Let me share a personal story
I shifted to a new place in January and found myself living all alone.
I always did all my household chores by myself but the case of food and cooking was different.
Suddenly, there was no mom’s homemade food waiting for me anymore.
Throughout my life, I observed how my mother used to cook but I barely cooked anything apart from a few basic dishes.
I started cooking the bare minimum dishes that I knew. That too with YouTube’s assistance ⏯
The initial days were full of experiments and a steep learning curve. I literally burned food as well as vessels!
I had to learn to cook. But gradually I started liking the process. Not kidding!
6 reasons why I learned cooking 👨🍳
👉 Outside food is expensive – Eating out every day seems tempting, but our wallet quickly protests.
Always avoided that. Reason why my biggest Swiggy bill of any month has been barely Rs 534 (yes, in a month!).
👉 Health goals – Living with parents, it’s so easy for health goals to vanish into thin air. But I decided to turn my weakness into a strength.
Cooking my own meals allowed me to take control of my diet making sure I was consuming nutritious and balanced meals. No more oily and heavy dinners!
👉 Friends – Shoutout to my friends, Yash and Suman, who constantly remind me about the importance of a good diet, staying fit, and regular exercise.
Our Instagram DMs and calls are full of such talks.
Their gentle nudges pushed me to track my consumption and calories. Remember once I talked about Healthify app?
👉 Social media content – I stumbled upon @sagarskitchenofficial on Instagram.
It is a cooking page that not only shares delicious recipes but also adds a touch of humor to the mix.
It was like a hook that reeled me into the world of cooking. Check him out even if you are not into cooking. You will love it 🙂
👉 My girlfriend – I see how my GF often has a tiring day than me and yet she manages to stick to her healthy diet plans. Meanwhile, I work from home and obviously left with more energy by the end of the day.
Her after-work cooking routine always inspires me. We share tips, recipes, and lots of trial-and-error moments.
Her roommate Risha is another gem. Risha’s delicious creations make me wonder how anyone of our age can cook so well!
👉 Mindfulness – This is something unexpected. These days cooking became a form of meditation.
The aroma of spices filling the air and the gentle steam rising – act like a mini retreat from the day’s hustle and bustle.
Is it slowly becoming an offline hobby? A chance to practice mindfulness? I don’t know.
Do an experiment – watch some cooking ASMR videos and let me know your experience.
So that’s how it started and still continuing…
But here’s the reality
❌ I still can’t quite cook for anyone else
❌ I still don’t get proper measurements of the ingredients
❌ My parathas are still hard papads and my vegetables often burn
But I see progress
✅ I learned to manage time while juggling my office, side projects, household chores, extra gigs and my preserve my hobbies. It is a routine.
✅ From sticking to 5 dishes, I learned to cook 19 dishes on rotation without getting bored.
✅ Importantly, unlocked a new life skill. 2020 lockdown was a good lesson that no cook/restaurant/app can save us.
✍ TODAY’S LESSON FOR YOU
If you noticed my subject line, I mentioned that cooking is no less than a side project!
1) It’s better to start it out of interest before it becomes a necessity
2) You need to surround yourself with inspiring friends and online content to get deeper into it
3) You enjoy the process irrespective of what results you get
4) You need to take out some time no matter what
Are you working on something which leads to a feeling like this?
✔ WHAT I DID THIS WEEK
First of all, I got myself a pack of colorful pens. Lots of journaling and colorful scribbling now! Stationery items are so delightful to me. Yay! 🤩
Then I spent one evening purely offline as my laptop went to get repaired. Once I logged out of my office, I was totally cut off from the digital world. Rare for me but it’s never that bad.
I tried building several websites this week. Just another week spent in experimenting tools and playing around with them.
My weekend was silent and I mostly spent both days reading books, cycling around, and heavily working out. Also, I went to Kalyan to visit my relatives and cousins.
Tell me about your week.
📚 BOOK I AM CURRENTLY READING
Completed a Marathi book “Astitva” by Sudha Murty (she’s wife of Narayan Murty). I picked up fiction after a long time.
Absolutely loved the way she has written the story. Her words make us feel as if we are right there in the story.
The attention to detail of our day-to-day lives and jotting down the exact things in words is not an easy task. But she makes it look so seamless.
It’s a story about Mukesh living a pretty normal and happy life but out of nowhere, a massive storm just rolls in his life.
He is left questioning his own existence and hence the name of the book – Astitva (existence).
🌐 AROUND THE WEB
My friend Anmol launched his SaaS product called BizLite Solutions.
It helps small business owners to create their digital cards which are shareable on Whatsapp and social media handles.
I always saw him being so passionate and compassionate towards Indian small businesses (dukaandaars if I spell in his own words).
After months of grinding, I see his first version of the product is pretty clean.
If you know an offline retailer who might want to go online, let me know and I will share the link with you.