Quarantine Sky

Quarantine Diaries 

Get Out of Your Comfort Zone - Face your Fears and Grow | Motivational

Dance like no one is watching 💃
Easier said than done especially when everyone is watching.
All I can think is what others are thinking about me, about the judgements - most of us go through this and I guess that’s the crux of it all. The biggest fear.

What is fear, fear is nothing but a  feeling of being afraid of us getting hurt in some way or the other. Every year I try to overcome at least one of my fear, get out of my comfort zone one step at a time.
(Check it out here)

I love dancing I always have at social gatherings, get togethers, parties, with family, friends but I always need a partner. Its funny but honestly I can't dance alone in front of a crowd or audience. I cannot face the stage alone.
As a child, I was shy, I wouldn't participate in any of the competitions which required me to be on stage alone. So I have been carrying that baggage of stage fright throughout my life, I never let go off that little girl who was happy in her comfort zone of familiarity. That's what most of us do, right?

I wouldn't be doing this if I wouldn't have taken that leap into the unknown out into the uncomfortable and unfamiliar.
The true fear here is not of the stage, it's of being judged, of failure, of messing it up.
Of all those eyes being on you and no one else, taking the onus of your own actions, no one to hide behind, no where to go, true scenario of fight or flight.
This year there was a family wedding and I had to take part in the celebrations, I wanted to wriggle out of this cause I was a nervous wreck not because of practise or anything but the sheer knowledge of facing my demons.
But I couldn't, I had promised, it was now or never.
The knowledge that I was doing this in front of my family and friends was comforting as well as It added more pressure - it was as if I had to prove a point, but there wasn't any point to be proved.
It was just in my head - my fear of being judged and yes eventually that made me freeze at the very beginning- oh yes I goofed up after all, right at the start !
That moment I remembered the Murphy's law - “whatever can go wrong will go wrong” and it so did. What did I have to lose now. I just tried to be calm and go with the flow and give my best shot, it wasn't easy though.
I went on and then I heard cheering from the audience that itself was so comforting and motivating because the audience doesn't want you to really fail in fact they want you to go on . And with a beating heart I went on.
I couldn't stop, I couldn't take a flight so I kept going. I kept looking st one person at a time cause believe me the sheer magnitude of the entire crowd is scary. So one at a time I went on with the audience as well as my steps and before I knew ( not really it seemed really long) the dance was over. I felt liberated and light and yet the feeling of what others thought and of being judged was at the back of my mind. It always is you know. I guess that is the root cause of most of our fears of us being trapped in our comfort zones, not taking that leap of faith.

So has my fear of stage gone? I don't know only time will tell. All I can say is that I took that first step, that leap and I will keep walking out of my comfort zone even if it is baby steps. I will keep moving ahead into the unfamiliar, discovering new unknown possibilities and experiences. It's gratifying, satisfying and really makes me happy to go on and keep learning keep growing. We grow fearless by walking into our fear, by facing it by being strong, not just by thinking about it but acting on it. So don't let this fear of what could happen let nothing happen. Get out of your comfort zone and keep growing from strength to strength.

Let me know if you went through the same ever. I keep going through it, even now when I shared it, I am insecure about being judged but that didn’t stop me from putting it out there from taking my leap out of my comfort zone. I am Facing my fears and letting others know that you are not alone, are you?

Check my dance finally in the video below 👇🏼▶️ At 2:00

Watermelon Mojito | Summer vacation vibes in Quarantine

Join me for a summer vacation at home with cocktail recipes and some dance in tow. Vacation in Quarantine and some Mojito to forget where you really are ;p
After all Every summer has a story to tell.. and the main plot being happiness cos in the end Summer is a state of mind.
So enjoy those summer vibes wherever you are 🌞

xoxo

Bhakti 

Quick Refreshing Coconut Mocktail / Cocktail for the Summer.

Easy drink to refresh and rejuvenate this summer along with boosting your immunity in a yummy way.

Easy Egg Masala Recipe

Egg masala - a quick recipe for some yummy satiated hunger pangs. 

Top it up with some butter and comfort food at its max is ready to serve 🥘

Pair it with bread, chapati or Rice - a soul satisfying meal indeed. 

You can substitute the eggs for chicken or make it completely veg by substituting them for Paneer (cottage cheese). Do let me know in the comments below how you liked it.

Summer salad - Easy Orange Mediterranean Salad

Is it the Simple food, simpler times or the simplest love?

