2018 - The Year that Was

Each time we enter into a new calendar year, we tend to reflect upon the one that just went by. Or at least I do. And my verdict for 2018 is that personally, it was a pretty good year for me. I ended the past year with my friends in Kolkata, with laughter, food and travel and began this year with a minor surgery, left over from the accident I had a couple of years ago and something I had been putting off for a while. 

Bringing in the new year with friends

This information was shared with you, not to get sympathy or attention (honestly!) but to talk a little about how working on my mind the past 2 years has helped me to treat the entire hospital episode as just another day (or two) in my life. Of course, the fact that it was a minor surgical procedure helped but it’s never fun to be in an institution where everyone is broken or ill. Or being under the knife. Thankfully I stayed calm through the two days earlier this week, slept like a baby (without aid) and enjoyed the surprisingly good hospital food!

Now going back to last year - it really was a landmark year of sorts for me as I officially got into the ‘feeding’ industry. When I met Ranjeet almost exactly a year ago at the Kolkata airport, I honestly did not think that I would be running a brand new cafe, with so much of ‘me’ in it. While I’ve always enjoyed cooking, feeding and taking culinary lessons, it was always treated as a hobby. In 2018 it became more than that.

Close to my heart - Terra Bites

Cooking for family and friends, and cooking for strangers who are paying for their meals, is like night and day. The former will always appreciate whatever you lay out in front of them, many people from the latter group will try and find fault with everything. Believe me when I tell you that it’s really hard to be judged constantly. 

Thankfully and knock on wood, the response by and large has been fantastic. There will always be some I won’t please, regardless of what I do but as long as I’m seeing happy faces leave the cafe, many of who are returning often, I am nothing short of thrilled. That’s all I’m going to say about it right now because although I’m working on eliminating fear from my mind, I am still afraid to jinx it!! 

Besides the cafe, the year also had me being involved in a story I had written that a friend of mine, Aditya, wanted to turn into a short film. Writing the screenplay together and then being a part of the shoot was an experience that has made me understand films from a completely different perspective. Hopefully the movie will be released for all of you to watch sometime in the early part of this year. 

Coming soon - Fingers crossed!

Although I travelled a fair amount, it took a little bit of a backseat due to these other activities. After three years I went back to my favourite place, Ladakh, and got close to the mountains that I so dearly love. A trip to Varkala during the devastating floods in Kerala, made me realise once again how vulnerable we are to losing our lives. 

Ah Ladakh! How I had missed you

And I have to thank this vulnerability, that I experienced all through 2016, for helping me turn my life around. To do the things I kept putting off, where I can proudly say that I’ve mostly overcome this disease called procrastination. Where into my middle ages I feel like I’m starting life once again, being thankful for every opportunity to learn, grow and enjoy from what life throws my way. My goal for this year is to forget the meaning of fear. 

Once upon a time, when I was a young boy, my dad had my palm read by an ‘expert’. While I have no recollection of what he predicted from those lines, the one thing that (strangely) stayed with me was that I would become famous in the food industry. I’ve always wondered why this piece of information made such an impact, even at that age, that I never forgot about it. And although I have no interest in fame, I think I would like to feed more people and have them appreciate and enjoy what comes out of a kitchen that I may run. 

None of us know what’s in store for us this year, this month, tomorrow or even the next moment. I’ve given up making plans for the future and have never believed in having a bucket list. The future is now and the bucket is going to get kicked in any case. Make the most of the present and have a rocking 2019!

Resolutions Schmesolutions

I had every intention of writing this piece and posting it before the end of the year. But procrastination always seems to win over intention. So here I am writing at the end of the first week of January 2018 instead. Can you believe that we’re in 2018 already? And a whole week has gone by? Fifty one more to go and it’ll all begin once again. 

I’m not one for making new year resolutions. Though I’m starting to think that it probably would be a good idea to make one this year. ‘Stop procrastinating’ is apt, don’t you think? Although there is something I read many years ago that said, ‘why do something today that you can put off until tomorrow’. Made complete sense and became my mantra ever since. I was probably procrastinating even before I read that, but once something gets presented in a profound written form, it then turns into an endorsement. 

How about you? Have you made any resolutions for 2018? Besides the one where you’re going to join the gym and lose weight. So I’ve been more than a gym member for many years - I’ve actually used my membership and worked out at the gym. Yes, it’s completely true. So every year I’d be at Gold’s Gym and in January I’d see all these people who had made resolutions and the gym would become annoyingly busy. All these people who’d be huffing and puffing on those cardio machines, most of who would stop showing up by February and the rest by March. And then there’d be the same few of us, a happier lot, serious about staying fit, glad to be rid of the riff raff. 

But then who am I to make fun of anyone? I haven’t been to the gym in 2 years but then at least I don’t belong to one any longer. If I was to make a resolution on that front, it would be to not get fatter this year.

So I stopped writing this piece for a moment and googled to see what the most popular new year resolutions are for 2018. Number 1 is ‘exercise more’ which I’ve already covered. Number 2 is ‘lose weight’ which I think pretty much is the reason that most people resolve to exercise. Number 3 is ‘eat more healthy’. This is one that I could have on my resolution list. Except that I need to add a caveat to it and say ‘eat healthy when possible’. 

Number 5 (I’m skipping 4 because it’s related to the previous ones, blah blah) is ‘learn a new skill or hobby’. Maybe I could learn a new language - Spanish or Japanese. Wait, I already tried that and put if off for later. Is now later or is later still later?

Number 8 is ‘drink less alcohol’. How less is less? Am i drinking too much now? I don’t think so. This resolution is obviously for the regularly sloshed drinker (which I am not) and not the occasionally sloshed drinker (which I may be, but I’m not saying).

Number 9 is ‘stop smoking’. I don’t smoke cigarettes, which is what I assume that this resolution is referring to. The other stuff is too good to give up.

And finally Number 10 is ‘other’. Which I guess my ‘stop procrastinating’ would fall under. It just sounds too painful. I guess I’ll just wait until 2019 to do it. 

I’d love to hear about your resolutions, if you’ve made any. Meanwhile, have a great year, dear reader!