Okay, so starting April 7th, I will be officially working from home. Last Friday, Singapore announced a one month shut down of schools and non-essential workplaces as "circuit-breaker" measures to curb the increasing local transmission of the coronavirus. Most of us saw it coming so it wasn't much of a surprise.

For those of you who don't know, I am a biomedical researcher. I rely on a well-equipped laboratory to conduct my experiments on a daily basis. I need advanced instruments/equipment, various kinds of chemicals and consumables, containment facilities and clinical samples to further my research. Working from home, is not really an option for someone with a career like mine. The last time I stayed at home at a stretch was only to write my Masters thesis way back in 2010. But judging by the circumstances of the past few months, my lab did anticipate that this day would come and so me and my colleagues prudently planned ahead and accelerated our experiments, making sure that we would have enough data to prepare a scientific manuscript if the day came where we have to be confined to the four walls of our homes.

So the next one month is going to be spent seated in front of my laptop pouring through literature, brushing up on scientific writing, analysing data, applying statistics and preparing illustrations, figures and tables. Although I don't mind the process of writing a journal paper, sitting in front of the computer for a prolonged period of time is something I find very hard to do.

I miss so many things about my usual work routine - I miss grabbing pau and fruit from the canteen, sipping green tea while checking my e-mails in the peace and quiet of an empty office (I'm one of the earliest to reach work), I miss doing my experiments, crossing off my to-do lists for the day, chatting with my colleagues, going for my exercise classes during lunch breaks, attending intellectually stimulating seminars and the drive to and from work with my husband.

I had come up with a well-thought out plan for how I am going to manage working from home. But it mostly went down the drain yesterday. I was supposed to review a manuscript, which normally doesn't take me very long but today, in the midst of getting my kids to do their homework, thinking of ways to keep them occupied, making sure they don't disturb my husband during his conference calls, getting them snacks every few hours, breaking up their endless fights, cooking lunch and making sure everything and everyone was okay, I couldn't accomplish as much as I thought I could. Maybe it was a case of unrealistic expectations or else me just not being able to let go of the little things and get on with my work.

I understand too well that in the current situation, it is a privilege to have a roof over your head, good food to eat, family that is safe, income not affected (at least not yet!) and the perks of domestic help.  Not to mention, we have a government who is providing every household with free hand sanitizer, reusable masks, free/subsidized medical care and one of the best stimulus packages to soften the blow of the virus impact. So if I was coming across as whiny or ungrateful, that wasn't the intention at all. I was just going through a normal human emotion of feeling unsettled with this drastic change in routine. But I am determined to make this work so today is going to be better.....I just know it! I am learning to deal with a situation that I previously never had to deal with so it is bound to have teething problems.

When you are at home all day, the temptation to snack is unusually high. Same holds good for me and my family. I am indeed worried that me and my husband will turn into a food scarfing, lethargic lumps! We need to start social distancing from the kitchen and pronto 😆 Since the past few weeks, I have been cooking and baking more and I realize that this has mostly stemmed from boredom. Well, in stressful times like these, if cooking and food gives people some solace and joy then it can't be all that bad, can it?

Kachori is something that recently came up in a conversation between me and one of my close friends (and fellow mom of two young daughters). She shared the same snack woes as me and living in Delhi, she mentioned that Aloo Pyaz Kachori was something her family liked very much. Now I'll be very honest. I have very little experience with kachori. Forget making it at home, I have barely eaten it more than a handful of times. As a food blogger, I am always interested to try something that is unfamiliar territory for me. So I immediately made a mental note to try Aloo Pyaz Kachori at the next available opportunity.

I found a recipe that I thought would turn out nice, tweaked it a little and made the kachori and suggested accompaniments the very next evening. It turned out really well. The recipe recommended double-frying the kachoris but I didn't have the patience for that. The filling was flavourful and not too spicy so even my kids enjoyed it. I made both a spicy and sweet sauce and the kachori dunked in equal quantities of both was even better than dunking them separately. I will be making these again for sure and this recipe is a keeper.

I know the photos are pretty bad but I haven't been in a photo-styling mood for a long time so I'll probably update the pictures in the future when my mojo is back.

Sharing this recipe with you all so you can chase away any boredom and make your family happy at the same time (just remember to do some home-based aerobics, pilates or zumba afterwards 😆).