The Japanese found a term to describe that fine balance between doing something you love, and finding a way to be successful at it. They called it ikigai. Nirmala Hegde might not be familiar with the term, but her joy and skill at designing embroidered tapestries can only be defined so. Ask her, and she casually mentions, “I just like to stay busy.”

If her name sounds familiar, it is because Hegde ran Aai’s Kitchen, the popular Malad-based cloud kitchen that became a go-to for Karwari and Maharashtrian home-cooked food during the lockdown. Working with her son, Gautam Hegde, she would dole out prawn pickles, chicken Karwari and mushroom pulao, among others. “I have always loved cooking, but arthritis came in the way,” Nirmala reveals.

Nirmala Hegde works on a new stitch back at home in Malad