I cook Cause it makes me happy.... Inspired I am.

I had this film on my hard disc for a while now called “Julie and Julia”, I am certain most of you must be aware of it, so last night I sat down to finally watch it. It had wonderful performances from Julie Powell and the power house Meryl Streep. The film was a treat to watch with its subtle comedy, the passion of two women who like to cook, the determination shown by both, but most importantly it was outstandingly inspiring for a lazy bum (sorry for the use of profanity, but I would rather call myself that, my blog after all) like me who procrastinates everything and just doesn’t end up finishing whatever he really wants to do. It’s funny and weird how the film made me want to actually wake up and do something that makes me truly happy, and cooking does and I have a plan in my head too, OK Seriously I now really sound inspired. Common people I am here writing during my work hours give me some due for it. So what’s the plan, well well well I am still to figure that out as I can’t set myself a 365 days target for a certain number of recipes, I work 5 days a week and its crazy at times, plus I live alone so who do I cook for every day, so I shall start with 2 days a week of serious experimentation and I shall write about it, and let’s see where we go. Maybe, nowhere, but I’d still be cooking and still writing about it. That’s a whole lot of achievement in itself.

Early days

I am not a cook by profession or chance or necessity or opportunity, I am a cook made from the love of food, being intrigued by the work that goes into preparing anything that stirs the various gastronomic sensation of your palate. It all started watching my mom cook at home and it was incredible to watch her go meticulously with every ingredient for every recipe, the most outstanding bit , it tasted like Heaven each time. Not that I got to watch this very often as I have lived all my life in a hostel so this was always a holiday treat , the food for me and the cooking for mom , as she wanted to feel her only child new dishes everything I landed up for a holiday. She would learn new recipes and make it for me; I guess I get that from her as I like doing the same with people around me. All this always kept me intrigued about food and how interesting experimenting with it could get.

This phase was soon followed by me doing my Graduations and Post graduations, when I used to live with flatmates and trying my hand at elementary cooking , at times to lower the cost of a party(trust me cooking at home is the cheapest and the most classic way to entertain guests), at times cause I had just learned something from mom but mostly to show off , and thanks to really loving and at times lying(with a good heart) friends I got to do that more often than not. But, it was generally a once in three month’s thing that I would do.  Then, came a time when I was living alone and working 5 days a week, with no time for myself, I also was in a city where I had no friends and nothing to do. At that point of time I had a friend who would find it intriguing the way I spoke about food and the love for it, it was she who then spoke me into seriously cooking for myself and anyone who came over , to the extent of mailing me recipes for me to try. I soon realised after doing it over and over again that I had started to enjoy these experimentations. In fact it was a major stress buster after a long weeks work; it still is that way after over 6 years. Over this period of six years I have evolved from that and looked for cuisines and recipes online, read about them, tried some , (remember I am not trained) so plating the food isn’t my forte , but I try. I also started watching a lot of shows on television and learning about food and of course my bookshelf now boasts of a lot of books on Cooking. Hey this could be a plan? If I end up cooking half the recipes in all the books I have with me, I would have done a world of good to myself and my love for what I like. It was in fact during the last couple of years in my life when another very close friend of mine focused into this attribute of mine, and insisted that I try more , that I experiment more with this funny belief that I was born to be a Chef , I’d like to be called a cook more though , and she believes that one day I will have a place of my own , but that’s when it happens, till then it’s going to be cooking and writing here and hoping someone will read it randomly without me having to ask and inspire me to do more. Till then I shall do it for myself…..

Here begins my dream too, …… and I want to finish this one…. Along the way , I shall figure out what it exactly is …………….. So wish me luck people. J