Zahrabinteaasim

I have been tagged as "Chirrya" that is Urdu of Sparrow, just because I used to taste everything and speak a lot. I used to write a regular diary but in my effort of making it a tacit expression, if found by mother or elder siblings, I used to tag my family with code funny names and describe them in humorous ways. With the passage of time I started judging moods of my mother and cook from the quality, taste and presentation of food they were serving us on table. This led to obsession with hobby of cooking different cousins and I read many books on different cousins. I have spent hours on old book shops while finding books with cultural and historical descriptions of food. I used to target a nation or culture and then start cooking their food one by one from different books. The link of weather,food and collective psychologies of societies have always interested me. I have tried Chinese, American English, Bali, Thai and Indian Food. My interest in travel developed unintentionally while I was trying to discover cultures through food. Encouragement also came from my father who urged me to set off for travel but after marriage. Now I and My hubby go for a weekly hiking trip here in Islamabad. Currently, I am a researcher and writer in the field of international relations. I earn my living from teaching MSc at NDU, Islamabad. I am working on my first English language novel "Pakistani Bride". I am feeling thrilled to apply, actually its just like discovering back your teenage dream. Its been two years that with marriage and job I could neither concentrate on novel nor on cooking adventures of different cultures. Some cultural restaurants at Islamabad seem good once in a while for a change. As this opportunity may fulfill all three of my desires i.e traveling, writing and cooking I think I would live a dream adventurous life for about a month. Regards