By Shiva Neupane:
Today I would like to share my sheer bizarre Journey that led me to compile a food dictionary. I have been told by many friends that I must be the first Nepali writer to compile a food dictionary in the Nepali context.
This may be true because I have not come across a food dictionary compiled by Nepali writers because the food consciousness movement in Nepal has only just begun. Only recently have food coverage and reviews found space in the newspapers. From all these corroborative and compelling culinary scenarios, I am totally convinced by what they say regarding me being the pioneer in publishing a food dictionary. But anyways, it does not matter whether I am a pioneer in publishing a food dictionary or not. I leave this to my readers to find the veracity of the assertions that my friends have put forward.
A decade or so ago, when I started to do my dish washing job in a restaurant, I was taken aback by the kitchen pressure that I had to deal with. I was literally fed up with the amount of work that I had to do in the hospitality industry to pay my exorbitant university’s fees and the house rents in Melbourne. It is human nature not to like your work environment when it becomes a fountain of stress. In the beginning, the same thing had happened to me. However, I have managed to deal with all the challenges and hurdles over the years.
I have spent more than a decade in the hospitality sector in the various positions. I have devoted a huge slice of my life to the hospitality industry. I had gained the ideas at the drop of a hat to compile a food dictionary because of my longstanding experience in the given field. This gave a full weight of justice to what I did over the past years in the kitchen. One of the things that we must learn is that if you take pride in what you do, that will certainly slake your thirst for your goal or vision. In my personal experience, when the situation is out of your control you need to learn how to live with it. Therefore, coming to a new country and working in an exotic environment makes anyone jittery in the beginning, and you cannot control the situation that you are in, but you can find ways to adjust to it. Many international students feel homesick because they are not accustomed to the new work environment that they are catapulted to. In worst-case scenarios, there have been instances where they have put a stop to their lives owing to the psychological hazards at the workplace or elsewhere.
But even if you are in a difficult or unfavourable position, there are still many things that you can do. I was going through the tormenting kitchen job, but I discovered a lab in it for writing my Falang Food Dictionary, if life gives you lemons make a lemonade.
