CONTENT WRITING WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE

 My Experience in the 6-Day Content Writing Workshop.

Classrooms are something I have never liked throughout my educational journey. I would do anything to avoid sitting in a classroom and listening to long lectures. I am a person who believes in learning through experiences. This was how my student life went by and after my graduation, I tried my best not to get into any classroom-style education. I sort of succeeded too, to a certain extent. 

Most of my career life has been a 'Work from Home' kind of job. Slowly, I learnt to sit in one place and work. My ten-plus years of experience in English Proofreading and training made me passionate about editing everything I set my eyes upon. In the process, I did manage to successfully get on a few people's nerves. 

Even though I could edit/rectify what was written, I never ventured into writing something on my own. I secretly had this passion to attempt to write. That is when I started my own blog and just randomly scribbled something that I felt. Slowly, this secret passion got onto me more and I really wanted to give it a serious try. I wanted to write my thoughts and also do some copywriting jobs for companies. 

In order to give this a shot, I enrolled myself in a 6-day online workshop conducted by the ContentVidhya group. I have to say that it took me a lot of courage to join this workshop. I had tried a couple of writing attempts before but couldn't get anywhere to my satisfaction. 

First Day experience

Every day, the session was organized for two hours. I joined the first day of the workshop with all my inhibitions about attending a classroom-style course after a long time and also about my writing limitations. My trainer, Ms. Uma Madhavi, took the session in a very simple manner. I felt that her communication was straightforward and simple with no flamboyant style. Within the first hour itself, I got the feeling that she was communicating with me personally. I felt that the materials that she showed on the screen were very useful and I kept taking photos of them since they truly caught my attention. I have this habit of immediately clicking on my phone camera when something interests me and later I realized this is exactly what I was doing after seeing the useful slides on the screen. 

Rest of the Days' experience 

The initial three days went on very well and I was quite surprised to find that I wasn't bored at all 'in a classroom.' We were given some tasks to complete and this gave me the push (I needed) to write.....🖋🖋🖋🖋 The simple tips and tools which were shown in the sessions made me want to try writing. It was like someone had just removed a Road Divider from my path and I could freely drive ahead. Probably, this is called a "Writer's Block" and I glided over it smoothly. 

Credits: beabetterblogger.com

Now, I am keen on completing all the tasks given on all the days of the sessions. This has also given me certain leverage for my mind to think ahead of the topics that I want to write about. A lot of resourceful links and materials were shared with us which would definitely help us in our future writing attempts. 

A small way to say a BIG THANK YOU to Ms. Uma Madhavi for an inspiring workshop and for opening the gates of my writing journey! 

A MEANINGFUL COMEBACK!

A MEANINGFUL COMEBACK

Hi! Am back again and this time probably with a Meaningful Comeback! When I started this blog randomly, I was just trying to go on to an adventure in social media with nothing else in mind. But, this time, I am back again for some purposeful writing and encouraging myself to get on to a new path - WRITING SKILLS!

Today, I am going to talk about my deep interest in watching a reality show on Television called "BIGG BOSS." I would say that I am addicted to this show and watch them in most of the Indian languages (Hindi, Kannada, Tamizh, Telugu) that are aired. I am constantly teased or advised by my people to stop watching this show which according to them is worthless. 

Credits: Hotstar

The show is all about having a few people both commoners and celebrities, then keeping them in a single big house with zero contact with the outside world. They have their own lifestyle, daily activities, games, etc. They are a unit of their own and slowly we can observe human relationships building, breaking, rebuilding, etc. Finally, one person who is able to sustain throughout with a strong mind becomes the winner. 

Community Living: 

When I watch this show, I feel, observe and understand how human relationships work. I could see how humans live in a group and over a period of time, how they manage to adjust and co-exist with their accompaniments. This is where Community Living starts. I can relate this to even travel experiences where we meet people and in the entire journey, we learn to adapt to each other in that time period. It is great to watch the dynamics of human psychology and how each person is a different personality of their own. Then how each one reacts to a particular situation/s. 

Once I imagined that I got an opportunity to enter the Bigg Boss! I was also in the house with other contestants. Some of them were celebrities and I wouldn't have imagined at any point of time in my life that I would even meet them. But now, I am living with them! It felt like a dream coming true? I was in one of my favourite shows. I knew the dynamics of the show so well that I was able to assess my co-contestants quite well. But living with them and watching on Television were entirely two different experiences. 

Every word that was uttered had to be carefully mouthed since that would become the topic of the day if it was not accepted by any of the contestants. Since each contestant had a unique personality of their own, each one spoke their mind out aloud. I did notice some of them having a calm composure most of the time but they did become aggressive during the performance of tasks. 

