Proposed book cover for The Diary of a Cat Dad. Book is in crowdfunding stage and scheduled for a July 23 release. Design Chandrima Chatterjee. Publisher: Let’s Author Books. |
Cat Dad: ‘Hi, I am looking for cat wet food gravy options. My boys have suddenly decided to reject their preferred brand.’
Lady at the counter while showing options: How many cats do you have?
CD: Two.
LATC with a smile: We offer spa services too.
I could do with a lower back massage I thought and then the penny dropped.
CD: Oh, no, no. Getting my boys out of the house is a task. Cats don’t like it.
LATC: How do you groom them then?
CD: They groom themselves. Their vet was adamant on this right from the beginning. No shampoo, wash, nail trimming etc, she said.. Cats are very clean and they groom themselves by licking themselves. By applying anything on them, we might be causing them harm. The only time we had to apply anything on them was when they had tics and the vet prescribed a solution which we bought from your shop. Oh, and when my elder one had a sort of allergy and lost hair. I had to apply a shampoo given by the vet. I would then wait for 5 minutes. Try to distract hime and ensure hat he did not start licking the area. Then clean it with a wet towel.
(The Kitty Karmakars on reading this: Daddyyyyyyy. Too much detail. Boundaries please.)
LATC: They aren’t Persians?
CD: No, Indies. (I forgot to say ‘short hair breed’ which is what applies to the Karmakar men). We found our eldest in the lobby of our building when he was around eight to ten months old. The younger one a few months later. He was born in the electric box of our building. His birth mother did not recognise him after we got her spayed. We took him in.
Boss Lady sitting at the counter suddenly looks up: Are you ready for your third?
Me: Uh…no. We thought a lot about it before we took the first. We felt we were not ready. Then the poor thing was assaulted and we took him in without a second thought. The second was an unplanned lock down baby. We are not ready for more.
Boss Lady: Take na. We have a kitten. We are looking for a good home.
CD: Believe me, we would if we could. There must be at least 4, if not more, cats we have wanted to adopt. But we also know what we are capable of. Right now two are what we can manage and look after well. We do not want to commit to another and then have second thoughts. Not a happy situation for anyone.
BL: Sure but let me know if you change your mind.
CD: I will. Oh and there is a group of community cats outside the park whom I call the Kitty Blinders. I try to meet them and talk to them and spend time with them. I just fed them and came.
BL: Oh you are a feeder. We have a 15 pc discount for feeders.
CD: I know. My friend P buys from you. I have a few friends like her who are feeders. They go and feed the cats every day, come hail or shine. I am not one. I drop in occasionally and take food at times. My commitment is nothing like that of the feeders. Hats off to them.
BL: That’s true. That’s why we try to help. It’s also an expensive affair.
CD: I love all my boys. And girls. I am writing a book on them.
BL: Oh, you are a writer!
CD: Yes. Though I used to write on food. Now I write more about my cats. Good for the waistline! Wait, let me show you the cover of the book. It should be on my Instagram page.
BL goes through @TheFinelyChopped Instagram page and exclaims: I am a foodie. All this makes me hungry. Are you Parsi.
CD: Nope but my wife is.
BL: Aah, that explains the salli.
At the start of writing this post. Typing away to the cacophony of drilling, doorbells and telephone calls |
I do not blame you if you have waited patiently till now, wondering when I am going to introduce the food element to the post. The mention of salli (Parsi fried potatoes) might have given you hope but then the story ended abruptly.
I can hear you exclaim, what the fish! Fudge! (Expletives used instead of the eff word by classmate and friend in plus two at St James Calcutta, Arjun). He lives in the US now. He once wrote to me saying that he had made kosha mangsho based on a recipe video of mine. “It turned out perfect. I followed it to the t but you did not mention ‘add salt’. Grrr” I apologised profusely and thankfully good old Arjun did not unfriend me.
The thing is that I am no recipe writer. Nor do I read recipe books. I do share recipes of dishes I cook but I do not have the rigour which a recipe writer should have. Or a ghost writer in the case of celebrity chef cook books. Or celebrity cook books. If I miss saying ‘add salt,’ then please do add it. Unless it is a dessert recipe but that’s unlikely. I do not make desserts.
