I purposely chose this pic. I was a die hard meat eater and vegetable rejecter when I started. Today I made a salad for our evening snack. We will have meaty stuff for dinner. One has to adapt with time
FinelyChopped turned 17 today.
I am talking of my blog, www.finelychopped.net ; not my Instagram page, which is @thefinelychopped
The mother of FinelyChopped
I refer to FinelyChopped as our first baby. K opened it for me on 7 October 2007 and named it. Blogs were new then. She said I could write about whatever I had to say about food there rather than tell her about it! I love to write and this was just the creative outlet that I needed. I fell in love with blogging, and here we are, 17 years later.
“Happy birthday to Finely Chopped🙂 … by the way, do you still blog or has this taken a back seat?
This message came in from my friend, Kashi, who wishes me without fail on this date. His comment set the context for what I had planned to write today.
Little Nimki, the youngest brother of FinelyChopped, slept on my lap while I blogged yesterday
I tried to go back to when I was 17 and recall what was happening then. I was in the 11th standard, studying science, which had completely consumed my life. I was a fairly good student with fairly good marks in my ICSE. Writing was my forte, math my nemesis. Yet, I chose science for my ISC as that was the societal norm for students who were ‘fairly good.’
A maelstrom followed, and it shook me up. ISC science, especially math and physics, was completely different from what one had studied till ICSE. The degree of difficulty broke me. I finally decided to move to arts/ humanities from science after my 12th. This path was suggested by my teachers and backed by the elders in my family, especially my grandfather, who counselled my mother. I wanted to take up English as was the norm for boys who were ‘good in their studies’ and ‘yet’ studied arts. I did not get into English in my college of choice. I got into sociology, a subject that I knew nothing about, at Calcutta’s Presidency College (Presidency University, Kolkata, now), and that changed my life completely…for the better. Going against the grain worked for me; what you see in the blog is heavily influenced by this.
FinelyChopped, the blog, is facing the a similar dilemma at 17. Conventional wisdom says that the days of long copy blogging, or writing for that matter, are over. It’s all about video. Short-form video content. Reels, shorts, tiktok…people have stopped reading, have low attention span…etc
When I was 17, they said that ‘boys (forgive the sexism) should study science’. I tried to follow that, and we know how that ended! It was only when I returned to what came naturally to me that things began to turn, and that was because I was enjoying myself and not stressed about being who I was not.
One can’t be an ostrich with its head stuck in the mud. I commissioned an agency to give the blog a more professional look and feel. I copy paste screen grabs of the blog on Instagram so that people read the content. Often I write first on instagram and then post it on the blog for posterity.
I focused on Instagram and reels and made forays into YouTube, but I soon realised that I had to do it my way. Trying to emulate today’s young social media stars landed me nowhere, nor did pretending to be a serious food scholar or an erudite food critic who was on top of the latest restaurant openings.
Storytelling is my forte. I am a dairy-ist at heart, and that’s what a blog is…a digital diary.
We are here to stay. FOMO be damned.
Baby Loaf sat by me while I wrote about his elder brother, FinelyChopped, today
My friend Kashi’s response when I told him that I do very much still blog:
‘Cool, don’t ever stop that… it was the starting point, and you have grown from there, so your first baby in the food world cannot be ignored.’
PS: Just as I finished writing this, I received a WhatsApp from Sarosh Irani of Pune’s Vohuman Cafe:
Happy Birthday
Finely Chopped.
All the best, always
As I read this, I realised how fortunate I am—all thanks to a journey started by K. Big, big thanks to all who have supported me in my journey… and to those whose constructive criticism helped me improve.
Many many congratulations on completing 17th. Years and years more. Cheers. Happy birthday Finally Chopped.
thank you so much
Congratulations on your blog’s 17th anniversary and may you never stop writing these posts out here!!! A breath of fresh air always to read about your food eating & cooking experiences and your lovely cats!!! Keep ’em coming!!!
Happy 17th, Kalyan da.
I love reading your posts and this is my first time on your blog page. Loved reading this as well.
What I love about your writing, is the honesty and the simplicity of your writing. You keep it real and that’s what makes it all the more interesting.
There’s more to come. Keep inspiring.
Best wishes
Samson
Thank you so much and thanks for all the support
Happy Birthday FC! May the blogging continue!
thanks so much Keka
It was a happy divert from EoiD blog that got me here. I started reading your blog in 2014 and have not stopped since, so much so that I went back in time to your earliest blog posts. Please don’t stop blogging. I have read your blog during lonely office lunches as a back to work after a long break mom. Your blog has kept me company during the darkest days of my life. They have sometimes helped me stay on the sane side and not slip into depression( a big ask from a blog that FC has managed to do). On the 17 th birthday of your baby, congratulations Mr Kalyan and Thank you!
I am so sorry I missed this Anushka. I am truly touched and humbled by what you just wrote. I remember reading Busybee’s columns when I was in an ad agency and was wholly lost and with a low sense of purpose. The blog has kept me ‘sane’, and I am so glad to hear that it helped you. I want to bring joy to people’s lives through my writings, and this was so heartening to read.