Rads

14/01/2024

K-Drama coz i mean who else can do classy romance like them!

An enchanting tale of love transcending time in the Korean movie 'Be With You, a heartwarming journey filled with poignant moments & mystery

05/02/2021

FRIDAY PRODUCT REVIEW: (swipe for vid)
Soundarya Radiance cream from

I saw enough hype on this last Fall, and decided I'll go ahead and buy it and see anyway. I rarely ship from India, unless they are pickles and I am buying enough to justify the price. That's just me. In a weak moment, I fell for it, and bought a few things. So, a few disclaimers: I didn't use this every single day. When you see that tiny bottle and how much you paid, you would want to stretch it also 🙂

Pros:
--> It's buttery soft, smells very natural and mildly scented.
--> Goes on smooth, and I would wait for a minute or two to sink in before applying anything else.
--> My skin's more dry than oily, so it blended in well.

Cons
--> Price. Maybe INR 5,000 is okay for folks in India to spend on skincare, but am not used to spending $75+shipping for a bottle that would last me say 6-7 weeks if used regularly.
--> I honestly don't think it's made a tremendous impact on my skin (as opposed to other products that are much economical) even if I did take into consideration that this was all natural creams etc. Coz for the price, I would expect it to be a little more impactful than subtle. It does make my skin glow, but there is no lasting effect, which made me double guess coz everyone was singing praises of it.

That is all. Am sorry, am just honest!
Agreed am no skincare expert and am not the 20-30s intended demographic who wouldn't mind splurging on themselves, but I am a pretty keen observer, and someone who values where their $ goes. Buy it once if you want to know what it feels like, but I will not be a repeat customer. If it worked for you, great!

There is also a Kumkumadi night cream that I got, and apart from feeling luxurious like am Cleopatra swimming in goat milk, I didn't find any improvement in the fine lines either 🙂
Anyways, next week I have a product that I absolutely love and has helped us so much during the pandmeic. Wait for it! On that note, are you finding value in these reviews? FYI, I plan to review ALL products that I use, not just health & beauty.

22/01/2021

Please read the ful post.

I’ve always loved birthdays. A day to celebrate the person you are, to see how far you have come and to take pride in the person that you are. No matter where you are in life compared to where you thought you would be, everyone must agree that we are better off than when we were born 😜

Am celebrating a big one this year. So for this year, am putting out a wish into the universe.
Write me a letter.
Tell me, show me, regale me, inspire me, compliment me or just wish me Happy Birthday. It isn’t today lol!

So yeah, write to me (or not) at rads.kowthas@gmail.com. ❤️

30/12/2020

Counting Down to New Year 2021: Tip 3 ⁠
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"Escape competition through authenticity." - ⁠
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Only when I spent time with this thought did I realize this is exactly what I have been doing, ALL MY LIFE. ⁠
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I've never played nice to fit in, I've never competed without good reason and competition always made me uneasy. I've been nothing but honest, authentic through my time. On hindsight, even as a child. ⁠
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I was a loner, a quiet kid, a bookworm, and as much as I wanted friends and to be in a group, a crowd and yearn the love and admiration, I realize(d) that I don't last too long there. Of my own free will mostly, and some coz of the way I think. ⁠
Am the same as an adult, and the pandemic has made me realize and accept it more at a conscious level. ⁠
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Many cannot relate to what I say/think/do, and I am okay with that, I wasn't during my 30s but now I am. ⁠
My mentors have told me, it's partly because am authentic and unafraid of being so, and partly coz you have nothing to lose when you are secure in your own. ⁠
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I believe there can only be one YOU. ⁠
The more YOU you are, the less there is anyone to compete with. ⁠
YOU are your USP (unique selling proposition) ⁠
The internet is full of grand caption/articles on being yourself but no one talks about authenticity wrt how freeing it truly is.⁠
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For 2021, be more you. ⁠
There is only one you. ⁠
Find you, deep dive within you, and you will thrive in your uniqueness. ⁠
My 2 cents. ⁠

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16/11/2020

Lunch plate.
Plating simply coz I could use some creative exercises.
I’ve been grounding and living in the now too much and I need to shake loose.
That’s paatoli-Usili - made out of black chana.
✨
RECIPE
✨Soaked chana
✨Ground with red chilies and salt and minimal water
✨ Pan roasted with oil and hing on slow-medium heat till it became a powder
✨ Eat with hot rice and ghee
I had it with brown rice + moong and some avakaya.
I didn’t think it would taste as good as it did!

Idea credit goes to 🧡 who is a whiz at making the simplest things taste delicious in the way that’s comforting and loving. From all the 27 years I’ve known her, I would NEVER miss an invitation to go eat at her kitchen. There are times when I’ve invited myself over when I’ve felt forlorn and alone and am grateful she exists for me.

30/10/2020

At times, it takes little to shake our perception of ourselves. Every now and then, and often times for completely random reasons, we find ourselves wondering:

Who the hell am I?
What on earth am I doing here?

Knowing very well somewhere within, what we think of as our identity has nothing to do with what's seen and is mostly always about what is not.

