It is not every day that we get an opportunity to dine out with a bunch of great food loving people. But we sure got a chance and it was because of the Food Bloggers Association of Bangalore (FBAB). We were invited to the 8^th FBAB bloggers meet at Absolute Barbeque. This branch of AB’s is at BTM layout, Bangalore and it opened very recently. 

There is a different kind of charm being in a cafe in your home town with old friends and loved ones, especially when the cafe serves grilled meaty delights.

These experiences can be relived again and again. The cafe under consideration is a cosy place with a musical ambiance and an outdoor seating arrangement. The name of the joint is Rubi’s Grill, located in Dover Lane in Gariahat, Kolkata.

It is very easy to go with the herd and do what everyone does, but how often do people break their bounds and do something different—rarely!

The above statement applies to everything, including food habits. So here it goes, this time we tried Tibetan food for a change because a change is always refreshing (and very necessary once in a while!)

Before the advent of cutting edge technology, people did not require a social network to call themselves social. We used to live as a family, not of three or four but of thirty or forty. Larger numbers did induce quarrels and bickering but the entire family behaved as a single unit guided by the elders.

As mentioned in the holy bible: “Love thy neighbour as thyself”, earlier people interacted with neighbours much more even if they did not live next door. In today’s scenario, especially the housing complexes even if people live as next door neighbours they rarely interact and even look and smile at each other.

Human beings are social animals and we are all meant to act as a unit because whatever we achieve alone, together we can always achieve more! But nowadays, with daily advancement in technology—headphones, laptops, smart phones and applications attract most of us and we forget about the basics of living in a society.

People have forgotten that indulging and enjoying music is not just plugging in a headphone throughout the day, interacting with people is not just texting them via whatsapp and updating status and posting photos on facebook is not at all being social.

Although these are the current trends from which big companies are becoming even bigger, robbing people of their social quotient (SQ), Kissan India has come up with an ingenious plan to bring us together as a unit, showing us that compassion and real togetherness is much more important than just being technologically savvy!

This initiative called Kissanpur, is driven so that we as individuals meet and connect in person rather than via digital media and of course express and feel real emotions. This is a motherly initiative as Mother Nature is one of its main players. As a part of the initiative, we have to order tomato seeds online and plant them. The whole objective is to free us from our current digital barriers and come together—family, friends and neighbours to discover how the tiny tomato seeds grow into juicy red tomatoes.

There is a video capturing the theme explained above, as to how we as human beings have materialistic desires and we let them take control of our lives, neglecting our surroundings and of course Mother Nature. But there is one thing this video proves: That there is goodness in all of us, all that needs to be done is to draw it out! 

So, it is time to put those music players, headsets and laptops aside and test your gardening skills, not only to grow tomatoes but also to rekindle the connection with Mother Nature and of course rejoicing with the people you love, face to face.