The beautiful cover 

I still remember the first time I thought about publishing a book on food. Normally, not the sort of thing I want to do, but that time I did. must've been about 10 years ago. I wanted a chef to write a book for me so i went about doing my research. Vikas Khanna had just received his first Michelin star and was working at a restaurant call Junoon in New York. For some reason I got quickly connected with him and we clicked immediately. He told me how he had been travelling across India and how he was creating a book of all the select recipes from each region in India. This is how  My Great India cook book was born. We later updated the recipes and changed the title to call it Pilgrim's Flavours. 

The 2nd book we did together was my passion project, My First Kitchen a book that guides novices from setting up a Kitchen to buying produce to cooking dishes and throwing parties.

Then  came the pandemic. I could sense from our chats that Vikas was itching to write and collaborate but i couldn't think what. I wanted a unique subject. And even as Vikas shared what he was doing day and night, I realised there was a great story right there! It so happened that when Vikas' mother saw the plight of migrants and people in old age homes, she was so moved that she told told Vikas that there is no use him being a chef if people in his own country are starving. Vikas promised his mother he would do whatever he could and thus started one of the largest food drives from halfway across the world. It wasn't easy, if was more than diffcult and Vikas thought more than once about giving it up, but his promise kept him going. 

I also shared with Vikas how he always talks about sharing food and he said it had always been a part a of his life. Its not a secret that he began cooking sitting right beside his grandmother in Amritser and the concept of langar  is deeply ingrained within him. 

Barkat, to grow, to prosper and to flourish captures his journey small town to becoming one of the most well known and love chefs in the world. His thoughts, his actions, his genrosity, his unconditional love for people, all bring him Barkat. Its virtually and embodiment of him. 

Thinking about having published this book brings me a warmth and joy that's unparalled. I feel truly blessed that I have a professional that fulfils me in beautiful ways. 

I wish more of us share food, more of us learn to give and more of us learn the joy of living a giving life. 

Have a good long weekend friends! Your comments are welcome.😊

If you want to buy any of Vikas' books, I'm sharing the link: https://www.amazon.in/Books-Vikas-Khanna/s?i=stripbooks&rh=n%3A976389031%2Cp_27%3AVikas+Khanna&page=2&language=hi&qid=1649999738&ref=sr_pg_2 

 Hi there friends!

Its been a crazy few years, hasn't it? I know I haven't written much but I  do need to revive it again. I will need your words of encouragement for it. 

One of the passions that I have is for different languages. And so the big news from my end is that i am now a publisher for Hindi and other Indian languages too! This means that I have a team that works with me to bring out a list of Hindi books and we sell rights for other languages. I continue to work with my other authors in English. It is a very exciting space to be in as well as very overwhelming. 

Tomorrow, we start going to office, officially! We will be meeitng most of our colleagues after a gap of 2 years and some of them for the first time. we also have new office premises which I also want show you since I love the space. 

If you are reading this, do let me know if this excites you too and if you have any thoughts. 

See you on the other side!

Have the best MOnday. 

Love

Vaishali 

     

18/09/2017
Monday


One of the most hectic days of the week. But i have been working through the weekend. Usually I try to restrict myself to only reading over the weekend but sometimes you have to bite the bullet and actually edit. And when you edit, its as good as writing. Why? because you need to have intense concentration and focus when you do. You need to have the micro as well as the macro picture in mind as you edit. You need to have a sense of the story as well as the sentence when you work. It is rare that you will find the space or the time to completely concentrate on that one activity.

At the moment i'm as disorganized as it gets. I'm editing one murder mystery, one spiritual fiction and one Hindi book. I've set myself impossible deadlines as i'm travelling later this week. 

I will start talking about my books in my next blog. let me know what you'd like to read about. Thanks!


 

Hi there, 

Beginning this blog today about the life of an editor. The things that make one happy, the struggles, the celebrations and the failures. Why i'm calling this a low life blog is because firstly, I acquire under the  commercial list which by itself is on on the top of the list for any reader and Secondly, because of the immense and intense hard work that you put in which almost always gets undermined. Also, because of the shit i have great patience to see and read. So you might want to log out now.  

That apart, i'm also going to talk about reading and books here. Things that interest me and things that i dislike. 

So if you're on board, lets get started!