Food being my only passion even before I could spell passion, my girlfriend Urmi didn't have to goad me much into starting a food-blog. Setting up a blog is the easiest thing to do. But what about the name? The name of my blog should be an indicator of me as a person and my relationship with the chief object(ive) of my blog. i.e, Food.
Now, I consider myself to be a non-fussy eater. I equally relish a plate of daal and rice with a piece of raw onion on the side (what about those small sambar-onions cured in vinegar?!) or a plate of warm biryani (whatever that is!! more on Biryani later).
I was searching for words that would somehow transcend the barriers of language to express my love and respect for food. Being a student of literature, I have always loved the coinage "सह्रदय पाठक", which means a cultivated reader or a person sensitive to literature. "सह्रदय" itself means 'with heart', which was what attracted me to the word in the first place. After all, isn't the way to a person's heart through her/his stomach! Thus, the feeling being expressed I had to find a word that would capture my relationship with food.
So, sifting through my limited vocabulary, I start searching for that one other word and simultaneously translating using Google-translator. Interestingly, the translator produced some quirky results. For instance, Gourmet was a translated into 'पेटू' in hindi whose Bengali equivalent 'পেটুক' was the translation of Gourmand. However, the word Gourmand has its French roots which when translated into hindi became "लालची" (Greedy) and tamil as "நல்ல சுவையான உணவை விரும்புகிறவர்" (a person who likes to eat tasty food), which was the closest to what I felt as an admirer of all food related things, but alas an entire sentence cannot be used in naming a blog.
My disposition did not allow me to call myself a "connoisseur" of food as I do not consider myself all that knowledgeable about food. Considering and discarding all the nuances of language, I decided to include the simple word 'पेटू'(petu), after all I love eating, unconditionally.
Hence, the birth of my blog "सह्रदय पेटू".
PS: Thank you, Urmi. If not for you, I would have stopped after naming the blog.
