The globalisation had opened the doors for international food chains and local markets to gear up to fill our tummies with all the possible junk on earth and ensuring empty pockets and health wise making us humpty dumpty ! As a kid of 1980’s I remember there were more of traditional foods prepared on festivals and the birthday celebrations at the neighbours next door was a humble plate of homemade Chiwra, besan or rava laddu and lucky a piece of cake. There was always plenty of water to drink and no other drinks. Firstly there were never so many bakeries even in big cities and ordering a cake was possible only if you were part of a filthy rich family who would also treat children with Coca-Cola, Thumps up and Gold Spot (present versions of Coke, Pepsi and Fanta) In short The more the world is turning flat we are turning rounded! 🙂
Children today are exposed to a volley of fast food chains, the international food chains also helped locals to build big on Indian junk. The local vada pav chains which remained a humble meal of a middle class mumbaikar on missing his daba (lunch box) is no longer a quick meal but helped in mushrooming several chains of vada pavs from Jumbo kings to Goli vada pavs coating them with extra butter, cheese, and preserved salt loaded chutneys. The makeover of the South Indian dishes too are equally adding to the trauma of heavy snacking, Hot chips centres named after almost all the famous Gods, the 99 varieties of dosa dosed with butter, cheese and cottage cheese in the name of variety and several traditional recipes are facing the brunt twist the dish fad. No wonder all this is leading to a threat to traditional foods which are actually fine balance of recipe made from various ingredients.
As a matter of fact all these changes are bringing a massive change in the concept of celebrations, the party world is gaining bigger ground with mushrooming event management agencies. Specially the birthday parties. An average birthday party has to have deep-fried crispies, soft drinks or so-called natural tetra pack fruit drinks, Pastry/ cake/ traditional sweetmeats, French fries, burgers and pizzas. These parties are sure shot ways of exposing children and spoiling their liking for natural flavours and raw foods. These parties only help us in losing pounds in valets and gain over the waist lines.
There is an equal amount of peer pressure on having theme parties with favourite cartoon characters and the foods. Hello Kitty, Barbie, Dora, Doremon, Spiderman, Superman and many more on the list. For instance Chota Bheem Birthday party irrespective of how much they really like all kids have started liking laddus and just like the character Bheem dose they don’t eat one or two but try to gobble two hands full, which is definitely not safe.
Why not have birthdays which focus on food habits and health. 20 minutes session on cats loaded with fun and action:
How do they help us in keeping pest free house? Cats have strong, flexible bodies, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws, and teeth adapted to killing small prey.
One can enact this and will add to greater fun. High lighting the fact that cat eat well and hence have strong body and sharp brain.
How attentive Cats are and how well they concentrate?
Make very dull sounds and loud sounds and let children understand how cats can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by mice and other small animals. This will help them understand the importance of listening more with concentration at school and at home.
Do Cats see in darkness, do they see things in colour or black and white? Can they smell like us??
They can see in near darkness. Like most other mammals, but cats have poorer colour vision. However they have fine sense of smell than we human beings. High light on eating all types of fruits and vegetables in raw form just like how a cat eats its prey and that shall make their vision stronger just like the kitty.
Can you make different cat sounds?
Cat communicates in a variety of sounds let kids make all these sounds and surely they would enjoy these sounds. Mewing, purring, trilling, hissing, growling and grunting.
Action based body language of cats The way they brush and stretch their bodies, yawn, hide, and this will indirectly make children warm up for an exercise before they get ready for party snacking.
Hello Kitty Contest :
Let kids sing cat based songs and let the best one win a prize!
Let them come with fully dressed hello kitty toy they own and let the best dressed kitty win a special prize.
Let them paint or colour a Hello Kitty portrait and carry this as a souvenir.
Make group of three or four kids and create their own pinnate salads and Hello Kitty using raw fruits and vegetables which will be creative and fun same time.
Snacks: Have salads cut in hello kitty face or a Piñata salad using colourful fruits and vegetables ad dry fruits and nuts instead of a cake. Have more salads and fresh fruits in the party apart from one or two regular snacks. Keep the Menu simple, a Salad, a fruit snack meal and a dessert they would relish the most. Too many items will confuse kids and yes we are exposing them to too much variety and quantity of food.
Dress Code:
Don’t embarrass the parents into buying party theme based clothes. Funny things doable at home can make it for a theme based dress code. Like a tail and a tattoo of cat moustache will be more fun. They don’t realise how much you have spent on a hello kitty piñata cake and gifting hello kitty kits and on adding variety of snacks. Kids would remember this party for long since they did so many things on their own and so much fun and learning. I am sure they would look forward for more such activity based theme parties.
