Say cheese!

The last few months have been about all things baby- baby this baby that, and this is how things will continue to be for a long long time. And I absolutely love it.

Gautam is now a little over 5 months old, and it is time for me to take a look at and assess other things in life. Fitness has already been on the forefront for the last month or so, and now so is work.

I think my little baby understands where i’m coming from and has been quite cooperative during my long discussions with Masoom about what products/services can present an opportunity during these times, and what are my real options, considering that i’m a new mother and Gautam would obviously demand a lot of my time for the next several years.

Of late, I have been revisiting all the ideas I ever considered over the last one and a half years. They are as follows:

1. Granola Smoothies/yogurt
2. Dal Badis/Dal value added products
3. Cosmetics
4. Skin and body care
5. Elder care
6. Sustainable farming

Obviously, nothing has led to anything so far. Bleh. But depressing as it may be, there is always a silver lining behind every grey cloud. You just have to look for it. I know that over the last one and a half years, amidst covid-pregnancy-infant handling, I kept at it. We kept brainstorming and I am positive that some day I will find that one product that I feel great about and will actually be in a position to launch! Success or failure is not something that I am attached to at all. Not yet.

So after shifting to Pune and settling down here, Masoom and I went back to the drawing board and started thinking afresh, and we found something!

CHEESE!

Now I remember saying somewhere that I have always been interested in the dairy sector. I was probably just looking at it from the wrong perspective. Ask me this-“Manya, what’s your favorite food?” I will answer point blank-“cheese-all kinds”. Now i’m no expert in cheeses, but I often find myself standing in front of the Nature’s Basket cheese counters, admiring the different types, thinking to myself which one i’ll buy next time. The imported ones are damn expensive! Not that I haven’t splurged on cheeses, but buying craft cheeses that are any good definitely burns a hole in the pocket. And there’s not a lot of variety out there, or even a lot of stores which sell them for that matter. Safe to say, the Indian market is familiar with cheese, but not CHEEEESE, if you know what I mean.

Anyhow, I tried making mozzarella at home last weekend.Here’s what happened.

What an epic failure! I made chhaina instead of mozzarella! What was I thinking?! I’ll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking i’ll order a home cheesemaking kit, make some delicious mozzarella and feel somewhat like an artisanal cheesemaker, all in a matter of 2 hours. Realized it wasn’t that simple. But I had fun and will definitely try this again. Also made peace with the fact that being in the cheese business would not necessarily require me to be a cheesemaker :p

While I slowly start looking into this sector and wait for the second covid wave to pass, i’ll keep my fingers crossed for this idea!