An Update & A Sneak Peek

Where did the late spring and summer escape? Trees are, again, woven in a mix of yellow and chilly Nordic breeze. I’ve been so absorbed in book-writing that a full season of blossom and green skipped me and I’ve only seen the daily tour of sun through my window for the past four months!

Last week I finished photographing for the book. What a task! It was so intense that I’m not able to analyse it yet. One thing became clear though: my creativity is a myth! I started with a fresh mental monsoon of ideas but soon became drained, as if cracked, and helplessly dependent on the potency of prayer.

A well-known sentiment by an early 20^th century sport journalist Grantland Rice “not that you won or lost, but how you played the Game” became the precept of my sportsmanship. I imagine marathon runners adapt such ethos when their glycogen levels drop and they “hit the wall”. Then, the seemingly endless road becomes the duty. It’s both, the path and destination.

I have cooked all of the 108 recipes twice or trice, and will still cook some of them at least once. More I cook, more I’m torrid about food related ingredients, relationships, techniques and experiences. I’ve become a person who observes and notes down facts, patterns and transformations while awake and asleep, and contemplates them. In yoga, such stages of internalization are known as sravana, manana and nididhyasana. Writing a cookbook has actualized my interest in cooking.

From now until the end of the year I’ll focus on the non-recipe content of the book and, also, process the images. During this time I’ll resume the blogging responsibility, too.

Some of you have privately expressed that the readers are losing their patience because the blog is in a dormant state. I’m sorry about it. The good news is that I have created a file of almost 200 recipes that didn’t make it to the book and will gradually unzip it here. However, today there is no recipe. I hope this post will bring us all up-to-date. Welcome back!

Thank you.