Moving..

www.baketitude.com

Hey...
I've been here a long while.
Longer than I've ever been in one place before .
My blog Baketitude,has been my sanity , my sanctuary and my best friend.
I've poured my heart out on these web pages...and they will be cemented in history.
Times have been good...and bad , emotions have been crazy and the 40 year barrier has been crossed.
But Baketitude and you , my friends,you're not just readers..or passers by...
You've laughed at my dilemmas...
Probably got irritated by my too long ,often error ridden posts...
Sometimes enjoyed ,vicariously the craziness of my family and friends...
You've seen my skills develop...
You've seen pictures and presentation get better...(I hope)...
You've been the reason I can now confidently share my skills with others, encouraging a little of my Baketitude...
You're the reason I can now share my love by making and selling cakes...
You're the reason I can put away my red pens and school files in a cupboard and take more than a sabbatical from the profession I had to take up... being an army wife stationed in the smallest of small towns.
You've seen my child grow, his and my struggles witb academics... read of my battle against the bulge...
You've encouraged my drive to get fit...despite sinking nose deep in chocolate and butter...
You my dear blog reader are now my friend. I may not recognize you on the road...you mat not either...my hair doesn't generally behave itself...
They say that when you marry into the olive green... you imbibe the capacity to absorb all that you can.
Yes, I can credit most of my abilities and superb event management skills and catering capacities to the army and its amazing fraternity...
But you my reader, my friend...I owe you.
You and I have shared food and bits ,bites and bytes.
So that common thread of the same salt...
Please don't think this is the end.
I'm moving forward ,to a website of my own. So I don't have to worry about stolen content and pictures.
I can pull out all stops and do up www.baketitude.com like its my real home... not virtual home.
Bear with me while I air some out old stuff...and new. Join my Facebook community at Baketitude and some more and lets connect.
All my food posts have moved to www.baketitude.com and as I settle down and understand how WordPress treats me...I'll be leaving blogger behind.
Come... have a drink, you'll find many
I never knew I'd baked so many loaves of bread, so many tonnes of cookies and frosted so many cakes...
Oh and I have a ton of north Indian-Punjabi, Dogri, Kashmiri and Rajasthani curries that I never really catalogued.
No wonder,I need to work out so much...

So I'm sort of spring cleaning. I'll be chucking out the worms... and airing the good stuff. Come , walk with me to Baketitude .
See you there my friend.
Oh , and if you feel you need to say something or have a suggestion or just want to say hi... drop me a line at shalinids21@gmail.com .

So what are you baking today???

Let Imagination Run Wild Children and Colgate Magical Stories

Sometimes, I envy this generation. They have everything they could possibly need. A million things to do and a million options to exercise. But then I thank the good god above for bringing me into this world when imagination could playback better movies and soundtracks than the multi billion dollar block busters we see on the silver screen today.

I still have memories of stories my mum told me when she tried to get me to sleep. And can still hear the notes of the songs my daddy used to sing to us and to himself... while driving ,while working..those are eternal. 

I tried to recreate the same with my child. The minute he started asking "What this?" And snatching "Book" from my hands, I knew it was time to shelve my books for a while and concentrate on his. 

Taking full advantage of being a stay at home mum, we did many toys and kitchen sets and sets of lego and Ladybird books. I'm proud of him today, when he scoffs at the lame renditions of cinematic versions of his favorite books. 

When he scoffs at the limited imagination of his friends.

I know I did something right by spending almost all my time and energy with him .

Colgate has these wonderful characters printed on the inside of the Colgate Strong teeth Pack container.

And when they arrived at my doorstep...I knew who best to entrust those to.  A little girl who has just come from a small  town called Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan to live with her family in Mumbai. She loves it here and has many many friends who play together in the evening. 

But horror of horrors , they discuss Hindi TV series like Naagin and women who turn knto snakes and boy girl romances like Ek Duje Ke Liye . She's only 9 years old.

She needs her mind to be free of someone's commercially aspiring thoughts. 

She needs to let magic do the trick. So those packages went to her. I asked her if she would like to write a story for me... she agreed. But on one condition. She wanted that video up on you tube. 

So this is her story.

Vineeta. 

She wrote it down so that's he could say it all in English. 

Her mermaid and other sea creatures live together in an underwater world and they are living her dream.

And when the pirates threaten the dolphin, all the creatures come together to save her. And they live happily ever after.

Oh and Vineeta is the little Mermaid.

These are her two minutes of fame. So listen to her and watch her expressions. The story is just long enough for it to not get boring. Vineeta took those colgate strong Teeth Packs  to school and cut them out with her friend. So when they are forced to sit indoors because of the rain, instead of gossiping about the love story between  Shrawan Mehta and Suman Tiwari ,they now talk sea turtles and Barracuda fish. (Yes, those names...she told me that the entire family watches that soap daily while eating their dinner. And no , I don't have cable TV. We're Netflix and Hotstar people.)

So give your kids a free rein with their imagination. Let them cut out the Colgate Strong teeth Pack and make their own stories. These flights of fantasy will be great fun . Let #colgatemagicalstories do their bit.