Recipe writing is one of the many schools of food writing. There there are those who write on the history, politics, science or culture of food. Those who write about food trends. Travel. Reviews (largely promo pieces in India) of restaurants, chefs etc. The food of their own heritage, ancestors etc. Food and health. The business and economics of food. You get the drift.
I cannot claim to have specialised in any of this. And hence am unsure of my food writer creds. I like to see myself as a diaryist. A word I heard the legendary Ruskin Bond use in an amazing talk at the Times Lit Fest, Kolkata.
My friend Kashi was the first alert me to the birth date of FinelyChopped a few years back and continues to wish me every year. A tradition & friendship I cherish. |
I started writing this blog 15 years back. Initially as a hobby blogger. I worked in market research then. Not a moonlighter. I did not make any money of it.
I often say that I began blogging out of boredom. Perhaps that’s being a bit unfair to myself. The thing is that I have wanted to write ever since I learnt to read. I like talking about food. That is what made me start the blog and what kept me going for the last 15 years. Or should I say ‘motivated me.’ The choice of words that one uses can give both a positive or negative spin to the same thing. I like to choose the former these days.
I quit working full time in around 2012. I can’t say that I have made much money off the blog per se after that either but it opened doors which led to brand endorsements gigs (now deservedly the domain of influencers who are the ad cum media agencies of the digital world), columns in print and digital media, brand consulting work and above all my first book, The Travelling Belly, published by Hachette India.
It’s been an exciting ten years as a freelancer with its share of ups and downs and through this I have often wondered about what is it it that I really do. What is ‘work’ for me.
I had a Eureka moment a few weeks back. Just after I finished reading Ruskin Bond’s excellent autobiography, ‘Lone Fox Dancing.’
I am a writer, I realised. Writing is what I do. Whether it is for commissioned columns or articles, brand works, OTT scripts or on the blog or on social media. If I am writing, I am working. I am a writer first and then a food writer.
“I want to be a writer who spreads happiness through his work,” I told myself at the moment. I had found purpose.
A DM I received last evening from a reader. The circumstances were indeed unfortunate, but I am glad that my writing could be of some help. |
It is as if I have became a different person since that night. It is as if I have rediscovered the joys of blogging. And writing.
I finally began to give the blog the sort of love and respect that it deserved. Perhaps I had begun to take the blog for granted and hence always looked for external gratification. That’s changed and I like to believe that this shows in the tone and manner of my recent posts.
I mean how many people are lucky enough to be able write from their hearts and to have an audience who are patient enough to listen to them? And be there for them? I sure am lucky to have you all in my life.
I was wrong when I said we have two boys at the start of this post. We have three. The blog is the first. K was the first who suggested I write a blog. Named it and started it on the 7th of October 2007. She has been my biggest backer and champion through the last 15 years, no matter what else changed in my life. Believing me even when I did not believe in myself.
When new age publishers Let’s Author Books, approached me to write a book with them, it was not a continuation of The Travelling Belly that I proposed, but The Diary of A Cat Dad.
No, the book is not just going to be about our cats. Just as The Travelling Belly was not just about food.
It’s going to be about our lives, the people in our lives, the friendships we made, the cafes and restaurants that we frequent, the meals we cook, our travels, our lockdown life and our life post that, our families, the experience of assuming parental responsibilities after being footloose and fancy free DINKs for 20 years, the moments of joy, the moments of self-doubt, our diets and therapy experience, building society repairs and politics …in other words, the sort of stuff you have come to expect on FinelyChopped and from me.
My publishers, Let’s Author Books, are a new age enterprise and believe in the spirit of collaboration. Printing a book costs money. We could either do it the conventional way, and be bound by what the marketing department says. Or do it the way we want to. In which case we need you to partner us and hence we are crowdfunding the publication costs. You could pre-book your copy in advance and even buy some of the wonderful merch on offer and be a part of the creation of The Diary Of A Cat Dad. That would be the best 15th birthday gift for FinelyChopped the blog.
Oh, and where are my manners? Thank you so so much for reading. Today. And for the past 15 years. That means the world to me. Really. 😻