All for the love of food

Being a hotelier's daughter, I grew up enjoying all sorts of cuisines: be it Continental, Italian, Thai, Mexican or the widely popular Chinese. (How can one forget the mobile stalls selling Chinese noodles and manchurian!) And being a true Punjabi, I devoured the Indian delicacies like butter chicken, fish curry, kebabs, saag and loved-by-all 'rajma'.However, despite my love for food, 'kitchen' was an alien world to me. And 'mess food' in boarding schools and 'tiffin service' in PGs (paying guests) were enough to make me survive and stay out of the kitchen.
And then I migrated. I and my husband have known each other for the past many years. He was aware of the fact that I do not know how to cook -- a point stressed by my father when my husband met him for asking my hand in marriage -- and I knew about his excellent culinary skills. Hence, we started off by him doing all the cooking while I spent my days searching for a job. However, I soon started getting bored as I had always been studying and working in India. I got involved with my hobby of reading, but I still wanted to do something more fun and active.
Feeling bad for my husband who was working odd hours and then had to cook food at home, I so missed the 'baiis' aka helpers back home. And then one day, I decided to try to cook. I rummaged the internet world, looking for detailed recipes and videos for cooking rajma- my husband's favourite. To my surprise, I did well. My husband was so surprised (and relieved, though he did not say so but his face showed it). From then, my journey of exploration of my culinary skills began. Being bestowed with my father's genes, I knew if there was anything amiss in a dish even when I did not know how to cook. And now that cooking has become one of my hobbies, I use my sense of taste to improve and improvise. My family in India still get surprised every time I send them pictures of what I cooked, be it stuffed karelas, bhindi, cakes, muffins, lasagne and pasta. Thankfully the list goes on.
I plan to carry on this hobby which has given a vent to my creativity. It has also helped me make new friends in this foreign land by exchanging recipes in the grocery store, or by gifting a cake to my neighbours. Also, I have realized when I am cooking, I feel happier. All the stress of settling into a new environment, getting the license of a psychologist, etc, seem to fade away. And my creations make the people around me happy as well. I am waiting for the time when I will go to India and will be able to spread this happiness amongst my family and friends there.