Forever Mood.🍜🍜🍜

~ The Rainbow-Lookalike Mediterranean Platter ~

Quite honestly, I fell in love with clean eating courtesy the Vegetarian Meal Bowl at Farmer's Cafe. 🌈

But it in no way meant that I was going to leave rest of their menu untouched. On exploring, I chanced upon their Mediterranean Platter (a very happy discovery, indeed). 🌈

Housing three different kinds of hummus -- the beetroot, the chickpea and the olive and black bean -- there's a generous serving of lavash, carrot and cucumber sticks along with 3 piping hot falafels. 🌈

My favorite among the three is that beetroot hummus. Sweet and earthy while imbibing a wonderful coolness, it goes beautifully with the crunchy carrots. The robust earthiness is balanced by salt and a hint of chili to cut through the natural, beet sweetness.🌈

The olive and black bean one comes as a total surprise. Lavash'd up, it is creamy with thick savory notes of black beans, chili and ground spices.🌈

Break open a falafel ball and the aroma of singing cumin and coriander wafts out. Quite frankly, you could eat these plain, they're that good. But they also pair up really well with the classic, chickpea and garlic hummus. I have to constantly remind myself to be a gentlewoman and share these with the person across the table.🌈

If you love unhurried, easy conversations and the idea of slow lunches, this Mediterranean Platter makes for the perfect background score. How you can nibble and spoon something so simple yet tasty and have the joy of sharing it with someone makes for a delightful experience! 🌈

I am not a huge fan of their lavash sticks. They have a weirdly tangy and bitter taste which is unpleasant if you eat these individually. 🌈

Lastly, the fourth mound is the most heavenly ensemble of cauliflower couscous. It comes with notes of vinegar and fresh coriander. This provides immense relief from all that hummus creaminess. 🌈

Bro-Tip: Try the veggie sticks with all three hummus's. The cucumber goes really well with the black-bean rendition. Also, the lavash isn't unbearable if you pair it up with the beetroot hummus. 🌈

"Overthinking is a habit that we create when we feel unsafe. It's the the mind's attempt to predict the future. It's the illusion that we can 'think' our way into security. The truth is we cannot control anything external. Mantra for overthinking: I am choosing peace in this present moment. ❤

- Dr. Nicole @the.holistic.psychologist

But art has no name, Neither yours nor mine. It is divine energy Claiming the heart, body and mind. It is love itself, Talking through us, To us.

~ Anvi Doshi

~ it's okay to bloom at your own pace ~  . Blooming isn't a competition. It doesn't have a predefined pace. . Often, our social media feeds may make us feel "slow" about our personal growth but may we know that the obstacles and curves in our path are only known to us. . Nobody else can determine your healing or its pace. Nobody else has a say in how you grow and what your growth should look like. . The courage it takes to show up day after day, isn't a visible thing. It happens only within. . So the next time we get tempted to compare our '3' to somebody's '20', may we stop ourselves and acknowledge the beauty of our own inner journey. 🌼

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Picture | @11990904

~ I made coffee for myself this morning and it tasted perfect-- bitter, nutty. slightly sweet. It was filled with a thick cover of bubbles and was piping hot. 

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Today I finally begin a passion project here --- sharing my Zen moments with paper. 

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Thank you for being with me. I hope you have a lovely day ahead. 🌼

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Illustration: https://www.instagram.com/wiwadd/?hl=en 

Affirmation: 

i will make the time

to add joy 

into my day.

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Image Source: @ceruleansoleil  Words: anvi doshi

~ 'quiet enjoyment' ~ ~ the art of deriving deep joy from life's moments tenderly, without feeling the need to talk about it.~ . e.g: a small, steady smile as you breathe in the fresh morning air, humming softly as you prepare coffee, feeling content while you create, sitting down with a loved one in shared silence. 🌼 . . Picture: Jaehee Cho, Behance

~ Unknown, beautiful flower-friends I met on a cool morning, in a small nursery in Panchagani. ~ 🌼

“It’s okay if every weekend doesn’t lead to big moments and campfires and laughter that carries on for hours and hours. Some weekends maybe quiet, still, with plenty of room to contemplate. And in that contemplation, there is room to grow. So hold those weekends dear. Don’t see them as less or as threats to the more exciting times. There is beauty and truth even in the seemingly mundane.” - Morgan Harper Nichols

~ I Found A Long-Lost Part Of Myself While Watching 'Meteor Garden' ~

Here's a fact: you can never get over the first drama you've watched. 

Every drama-lover I know confesses this lovingly. So, as I waited for being lovestruck yet one more time, I was drama-struck by Cupid instead.

My very first drama happened to be 'Meteor Garden’ (2018) a Chinese remake of the popular K-drama 'Boys Over Flowers'. Like the blink of an eye, I didn’t realize when I was already forty minutes into the first episode. 

That's how the drama bug got me.

The Story:

Meteor Garden revolves around the story of two Ming De university students, Daoming Si (Dylan Wang) and Dong Shancai (Shen Yue). While a typical rich brat meets a poor but badass girl, the story also pans out to accommodate a great cast of secondary characters. 

Beginning with the 'F4', Ming De's most popular boy-group starring its leader Ah Si (fierce, smart heir to the Daoming Group of industries), Huaze Lei (musical genius), Ximen Yan (tea god) and Feng Meizuo (art lover with an unbeatable memory).

There’s Dong Shancai's adorable mother and father, her best friends, Chen Qing (banana expert) and Xiao You (bubble-tea partner).

Over a span of 49 episodes, we watch Shancai and Si's unexpected love bloom, we celebrate the spirit of 'family' -- both in blood and otherwise, we cherish friendship as true as the color of a clear sky and we come face to face with a bounty of life-lessons as we fall deeper and deeper for the characters that make the show.

My favorite learnings from the drama:

1. Dong Shancai's character is a far cry from your typical C-drama heroine. She's strong, confident, boisterous and unafraid of speaking her mind. I absolutely love the way she teaches you to own who you are. To own your whole person --- your strengths, your weaknesses and to keep going exactly when you want to give up.

2. Meteor Garden celebrates love in different forms. The love between a mother and daughter, that between between two lovers, two friends, two almost-lovers-but-now-lifetime-BFFs, the kind of love that hurts because it isn't yours to claim, the kind of love that teaches you how to love with a big heart and then, the kind of love that you must let go of so that you can meet a love you deserve.

3. The F4 sum up the following sentence: find your tribe and love them hard. Their lifelong kinship reminds you that 'family' goes way past DNA and some of the best people in your life today, could have once-upon-a-time been complete strangers. They support, encourage, guide and hold each other up.

4. As a typical C-drama lead, you'd expect Daoming Se to totally own his privilege without acknowledging its side-effects. But Si's transformation from exactly this sort of person to someone who is open to changing for the better is refreshing. What blows my mind is how Si shows courage to write his own story, not the one that's expected of him.

5. While we're used to 'voicing' our opinions, Shancai taught me it's better to let your actions and virtues do the talking. Because, a pure heart may not always be a loud one but it will be seen nonetheless, since it is true to itself.

6. And then you have my favorite learning of all time: LOVE IS WORTH IT ALL.

It is worth growing into, growing for and fighting with every ounce of your soul. 

I've watched many love stories and read quite a few too, but I am unabashedly biased towards Si's pure, magical love for Shancai and vice versa.

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Image Credits | Netflix 

Image Art | Doodle Shape (Android App)