So I was craving this simple Curd Rice meal one of these days (quarantine life) and as I was making it, I was very happy from within. Curd Rice a most simple and humble preparation; an amalgamation of chilled Yoghurt/curd and soft boiled rice. Changing its avatars throughout the country according to region and taste with a bit of variation. 

Dahi Bhaat a local favorite in a Maharashtrian house hold, also goes by the name of Thayir Saddam in Tamil Nadu  - a must in every meal, to Doi Bhaat in Bengal, khatti kanki in Gujarat, Dahi pakhala in Odisha, Komal Saul in Assam and many more versions and names of curd rice throughout the country. 

What makes it special is the simplicity of chilled Dahi with soft rice and a few other ingredient which are easily found and give it a local taste and flavours which are unique and simplest to find, eat and digest. It’s healthy too, with it’s good bacteria, probiotic property and it’s also good for the immunity. 
No wonder this is a most comforting meal found all over India especially in Summers or hot places. 

But this Marathi mulgis heart belongs to the one cooked in Maharashtra in her mother’s kitchen. 

Dahi Bhaat always takes me back to the more simpler times literally. I am talking about the 90’s when life was a lot simpler less hassled, technology was just setting in and hadn’t taken over lives, social media was newspapers and Doordarshan if anything. Especially for a kid in Kg (as in kindergarten not kilograms)the simplest times you can say without a shred of worry and an ounce of stress ; one only being practising your alphabets in the cutest sing song manner there was. 

So well, in my kg we were allowed only sabzi chapati (bhaji poli ) i.e staple healthy food and one day was reserved for snacks in our tiffin. 

So apart from sabzi chapati we were also allowed curd rice once in a while. I wasn’t a big fan but call it peer pressure, change or just a kg tantrum; I wanted that in my tiffin. So after pestering my mom  for the same, now you may be wondering - what’s their to pester in that. Well I was an asthmatic child and Eating curd got me bouts of cough. So yes, you can imagine my mother’s state but being the sweetheart she always is with me and trying to make me happy (don’t be fooled, she is very strict when she has to) as always. She gave in. So next day I go to school all excited expecting my first ever curd rice in my tiffin. A small kindergartener who couldn’t contain her excitement for eating the most humble meal ever curd rice cos she never had one. So finally when I opened my tiffin and stared at it with the utmost love and began eating the lovely lemon coloured curd rice with so much enthusiasm. Well let’s decrease the enthusiasm over here not in quality but in quantity. You see I am a very slow eater now too so imagine me in kg. I had just barely taken two bites and was enjoying my very own creamy curd rice for the first time when the teacher took away my golden lemony creamy soft rice filled tiffin and gave me a packet of Parle G biscuits to eat. She distributed my golden treasure meal fit for a king amongst my classmates whereas I looked on with fury and confusion and misery and tears. To scared to ask why she did it, I grumpily hardly even touched the biscuits. As if that wasn’t enough she called my mother next day for a meeting. 

After going home and throwing a tiny tantrum and being pacified by mother with the utmost love, loads of play time and yummiest fare, I totally forgot the episode apart from the happy fact that the next day mumma would be picking me up from school after meeting my teacher. 

Decade or two later I find out. The reason behind the creamy lemony colour Dahi Bhaat in my tiffin in kg, the meeting and even decades later I find out the true depth of love in it all. 

Well you see, my mother stuck in dilemma of having an asthmatic child who wanted to eat Dahi Bhaat for the very first time and feel one with the class, peers and not being left out; she made Dahi Bhaat but with a concerned mother’s heart ; with a little Dahi and some varan (dal) to cut down on the potency of Dahi giving me a bout of cough. Rendering that creamy lemon colour to it. You see Dahi Bhaat is like Snow White, no wonder the teacher peeped in my tiffin all right. Well let me tell you it was a yummiest one at it, my classmates finished it in the fastest bit. 

So my mother was called for a meeting and a bit of scolding because dal was not allowed (weird no sometimes). 

So she took a scolding, took double tantrums from me, took all the trouble and in return she only gave me loads of love -isn’t it the simplest of love, all for me, all for my love. 

Yes my heart still yearns and will always yearn for that most comforting best creamy Lemon coloured Dahi Bhaat in the world with my mother’s love. So in this quarantine I don’t know whether I am craving for that simple yum comforting bowl of Dahi Bhaat which makes my heart sing or I am craving for my mother who’s heart sings for me and then I realise they both are one and the same thing. 

So today I sit and relish this simple food thinking about the simpler times and missing and basking at the same time in the simplest love. 

Dahi Bhaat Recipe  

xoxo 

Bhakti