As I approached my 55th birthday in June 2022, I had a wake up call of sorts and I decided to start on a 200 day journey in April to reinvent myself and pursue the many things that I always wanted to do. After a 2 year pandemic pause button it was time to reset!

First stop was to bald my head in April 2022 as a starting point to this reset. I balded my head and decided I will not colour my hair anymore and will embrace my natural colours. While it was a scary thought, it turned out well and everyone loved my new look.

Next stop-after many years as an Accountant, Entrepreneur and Project Designer, it was time to also explore other creative aspects of myself! As 2022 rolled on, I also decided to embrace more fully the other passion in my life which is food- mainly plant based, vegetarian food. While I enjoy creating good vegetarian food, wanted to learn more-discover Culinary Arts and understand how things are done in the food creation and production world.

To this end, I had been planning since Jan 2020 to join Cordon Bleu in London for a Plant Based Culinary program. This had to be deferred for various pandemic-related reasons. As 2022 rolled to an end, I decided that the time is NOW-look at other options Vani-maybe the universe is telling you something!

Thanks to my dear husband Dash, I started looking at other possibilities. I thought to myself-vegetarian food originated in the East not the West. While there are a lot of innovations happening in terms of the use of ingredients for plant based foods, the East is where it all started-maybe its time to go to the roots and connect with my own cultural heritage first!

Which led me to Mumbai where I discovered a boutique culinary academy called Palate Culinary Academy which offers UK based professional certifications in vegetarian cooking as well as eggless baking and incorporates this with cuisines from around the world including Progressive Indian Cooking. I then came to realise that Mumbai also has such a vibrant food and street food culture!

It was also a shorter program than London and closer to home too which was important as I am still responsible for the care of my 91 year old mother. It all added up and the pieces started to come together!

So here I am - for 8 weeks in Mumbai to kickstart my journey! I am not too sure where this journey will take me but am planning to keep an open mind and follow it full-heartedly to see where it takes me.

It was a mad scramble before I left-to finish my work projects, sort out the house, pack what I needed, say goodbye to husband and kids, do the customary Ganesha temple visit and finally board my flight!

I arrived here on the 26th after a 5am flight from KL and a 3 hour transit in Chennai and so far the impressions have been that this is a fastmoving city that is always on the go! We are staying in the Bandra area which is a happening area! The food has been mindblowing so far and we are excited to explore more.

When I say We-a coconspirator in the form of Anishaa, who is a friend’s daughter decided to join me and she is pursuing a different program at the same academy and is on her own culinary journey while sharing many of the experiences together with me.

So join me as I discover Mumbai, its culinary offerings and in the process myself by unlearning some things, learning new skills and spaking new ideas!

Thank you to my family and especially my husband Dash for his support in encouraging me to do this!