I could relate that this is what happens to humans in the struggle for the survival of the fittest. How human behaviours change to different situations. All we need to do is keep a camera running around us the whole day. We can notice that we are living in a similar scenario, just like in a bigger Bigg Boss House!

Credits: Quora

Today, I managed to prepare these out of healthy greens. :)

Karuveppilai Podi (Curry leaves powder)

Curry leaves have a lot of medicinal properties. It is rich in calcium and has vitamin A also. Oil made from curry leaves is said to prevent hair fall and delay hair greying. Curry leaves powder can be stored for a month and can be used when needed. Nothing can beat the fresh flavor of homemade curry leaves powder. Hot steamed rice with curry leaves powder and a tsp of ghee is heavenly.

Kothamalli Thogayal (Cilantro paste)

Cilantro paste is a healthy, nutritious, iron and fiber rich recipe and the most important thing is it has the property to increase appetite. So this is a good choice of recipe for growing kids to increase their appetite naturally. Cilantro paste is one easy, spicy, tangy, tasty and healthy versatile dip/chutney that you can use with rice, rotis, dosa, idly, Adai, curd rice or any variety rice, sandwich spread etc. This stays fresh and good in room temperature for up to a week and is a perfect side dish to pack for a trip also. 

Thursday's experience.

Today was one of those really hectic days at work. Though I regularly visit his temple every Thursday, I couldn't follow that in Bangalore today. I could do only my daily prayers. 

In the late evening I had to go out as I had promised to rectify my dad's phone. The store person told me to go to the Service centre which to my surprise was just bang near the temple. 

So, I finally managed to visit the temple, had a wonderful Darshan and continued with my other things.

All you need to do is think of Him and He will take care of the rest....something I strongly believe in....thus my auspicious Thursday's experience.

Today....an Experience....

This evening, as usual my husband and myself had gone to pick up our son from his classes. I was busy looking at Facebook from my phone and when we reached a hotel to eat, I was called by some stranger. He seemed to be an elderly person and looked very respectful, he was actually leaving (taking his car out). He started a pleasant conversation and all of a sudden asked me to show my palm. When I did so, he told me that I am very compassionate towards humans, animals and birds...etc...Then my son joined me and he immediately told he looks to be very talented in art. He asked to see my son's backside of the palm and told he has artistic fingers. He enquired what was his ambition and when my son said he wanted to be a doctor, he suggested to become a surgeon and told him that such ambitions come for him because of his mother...Further, my husband finally joined us after parking the car, wondering what was happening, when he was told that he is a lucky one and had a conversation with him too. 

Then he left immediately without talking anything about himself. All the three of us were standing there surprised. Sometimes, I wonder from where these people come and why they hold such conversations...when we have never seen this person ever before...Today was an experience and wanted to share....

This weekend...

This weekend was a real hit with severe dehydration due to some stomach bug or something. I had lost lot of fluids since nothing was staying inside me even with medications. Finally, the ones that really helped me were these:

Idli also romanized idly or iddly, plural idlis, is a traditional breakfast in south Indian households. Idli is a savory cake of South India that is most popular throughout the southern part of India including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka. The cakes are usually two to three inches in diameter and are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils (de-husked) and rice. The fermentation process breaks down the starches so that they are more readily metabolized by the body.

Along with my ever favourite:

Yogurt or yoghurt or yoghourt (/ˈjoʊɡərt/ or /ˈjɒɡərt/; from Turkish: yoğurt; other spellings listed below) is a fermented milk product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. The bacteria used to make yogurt are known as "yogurt cultures". Fermentation of lactose by these bacteria produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to give yogurt its texture and its characteristic tang.^[1]

Dairy yogurt is produced using a culture Dairy of Lactobacillusdelbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus bacteria. In addition, otherlactobacilli and bifidobacteria are also sometimes added during or after culturing yogurt.

Today's Lunch.

A small portion of rice with cooked daal (pulses) and some cooked beans curry.

A big bowl of steamed banana stem cooked with yoghurt. (Banana stem is highly fibrous and is very beneficial for those on a weight-loss program. It is also a rich source of potassium and vitamin B6 which helps in the production of insulin and hemoglobin. Eating banana stem once a week keeps high blood pressure in control. Banana stem also maintains fluid balance within the body. It is diuretic and helps detoxify the body. The popular belief is that eating banana stem is very good for kidney stones.

Small bowl of hot Rasam with tomatoes. (Rasam is like a hot pepper thin soup which is good for the throat).

Last but not the least, my everyday dish; a bowl of cooked greens.

I try to devour most of the vegetables again with a small bowl of oats for dinner. And of course, my fruit time is an evening snack.