How to take a break from freelance writing.
By: Kalyan Karmakar
Tags: Covid Diaries, Food Blogging, Food Writing, Freelancing, Indian Food

How to take a break from freelance writing.

I am a freelance food writer based in Mumbai.

One of my biggest concerns when the lockdown was first implemented was that I should not feel lost and rudderless. I knew that commissioned work would be scarce in the times ahead. I had seen how protracted idleness…what we knew as the ‘devil’s workshop’ when we were kids… could mess one up mentally. I had been in there a few years back when I made the transition from being a corporate market researcher to a freelance food writer. I was in no hurry to revisit those dark days.

I furiously created self-initiated content through vlogs, blog posts, youtube cooking videos, podcasts, zoom interviews, Instagram lives; keeping myself busy through the lockdown where commissioned work was few and far between.

I was not alone at home during this period. K (my wife) was working from home and with me, the Kitty Ks too (cats we adopted during the lockdown) and we were snug and safe at home. We had friends and neighbours who looked out for us. We had food on our table. Usually very good food. We had our finances in control and a roof over our head. Our family members were safe. Including elders who stayed by themselves and for whom we were very concerned. Yes, we had many, many reasons to count our blessings.

I must admit that at a personal level 2020 is not the worst year that I have had in my life and I feel thankful for that.

I began to a feel a sense of fatigue as the months progressed, mental and physical both. Fatigue from writing, podcasting, shooting, editing, publishing, sharing. Yet, I did not want to stop. There were two reasons for that.

The ‘imposter syndrome’ as I mentioned earlier. When a bulk of what one does is self publishing, one does ponder about the substance and significance of it all.

Secondly, I enjoyed what I was doing to be honest and saw no reason to stop. There was never a shortage of ‘content.’ I wrote about what I ate and I did eat everyday. Many times to be precise. Since it was self published, I did not have to convince someone else to accept my work. It was all me. For good or for bad. So I kept sharing.

The need to take a break was impressed upon me by our yoga teacher in the online course for back pain that I took from the Sivananda Institute. Slow down, said the Namita ji. Do less. Don’t keep running all the time. Take some time to do things that you enjoy.

I started by first switching off social media apps on my phone on two successive Sundays in December. That felt good! Then I decided to take a Christmas break the way that K and her colleagues had decided to in their office. They had been working very hard through the lockdown and the idea was to stay away from work in the days between Christmas and the weekend after the first of January.

What would a ‘break’ mean for me? I did not have any clients or bosses to answer to after all.

Stay logged out of social media apps for large parts of the day, I told myself. Do not write even if you want to and feel that you have the time to do so. Do not shoot, edit and share videos and podcast.

This is how I had defined the scope of the ‘break’ and I stuck to it. For the first time in 23 odd weeks, I did not even do a #foodocracyforher interview. My weekly show on women entrepreneurs in F&B.

I felt that I was the better for it at the end of it all.