Author: Devz | The Savorist

A dreamer, explorer, photographer, and spatula-wielding storyteller who believes that good food can cure just about anything. A cynic by the day, romantic by the night. A realistic idealist. The Savorist is my food, photography, and travel journal. www.thesavorist.life

Hope in The Time of Corona

January 2020, the new decade brought a ’10-year photo challenge’ that took over our social media feed. I was setting new goals, making new-year resolutions and doing a decent job sticking to them. Life was gushing along like a stream fed by snowmelt – brimming and full of potential. I celebrated my birthday surrounded by friends and loved ones. There was an abundance of food, wine, cake, laughter, handshakes, and hugs.

February leaped in soon enough with an extra day in tow, like a generous examiner happy to give an additional 5 minutes so you can finish the exam. A leap day!

In March, CoronaVirus became that annoying relative at family gatherings, at first, you try to ignore, but as the day goes by they inevitably get drunk, act belligerent and bring the whole house down. This Pandemic continues to redefine our ‘normal’, even as humans across the globe struggle to make sense of the situation. Digging stats, refreshing feeds, clinging to hope that some random drug will be the answer, panic buying toilet paper, sanitizer and cleaning supplies, obsessively washing hands, wiping surfaces, sanitizing groceries to sheltering in place and practicing social distancing – is the new norm.

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My Summer Fling (New York City)

I don’t believe in love at first sight. I’m a cynic, you know. Professing my immediate love for anything, no matter how glorious is an impulse that is highly improbable, if not entirely out of the question in my world.

I moved to NYC in Aug 2014. You could’ve filled a stadium with all the people who congratulated me when I announced my move. I was told I’ve ‘arrived’. In contrast, I didn’t get even half the fanfare when I first moved continents – New Delhi, India to San Fransisco, USA. Apparently, entire continents dwarf in comparison to NYC. Most humans, stepping into NYC for the first time, arrive in a dazed ‘dream-come-true’ state, unabashedly proclaiming their love for the ‘greatest city in the world’. I, on the other hand, found myself undecided on how I felt about the city even after two years. I too wanted to jump on the ‘greatest city in the world’ ~~train~~ subway. Spoiler alert – despite a rocky start and 2 yrs of a troubled relationship, this story has a happy ending. (more…)

What do you give a man who has everything?

My hairstyles don’t hold for over 5 minutes and I haven’t had a good hair day i What do you give a guy who has everything? www.thesavorist.com n over two months.
No, it’s not my shampoo!
I have a chronic habit of ferociously running my fingers through my hair when I’m thinking and I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking over the past couple of months.

After all, deciding what to give a man who has everything can be fairly perplexing. Although, not half as perplexing as when the man in question is your “one ring” and you the Gollum. It’s true! While it may not be the most romantic analogy in world, he is indeed “my precious” and I cannot imagine a day without him.

July 21st, his birthday and I’ve got nothing. After all, what can a plastic swipe fetch that’ll not be dwarfed by the dizzying heights of affection I feel for him. What material object can possibly express exactly how essential he is to me? I thought I’ll use words, but I couldn’t find any that don’t seem absolutely insignificant; in fact almost shallow compared to the depths of my gratefulness.
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You should marry a geek, or at the very least date one.

Reasons why you should marry a geek | Date a geek |Love | Valentine's Day | Geek is the new Sexy | thesavorist.com You should marry a geek or start dating one at the very least, because he’s the closest thing to the mythical creature you are looking for, the ‘perfect man’. Marry a guy who codes for a living and for entertainment. He can write codes and decrypt yours. He can have a full conversation in binary and is more interested in the gadget than the half naked blonde modeling it.

Marry a geek who has read every book on your list and more; seen every movie you love and would watch them again with you. Marry him to ride into the sunset holding hands and reciting your favorite dialogues in your make-belief baritone voice. If you have a habit of getting late, tell him you were playing Gandalf. After all, ‘a wizard is never early, nor is he ever late. He arrives precisely when he means to’.

Find a guy who finished Britannica by the time he was ten and whose favorite non profit organisation is Wikimedia Foundation. He devours wikipedia more ferociously than a broken hearted woman devours ice-cream and makes generous donations to keep it ads free. Marry him for his generosity or marry him for guaranteed entertaining life because he’ll always have something enchanting to talk about.
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No-Fail No-fuss Chocolate Soufflé Recipe for Two

Every year, around this time people start loosing their minds. Apparently there is no happy situation to be in; if you are single you are frantically looking for a date and if you happen to be in a relationship, the pressure to do something special is probably giving you a severe case of indigestion. If you are anything like me, you probably were waiting for the eleventh hour for some inspiration to strike, by which time all the good old options of a nice dinner is already out of the window unless you are famous enough to have a standing reservation at a fancy restaurant or your date is crazy about Mc Donald’s happy meal.

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Chicken Fajitas, a Princess and a Dragon

I haven’t been in the pink of health this week. Usually, I just power through without even acknowledging my sickness, but on the rare occasions when I do and allow myself the luxury of some rest, I expect a great deal of pampering. I also have a tendency to get grumpy when unwell. The grumpier I am, the more certain I am, that I have a right to be. I am sure there are people lying in the hospital beds with broken bones who are probably more cheerful than I am currently.
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Of Memories and Photographs

If a picture says a thousand words, our DSLRs and iPhones have certainly made us verbose.

We have thousands of vacation pictures tucked away somewhere on our computers. I personally had to order a new hard drive because my laptop couldn’t take it anymore. We don’t want to miss out on anything. There is almost a compulsive urge to capture all the moments and memories, lest our less than efficient brain forgets a detail. In this mad rush to capture memories, we forget about making any.

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