So, what have I been up to after Durga Pujo/ Puja?
I have been on a food detox. The plan is to not eat out for a week. K had suggested two weeks, but I felt one was okay. This it to give my tummy a bit of rest. I had fallen ill after at a small restaurant in town and that lingered on for a while. I am better now.
Why am I not naming the place? One can never say for sure what caused food poisoning. I had found the food patchy, as has other friends who have eaten there but they had not fallen ill. I would rather tell you about food I liked than not. This was a rare case where I chose a place where the food was suboptimal. One needs to learn from the experience move on. I am not directing you there and hence have a clear conscience about the matter.
I played it safe and cancelled a restaurant review cum hotel staycation gig this weekend. While the staycation was tempting, K pointed out that there was no point going to a place where I was expected to eat as I was trying to avoid eating out.
I have assiduously stuck to having home food, barring on Sunday when my MIL took K & me to Perch for breakfast, and I had a scrambled egg bagel. It was one of the runniest and creamiest scrambled eggs I have ever had. My espresso was disappointingly lukewarm, though. MIL tripped on the cheese grilled sandwich. Thick soft bread, humongous amount of cheese inside, grilled just write and served; what’s not there to love? It was crack for a cheese lover like her.
I grilled fish one day and had it with pesto spaghetti. We bought the pesto mix from Noa Deli by Nutcracker. It’s made and sold fresh. The bottle had been in our fridge for a bit but had stayed well. Would you consider the spaghetti that I made as ‘outside’ food? How does one define ‘home food?’
I guess one has to be practical. I am meeting a friend for breakfast tomorrow. I suggested Boojee and will possibly stick to fried eggs, sliced avocado and sourdough toast. We often have the Boojee sourdough at home, which makes the breakfast I plan to have, close to being like ‘home food.’ Our home food.
Not all our meals are ‘firangi’ (foreign, exotic). I had a vegetable packed sambar with vegetables with red rice for lunch, mutton kheema, a sort cabbage poriyal (shredded cabbage with grated coconut) and a roti for dinner. Dinner the night before was a roti with dahi chicken and sautéed karela. Lunch was rice with bhaaja (roasted) moong dal and bhindi do piaza. #bunkinbanu is on leave. Our morning cook, #scootytai, made these meals. Many of the recipes are from YouTube recipes that I gave her and the odd one is my own. I give more of my Bengali recipes to Banu to cook as she’s familiar with our style of cooking. Plus she is not as well versed with technology.
I have renewed my subscription at Workbay, the shared workspace at Bandra that I go to. I have severely under-utilised my membership in the past. I am giving it one more try and plan to be more regular. I am working on a specific project, and the focus helps. I have taken an hour-based, not day-based, variable plan. I have my lunch at home. Take a short yoga nidra break, shower, and come over. I carry a pour-over coffee sachet from the box I had bought at Boojee. I would have my post-lunch espresso at home and then come earlier, but that eats into the time I spend here. They have filter kapi on offer, ground coffee beans, and a plunger. I guess I am too finicky about my coffee.
Chasing Tales, the other co-working space I tried in Bandra, has a proper coffee menu and machine, and you get a coffee included in what you pay. However, they do not have too many options to sit and write which work for me. It used to be largely empty when I went there, and it felt like working at home, without the cats or Banu disturbing me. Those were the very early days. It has a coffee shop like feel and with vibrant colours and snug seating, it’s the perfect space for creative folks.
Work Bay feels like a small ad agency. Especially the flexi desk which I work out of. It’s casual yet office-like. It is different from Arohas which is in the same complex as Freeda, the salon where I go to trim my beard. That looked like a BPO office, very structured and cold.. I did not leave the corporate to world work out of a place like that! Choosing a shared/ co-working space depends on the sort of work you do. It’s your call.
The folks at Work Bay are fun interacting with, and I like the vibe. My therapist had suggested I go to a shared working space as working alone at home can get overwhelming. I am quite comfortable working at home. I have a nice study and the cats hang by me when I work. I take a nap when I want to. I feel tempted to stay back, going out to WB does not come naturally to me and I have to be firm with myself and go. I do get a fair bit of writing and other work done here with the odd break to chat with those around. The fact that we don’t work for the same office means that there is no stress of office politics, looking behind one’s shoulder etc. Since it’s your own money, you are more likely to utilise it by focusing on work when there and that’s good for productivity, especially for freelancers like me.
Yesterday, the owner of Work Bay, Sundar, cut a cake for someone on his team’s birthday. Today, he had brought samplers of namkeen and sweets that she plans to retail during Diwali. I tried some…and then some more. The stuff was good, and I am a namkeen slut!
I later had the apple that I had packed for myself and did so on the porch outside the office. My legs are stiff and throbbing, as yesterday was the dreaded ‘leg day’ at the gym. Rohit, my trainer at Gold Gym, was convinced that it was an upper body day, but I insisted that it was a leg day. Only a masochist would do that! I plan to go for cardio later this evening. I have been fairly regular at my gym and have even worked my schedule around it.
Last night, I finished a whole bhar (matka) of Sweet Bengal rasgullas that its owner, Anjan Chatterjee, had most kindly sent over for Bijoya. I can be a naughty boy, especially when there is mishti or namkeen around, but I do eat fruit (apples, pear) at work, home food in general and go to the gym. Perhaps one could call me ‘tok jhal mishti,’ like the chanchur (namkeen) flavour from Mukhorochok—sweet, sour, and spicy. Naughty and good.
Talking of ‘naughty’, little Nimki did a sweet thing yesterday. He climbed on my lap at night when I sat on the reading chair in the bedroom and read before going to sleep. He climbs on my lap whenever he sees me on that chair. K was lying on the bed and reading. After a while, he got on K’s tummy and slept. He is her lap baby and settles down on her wherever she sits or lies down. It was as if wanted to tell her he was not neglecting her by sitting on my lap. He got up after a while and returned to sit on my lap after some time as if to say to me that he loved me, too. He would stretch his neck at times for me to tickle it and look at me.
This made K say that he felt assured to see his daddy. Finally, I felt too sleepy and gently got up. Nimki jumped off and joined Baby Loaf, who was sleeping on the sofa in the hall.
That’s all I have for you for now.
PS: I wrote this while at Work Bay after I was done with work. Edited it at night and put the pictures too and yes, I did go to the gym.