Food: This blog is about many things, and one of them is new experiences. It doesn’t matter how big or small they are. Here is something new I tried today. I was going to eat survival food, so I thought of playing with the corn I bought many weeks ago. Yes, many weeks ago. There’s nothing fancy in cooking corn, but once it was done, it reminded me of home. In India, we roast corn on open fire so the outside becomes slightly crispy. Then we rub salt and nimbu (lemon) on the corn to add an extra layer of flavour. My corn was sweet, and it was not crispy because I cooked it in microwave. Luckily, I had some nimbu in my fridge, which again, I bought many weeks ago (it was still okay, though). There’s nothing new about the taste but the experience was good. Next time I have someone over for dinner, I will remember to serve them Nimbu Corn in the starters or as a snack.

What else is new?

This way of uploading photos! Since last summer, I have been thinking about finding a better way to manage the media on this website. I want to upload a lot of photos but it’s hard to manage them with Jekyll. The site gains size and build time increases very quickly. I had the idea of uploading the photos on Instagram many months ago but I resisted it because I didn’t want to use regular social media platforms. This website exists, among other reasons, because I didn’t want to use social media. Anyway, I will write about my thoughts on social media some other time. In short, after actively resisting the social media platforms for more than two years, I my mind changed gradually over the last six months. It’s better to say that I gradually started to think more practically and eventually adapted social media to my needs. Due to this change, I have started posting on Instagram and Facebook since the last month. But all this deserves a different post, and I will definitely write it at some point.

For now, I figured that I will post the photos on Instagram and embed them here. This way I do not have to transfer the photos from my phone to the laptop. I do not have to compress and crop them. I do not have to move them to the directory of this website. I do not have to write the inconvenient script to add photos to the posts. It saves a lot of effort. The compromise is that I have to be dependent on Instagram, which goes against the rules I set for myself two years ago, but I am willing to do this much after what I learned about running a static website. By using Instagram as my media manager, I could potentially write more, which is much more important. Moreover, I can also post videos on Instagram, which gives me much more freedom to express myself. I am excited about this change. Let’s see where it takes my blog.

Anything else?

Sure! I had the idea of starting a in-house restraunt (just for fun, not a business) last summer. I used to cook for my friends every now and then, and I enjoyed it so much. I enjoy cooking. For me it’s like meditation and disco at the same time. I like the feeling of exploring new flavours. I like to experiment with food. It feels great when I play with a dish, almost mess it up, and then try to rescue it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s like a playground.

I thought I will learn to prepare different type of dishes, and I will make a menu. Whenever my friends visit me for dinner, they can choose from the menu what they would like to eat that day. This way, I stay away from survival food, I get to socialise, I get to work on my website (becuse the menu will live here :D, of course), and most importantly, I become better at cooking.

I got reminded of that idea when I was enjoying my Nimbu Corn. Then I thought of the name. I will call it मित्तराँ दा ढाबा (Mittran Da Dhaba). So, मित्तराँ दा ढाबा will be coming soon.

Some other thoughts

I am thinking about adding some cards on the home page of this website. They could hold information about the current projects. For instance, if I had that functionaity in my website right now, I will add two projects there. The Dhaba, and the theme of this website. This way, I would see the progress I am making whenever I open the website. It would also be easier for others to see what I am working on.

Somewhere along these lines is something else I want to add to this website. I want to add a global “last updated on” information somewhere on this website. Something that states which page or post has been updated recently and when. Sometimes I don’t post for a long time but I keep updating something or the other on the website. This feature will let the readers know what’s new/happening.