A time to count my blessings

I try not to talk aboutmyself too much on this blog. I am thankful to be doing somehing I love. Every morning I wake up thinking of what I am going to cook today! I began it as a place to write about food. But being interviewed byFemina for a story on women that have persued careers that are different from the education they persued has led to a lot of thinking. Appropriate since we are in December now... ater all it is a time for introspection... and counting one's blessings... besides blogging is where it all began...

Food writing happened entirely by chance for me. I did not have any qualifications in journalism. I was a liturature and fine arts student at school, went on to study animation and then worked in the travel industry for 2 years untill I took a sabbatical to have a baby. I discovered food writing at this point. As the mother of a toddler I was pretty much confined to my home and the internet was my lifeline to the world. I spent hours surfing the net and reading about all sorts of things and experimenting with blogging. It was at this time when I was looking for information (on pickles I think) that I discovered egullet.org home to like minded people who reveled in food. I spent weeks dithering around, lurking through its forums, scribbling a line or two here and there until I finally worked up the courage to put up an essay on Uttarakhandi Cuisine. The cuisine in question being unknown, my post got a lot of attention and my inherent talent for research and writing must have come through because I got a lot of praise. The post was the first step to a book that is awaiting publishing but more immediately it brought me a job offer with local gastronomy magazine. The job did notworkout becase I did not want to leave my bby but it did get me started on foodwriting. made me think of persuing food writng. It was much later, that I realized that there was a career for me in food writing.

It has been a delicious journey so far. I have added food styling and a number of other skills to my repertoire over the years. But 2009 has been a year of growth for me. Off late dreams that seemed to big to dream are becoming tangible. I have two books in the works, my own company (A Perfect Bite - what else). I have also embarked on a journey of gastronomc discovery with Masala Trails a food tourism venture that will map food experiences in India.

Loks like 2010 will only get more delicious!

Rushina