Motherhood – all love begins and ends there… warm, loving and supportive made up my mother.
Happy Mother’s Day!
I was curious to know how Mother’s Day came about and doing some research on Google, I came to know it rather has a little dark history behind it. The US version of Mother’s Day was started by a lady
who never had children of her own but the death of her own mother inspired her to organize the first Mother’s Day observance in 1908. After few years, US President Woodrow Wilson made this official in May of 1914. So, Mother’s Day is 101 yrs old!
The initial idea of celebrating this day, as an intimate gathering with your mother and thank her for all that she did, quickly turned out to be a commercial gold mine. Sadly, the lady
who started this, fought until her last days being penniless to keep it an intimate affair between the mother and her children.
Today here in US, Mother’s Day is a $20 billion retail holiday. You are reminded every step of the way, bombarded with things you can buy for your mother. There is nothing wrong with it, but I think, one needs to strike a balance and not forget the real essence of celebrating this day.
For this Mother’s Day, I thought I would do something special, collect few of my mother’s favorite things that she loved wearing and relive the memories with her today…
The saree you see in the photo actually belongs to me – my dad gifted this first Kanjeevaram silk saree when I was 20yrs old. I was not very keen on wearing sarees in my 20’s….so it turned out my mother started wearing this more and she looked utterly gorgeous in this! After I lost her few years back I brought this saree back from India. Today, this saree holds a special place in my heart, brings back warm memories of her, for some reason this particular saree retains her essence for me with the creases still intact from the last time she wore it…
The beautiful silver plate is from 1950’s gifted to my mother during her wedding. This plate took the center stage in all my mother’s religious festivities and carries a subtle spiritual vibrations of many years…
Being a South-Indian traditional woman, my mother loved wearing jewelry and everyday of her life she wore this elegant coral necklace around her neck…it’s faded a lot through the years but didn’t dither her from wearing it…
One quintessential quality of my mother was she loved to cook and feed not just the ones in her family but everyone who visited our home were in for a treat!
To make her feel happy today, I am sharing with you this amazing rich smoothie using exotic rose petals!
According to Ayurveda, it’s not a coincidence rose is associated with love and caring. It balances the sadhaka pitta that governs the emotions of the heart! It’s cooling in nature and is balancing for all three doshas.
Rose Smoothie
- 1 cup soaked Pumpkin Seeds (you can use any nuts/seeds you like)
- 2-3 tbsp Rose Jam (recipe below)
- Few strands of Saffron
- pinch of Cardamom pwd
- 1-2 drops Vanilla Essence (optional)
- Water as needed (to make the smoothie consistency)
First blend the pumpkin seeds with some water and later add all the ingredients and blend away to nice smoothie consistency.
Rose Jam
There are basically two ways of making this – one is the raw authentic way and the other is a simpler and faster way.
- 1 cup organic Rose Petals
- approx 4-6 tblsp Date syrup/ Jaggery/Natural Whole Food Sweetener
- Water if using the cooking method
For the raw version you basically add the rose petals and the sweetener in a glass jar and shake it well. Keep it in the sun for about 1-2 weeks stirring daily. This will be nicely sun-cooked and is very rich and robust in flavor.
For the cooked version you take a stock pot add the rose petals and the sweetener and cook it on a very low flame for about 15-20 mins adding water as needed making sure the petals are not getting burned.
This smoothie is very simple to make and you’ll be surprised the combination of pumpkins seeds mixed with rose brings out a soothing flavor that excites your tastebuds! It’s definitely a treat to make and share with your loved ones.
Check out this blog too which has amazing Ayurvedic recipes.
It feels nice to reminisce…looking back in the past and recalling the little sweet things that make life worthwhile. Hug your mother’s tight…they won’t be there forever…one’s who have lost…relive the essenceand make it special!
