minimum one and half hour between two connecting flight.

# Go with the group on Kashmir Tour, you all know Why.

# Carry a lots of warm cloth including hand gloves. Prefer to take body warmer.

# Carry umbrella as we cannot predict the weather.

# always listens to your guide because he knows the people and place better than us.

Rest of the people fly with Air India.

Kashmir is the Heaven of the Earth. Enjoy the tour of this heaven from the sky. Lets go…

Love it…? Comment below in the comment section please. I love the beauty and try to capture from my mobile as much as I can. See the mountain

Stay tuned for all my interesting post of Kashmir diary.

Till then happy travelling….!

Neeta

Zumba Fitness

Hey mommies,

How are you doing? Summer vacation is there and so our schedules are quite relaxing. There is no morning rush for school, Tiffin, classes… right? So how you are utilizing your time? Have you give the time to yourself? Have you seen in mirror? How do you look? Ten times ahead of your age, fatty, round tummy, feeling energy less.

If you are Indian, mommy and facing a lot of above problems then let’s tune in a fitness activity. Recently I posted summer activities for your little one, the link, if you haven’t read yet (http://memoryflies.blogspot.in/2018/04/summer-vacation-list.html) but how could I forget the mummies…. Aren’t we special…yes or no?  We need to take care of ourselves and have to keep fit and healthy so we are able to take care of our family. This is one of the activities of mommy’s summer bucket list.

Image :vectizzy.com

Fitness means you do not need to join Jim and do machine activity. Now days there are lots of fitness workout like Aerobic, Zumba , classical dance and many more…the list will not going to end, you just need to broden your mind and take out the time for yourself.

Zumba Program is a Latin-inspired, dance fitness class which incorporate Latin and international music and dance movements. Zumba class known as Zumba Fitness Party – combine fast and slow rhythms that tone and sculpt the body using an aerobic/fitness approach to achieve a unique blended balance of cardio and muscle –toning benefits. (Information from instructor manual)

After the age of 30, our bones tend to start reducing their strength. Our energy level tends to get decrease. We need to take any fitness activity to maintain our physiques.  It is not necessary to tone up the body but also strength the internal stamina. We are a group of eight mummies doing Zumba from last 4 months and yes, the results are tremendous. Not only our physical body tune into the shape but also losses weight in some inches and increase the internal stamina. All kind of mummy, boys, men’s and girls can join zumba. Let me share with you some pictures of zumba class.

Benefits of Zumba

#Exercise is in a party form: A Zumba class is a GREAT SWEAT (especially in summer). We are always having a blast; even we do not realize that we are doing exercise.

#Calories Reduction: Lose calories around 800-1000 in one hour. The Zumba programmer follows aerobic and high level of intense activity, which results in high calories expenditure.

#Reshaping Body: Zumba reshape all parts of body, including upper body, lower body, mid section, heart and mind.

#Easy dance steps: Zumba incorporate easy and new dance steps so that anyone can follow it. More over we are always having a party at our Zumba session.

#Weight Loss: With consistent and sensible exercise (Zumba form), well balance nutrition will definitely help in losing weight.

#Positive Self-image energy: Boost a high level of self-confidence and our internal energy. It nurtures a high level of “feeling good”.

# Last but not the least, it reduce your stress and clear your mind. Feel relaxed and happy.

We have yoga session with the supervision of our trainer.

Our enthusiastic trainer

For flexibility and toning, you need to practice yoga. There are immense benefits of yoga.

Yoga will help in building muscle strength, improve flexibility, protect your spine, increase your blood flow, etc. We practice it once a week and enjoyed lots.

Image : Businees Guitheirc Hammber .com

So Mummy….what are you thinking? Don’t feel shy, come, join us on the board and show us your dance movement.

I love dance and so I love Zumba fitness …..What is your favorite fitness workout? Tell me in the comment section below.