I have been working 'zJim- Stories from a Kargili Kitchen' since May '23 in collaboration with Roots Ladakh and Sneha Nair. It is an ethnographic book that introduces kargili Foodways to the world.
In these years, I have lived in ~15 villages of Kargil district, formed close relationships with various families, hitchhiked hundreds of kms, taught myself how to forage, and read all there is to read on Kargil in the English language.
Driven by the fact that in India, everyone knows of kargil but no one knows about Kargil, due to the narratives of war, we decided to introduce Kargil to the nation through its Foodways. What started as a two-month project has turned into a 2.5-year-long journey of connection, discovery, and persistence.
The book is set to be published by Penguin Random House in Dec '25.
Book: zJim - Stories from a Kargili Kitchen
