Sonali Divya's Revelations

The national seed diversity festival is being conducted at Anna University from 9 th June 2017 to 11 th June 2017 with the collaboration of ASHA and Bharath Beej Swaraj Manch.  This festival witnessed many seed-conserving farmers showcasing an enormous variety of seeds and rice. People commuting to the place via public transports would have to walk a long distance inside the campus to reach the building. Once you enter the place, towards the right you have the registration counter. There is no entrance free and the festival is open to all. After registration, comes a huge hall where all the seeds and rice are showcased. The arrangements of stalls resembled like a school project, where we visit each stall one by one in a linear fashion. Every stall had different types of seeds and millets. Each type of seed also had a name tag and the stall owners were more than kind in answering even our silliest queries and questions. There was one stall from Mysore which showcased fou...

Recently, Plastic rice has been the headlines in many news channels. It initially started as a complaint made in a biryani shop by a customer. However, now it has turned into a scare! Literally, as the name sounds, these rice are made up of plastic pieces. Some reports also say that on cooking, the rice seem to have a sticky, plastic feel and they were also rebounding. How to find out if the rice you are consuming at your household is original or plastic? Source: The Times Of India The HansIndia has given us a few tests to confirm the presence of plastic rice: 1. Water test - According to this test, when rice is added to water, it should not float (as we all know rice does not float). If it floats in water, then chances are it is plastic rice. 2. Fire test - Plastic smells when burnt right? Try burning a small amount of rice to see if it lets out any plastic smell. 3. Hot Oil test - As we all know plastic melts, try putting a small amount of rice in h...

It was a regular hot, sunny evening when I took my weekly walk around mylapore mada streets. I had come across this restaurant for quite sometime and that day I was drawn towards that place as I was more than hungry! I was exhausted!  At the entrance, you have the chaats, sandwiches and traditional snacks counter. I have to say their panipuris are delicious. On the traditional snacks counter, you can get sweet poli, sweet panayaram and kaara panayaram. They do not have much variety in their sandwiches. After gulping some delicious puris, I entered the restaurant. Towards my left were an array of sweets and savouries. It instantly reminded me of a North Indian sweet shop. They had a quite a variety of sweets and savouries. The diners could either have a normal dining or a temple view dining which is situated in the first floor. To my surprise, where ever I saw, I was able to see mostly only thathas and paatis (Hardly any youngsters :( ...) It was such a cut...

We all love food and no doubt about it! But how come many of us eat less when we dine alone and tend to eat lots when we are in a friends’ company? Apart from the fact that you end up paying less and eating more when among a group, it’s a question to ponder upon right? Do you think it might have something to do with our psychology? Do you? Keep thinking…… Let us begin with a very simple question. Can you all tell me why do we eat food? The majority of your answers will be “because I am hungry”. But do we actually consume food only when we are hungry? No not at all! When we see the sight of food, we immediately start drooling over it regardless us being hungry or not. Take another instance, you are with a group of people and the entire group is munching over food. Can you control yourselves by not eating along with them? You would have a feeling of being isolated from the group if you don’t eat along with them. Similarly, when the group is eating dish A, the chances of you or...

Pakwan, translating to 'dish' in Hindi, is a restaurant located at the heart of Chennai, T. Nagar. The restaurant, as per their Facebook page, claims to 'give your taste buds the royal dining experience in the best of vegetarian north Indian, Italian and Chinese cuisines with an ambience that looks just wow'. I was more than eager to visit this place to have my lunch to satisfy my taste buds on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Although the restaurant is located at the end of the street, we did not have any difficulties in finding out the place, thanks to their signage. The entrance of the restaurant was welcoming. We were guided to our seats with helpful servicemen. However, the interiors of the restaurant resembled more of a Chinese-themed restaurant, which I think is due to their overwhelming use of reds in the background. As we were really hungry, we directly went to starters, although they did have soups. For starters, we ordered kuti lal mirch paneer tikka and ch...

Every girl out there yearns to have natural pink lips which looks naturally healthy. Tinted lip balms and lipsticks might solve the problem for the time being. However, if you want to have natural lips that are pink, moisturized and plump, then do check out the following DIY lip scrubs. 1. Yellow mellow Mix 1tsp powdered sugar, 1tsp coconut oil and 1/2tsp turmeric powder and gently scrub on the lips using a circular motion. Don't be too harsh or vigorous. Scrub for around ten minutes and wash it off. Repeat this process once in two days for noticable pink lips. 2. Pink dragon Mix 1tsp beetroot juice with 1tsp powdered sugar and 1tsp olive oil. Mix together and scrub as given above. Beetroots are rich in anthocyanins (a colour giving pigment ), thus you can immediately find a natural pink tint in your lips. Repeat the process as given above. Make sure you apply a lip balm after your scrubbing. Before bedtime, apply some almond oil on to your lips to wake up with soft mois...