The De Chox birthday!

A few weeks ago, my friend sent a link about the De-Chox challenge, where you give up on eating or even sniffing chocolate as a challenge for the whole month of March. I readily accepted it and pushed the bar a little higher by deciding to also give up sugar in any form.

Why would I even do something like this, you may ask?!?! The short answer is cause I am crazy 😁. I always keep challenging myself to detach myself from food, things and people to check how I can survive and live without it/them! Some years ago I decided to stop consuming non vegetarian food for a few months. Coming from a family who has meat in our all three courses of the meal, this was some sacrifice that I chose. After a challenging 6 month of landing at the dining table only to realize that my family forgot to cook anything vegetarian for me, I decided to learn the art of cooking. It started off with burnt dal and rotis and with experience and time grew better at it! (No one was hospitalized so far…Being positive 😊)

So when I announced about my ‘No chocolate, No Sugar’ challenge at home, my mom was worried about only one thing, what about my birthday cake! (Ha ha…First world problem). I convinced her and myself that I don’t want a birthday cake this year.(signs of growing old I guess)

The first week of this month was extremely difficult. Withdrawal symptoms were at its peak and emotions were abundantly pouring all over the place. I was irritated at the smallest of things and I mentally stabbed all those who unnecessarily honked during my commute.

Temptations were growing and I was itching to add a spoon of sugar in my coffee. In office, I felt bad to turn down all the sweets and chocolates offered by my kind colleagues. I had to be strong and knew that this was all the power of my mind. I was somehow crawling through the week and occasionally wondering why couldn’t this challenge be next month! But as the days passed my mind and body accepted that it wasn’t going to melt down in temptations any further.

It was an hour more to mark the start of my birthday and I was ready to doze off to curb any occasional thoughts of cocoa. As I strictly said no to a birthday cake I wasn’t expecting a surprise at midnight 😋. However when the clock struck 12 o’clock, I could see my Mom and sister enter the place with a plate full of candles glowing. I was shocked and surprised to see their creativity and utmost love for me to ensure that the birthday tradition continues but with a twist! It was a ‘Vada Pav‘ birthday cake ❤️❤️❤️ For me, this was HEAVEN!

Post the abundant flow of love, I decided to take my family for a wonderful lunch followed by a visit to ‘Therpup‘ which is a cafe for dogs and its owners. This cafe has 8 extremely friendly and trained dogs of different breeds. Being a dog lover, this was an amazing birthday treat to myself. The cafe offers food for humans and dogs (hopefully the don’t mix up them up). Unconditional love is something we all can learn from these lovely dogs.

Later that evening, I met up with my friends at a lovely Asian restaurant ‘Nasi and Mee’. Trying out a different cuisine and spending a crazy time with my lovely friends was just how I pictured  the end to my day! The highlight of the evening was my Panda birthday cake made by my best friend and pastry chef, Kamal Charan. She never fails to surprise me with her creativity and ability to put a smile on my face
I am immensely blessed and lucky to have such amazing people in my life. Thank you everyone for making my birthday so very special, though I kept saying that it’s just another day for me 😘#Mar9#justanotherday!

I really look forward to another revolution round the sun filled with many joyous experiences, positive lessons to be learnt, abundant love to give& receive and a myriad people&culture to be introduced to.  As they say growing old is inevitable but growing up is highly optional. I ALWAYS chose the latter! 😁