A baker who's trying to get fit is the funniest contradiction. I taste-test 40 cupcakes and then walk the Karaikudi lake blaming the cupcakes. Balance, they call it. Slowly slowly.

Started baking to keep busy after marriage in a new town where I knew nobody. Now the neighbourhood aunties come for cake orders and stay for chai and gossip. Found my people through an oven.

That viral non-stick pan influencers keep pushing? Coating gone in four months. My mother's 30-year-old iron kadai is still going strong and gives free iron also. Old is genuinely gold sometimes.

Posted a video of my kaju-free Mysore pak at 6am, went to drop my son at school, came back to 400 saves. Ten years my paati made this quietly for the whole street and got zero 'likes'. Times change.

Chettinad kitchens taught me spice, but my customers here only want 'eggless vanilla, less sweet'. Slowly sneaking a pinch of cardamom into everything and nobody has complained yet.