👁️‍🗨️

Here's hoping you love what you see in the mirror.
The one on the wall &
The one when you close your eyes.

Have an awesome weekend!
It's Halloween tomorrow and it fell on a Saturday, but I think 2020 has pulled a large scary trick on all of us, so we are staying quiet and maybe eat a pizza and watch a movie from under the covers. You be good now!

29/10/2020

The past weeks have been building a crescendo in our days and now I can hear it and feel it within me. We are counting down to a release, and it feels very real, very alive and very needed.

No point in history (and I mean my history) did I feel this sense of urgency and importance that we are now riding now. I voted on Tuesday and it was a surreal experience. I have voted thrice earlier and never have I felt more in the moment than this time.
To the standing in line, the slow walk, the masks, the somber atmosphere, the gray skies, and the distancing and down to the clear plastic between the volunteers and us. Like a clockwork things happened, just like it did the last elections, but this time everything was pronounced.
More mindful.
More crucial.
Like we were all writing an exam and our grade lay heavily on our collective votes aka the group project.

The interesting part is I am not afraid. I do not sense doom. I do not despair and I most definitely am not worried.
It surprises me when I see anxious folks all around, worried on outcomes, brooding on details and praying

I feel a hint of guilt.
I brush it off.
I don't not feel guilt because of my privilege?
Or despite it?
Or maybe am just made this way.
I do not dwell on my fears.
If anything, THAT is my privilege.

I chanced upon this sunrise pic from a Virginia Beach trip this past summer, and it hit me.
You see, it's the sun. The sun never NOT appears. The sun doesn't NOT set. It's a cycle and just as you realize there is darkness around you, and if you ride it out, with sleep and rest, you are blessed with sunshine, energy and light.

The 💖 symbols of life and purpose.

So yes, we will be fine.
If we aren't fine on Nov 4th 2020, we will eventually be fine, coz the sun always rises.

18/10/2020

Gray:
Always reminds us of ashes doesn’t it?
Gray skies
Gray dust
Gray hairs
Grayed out.
So on the gray gets such a short end of the color spectrum.
Gloom. Doom.
But..
Gray is also the color of Vibhuti, the holy ashes in Hinduism.
Gray is the ashes even in Christianity
Gray clouds are a promise of rain
Gray hair is almost always a sign of wisdom, of age, and along with age comes experience
Gray is also the space we all live in. Life isn’t binary, and therefore we traverse the depths of hues the gray offers. Sometimes ominous and sometimes just a tint to shift from pure consciousness.
As Count days to hit the milestone, I realize there have been so many gray patches in my life. Not great and not bad, those were the times that made me who I am not the extreme events.
So today, I celebrate
*G R A Y*
The power of accepting all the gray in our lives as women, as swimming the waters not knowing and yet holding onto faith.
May the gray bring you the deliverance that you seek, albeit in hindsight.
I truly must get on the blog. At the very least, I type better on the laptop, even if fewer eyes are reading it.

30/09/2020

In 1992 Dr. Gary Chapman came up with the concept of FIVE LONG LANGUAGES that you can share with your partner and how each of us have our own ways of showing LOVE and why knowing what our love language was important for a successful relationship.
Of course we could always adapt it to different contexts and they would still apply. This is kinda important to understand coz each is a whole new language that the other has to understand - like I am saying something in English and someone's replying to me in Spanish and we are agreeing but have no clue that we are.
It's frustrating!

The 5 languages between partners:

*TOUCHING your partner to show that you care
*TELLING your partner that you care
*SPENDING TIME with your partner showing you care
*ACTUALLY SHOWING care
*SENDING FLOWERS showing you care

Point is, to recognize that some come easy to us and some hard and learning and accepting what the other's language is helps avoid the feeling of neglect and loss of understanding and thinking that your needs aren't met in the relationship.

Mindfully observing and then internalizing it goes a long way. This is one of those easier ones to get :-)

Have you ever wondered about this?

29/09/2020

Did you know there were LOVE LANGUAGES?
There are different ways one can express love, but let's start at the top.

Love yourself first and then others will love you too, they say! I didn't really totally get the meaning of this until much later as an adult.
Growing up, no one asked me if I like/love myself. The focus was never on us. No one thought about themselves, it was always about the others.
Well, to be brutally honest, no one even spoke about love in India. LOL :-) --> love was mainly for the movies and between stars and characters right?

In any case, the more I went inward and the more I read and the more aware I got, the more I realized how important it is to love yourself.
*To like what you do,.
*To like your fat nose,
*To like yourself like you like your friend.
*To like yourself enough to put yourself ahead of others.

There are so many nuances in and within the lines above. This isn't about being selfish, or about not caring or about becoming a narcissist. It is about CONSCIOUSLY and MINDFULLY liking yourself as a third person, even.

Coz you see, once you love and then like yourself, you will start rooting for yourself.
How does one love?
Finding out how you love truly enables you to dig deep into yourself, to recognize the signs and the nuances.

Find out the love language you speak in, then use it on yourself.

22/09/2020

TUESDAY TIP DELIVERED TO YOU BY NOTORIOUS RBG!

the sass is on fire!