Who? Asked.
Authors: Krishya Nema, Sadhika Mani, Ananya Warrier, Nitya Kakade
Estimated read time: A billion milliseconds
Here at the 8:10, we know the way to your hearts is via the stomach, so naturally we want to put our best food (foot) forward. Since the aim of this article is for you to get to know us better, it’s only appropriate that you can use our ramblings for your personal entertainment by simultaneously treating this like a BuzzFeed “What Dish Are You?” guide.
The “us” in question for today’s article are the newly anointed editors for the 2025-26 Academic Year, consisting of Krishya Nema, Sadhika Mani, Ananya Warrier, and Nitya Kakade. This article is a call back to the 8:10 recruitment forms that asked us to explain what vegetable we’d be, giving us the chance to introduce ourselves as potatoes, cabbages, mushrooms, and capsicums.
As time has progressed, we have evolved from mere vegetables to full-fledged dishes (and fruits). So now that you’ve chosen to click on this article and commit to it, you can enjoy sitting through a gajillion minutes of us going through a whole character arc.
Chaat: Krishya
Name something that’s crunchy but not dry, sweet and(or) spicy and extremely versatile (You can put anything but fruit. STOP with the pomegranate propaganda.) If you didn’t immediately think of Chaat you’re not tuned into the Krishya.8 radio station. Call it an Indorie stereotype or call me hungry, chaat is just me on a plate. I think there’s an explosion of flavours, accompanied by a sharp crunch that resonates with the way I perceive myself; blunt, occasionally sweet, and simple but not necessarily plain. I also translate the act of tailoring chaat according to personal preference to be the equivalent of me customising my avatar (no such thing as too many rings.) I also think chaat has a certain whimsy to it, a reminder of times when you laughed so hard your stomach hurt. Which further reminds me to get my money up, not my funny up 💔 To everyone who knows me and is silently (or audibly) disagreeing, meet me outside Punk. (Much love as always.)
Tangerines: Ananya
So many of my friends have come up to me months after we’ve known each other, telling me that at first, they thought I was the mean girl or just rude in general, and they jokingly (hopefully) told me about the vow they’d taken to never speak to me again. But, as they got to know me better, they realized just how sweet, funny (unhinged), and entertaining I am – their words, not mine. This is exactly how I used to feel about tangerines too – a weird taste at first, like oranges, but not as familiar, and I thought I’d never want it ever again. But then, the more tangerines I ate (I was forced to), the more I came to appreciate it, and it is now one of my favourite foods. Tangerines represent energy and are a little (really) expensive – just like me, right? I, too, feel that I am both sweet and vibrant, but also have that dash of sourness to make it “unique” (Ananya, duh!)
More Kozhambu: Sadhika
I fear there’s really no valid reason for saying this, but if I were to be a dish, I’d be more kuzhambu with roasted okra bits (buttermilk sambhar). It’s odd, tangy, spicy, and mild, but it’s also moreish and soulful; it’s sweltering summer afternoons in Chennai, coma-inducing naps and rattly old air-cons that work overtime. Am I saying this is analogous to my character though? Not really. Truth is I’m just not sure. My perception of my own psyche is too cloudy and fragmented for me to be able to just stuff it into a 200 word ‘meet your editor’ bit. Outsider perspectives feel too surface-level, and the inner view is too muddled to stand on its own – so maybe it’s just an identity crisis reaching for something stable. Maybe that’s why I see more kozhambu as the closest thing to a reflection, because it feels like home and it’s a close ideal to what I’d like to be. Or maybe I’m just indecisive.
Also, I just really, really like the dish guys. It has so much personality for something that’s colored a pale piss yellow (unappetizing I know, stop being a wuss).
And don’t forget the roasted okra bits, I absolutely love okra, we call it ‘vendakkai’ where I’m from and if you DON’T mess with vendakkai, square up at UTBT, 2:30, 3 days after this comes out. Will I show up? No, I like to leave college as early as possible.
But if you still bothered to show up and attempt to fight someone who doesn’t have to bend when walking under a low-hanging branch, then that’s just low-hanging fruit and you tried to eat it anyway, you pig. Shame on you. Go eat more kozhambu.
Nitya: Thali
I’m aware this is the cheesiest (not literally) dish I could have picked. I could have said it’s because I contain multitudes. I could be sweet and spicy and whatever you feel like at the moment; but that’s true for everyone. No, I chose this because of what I think of thalis.
Truth be told, I absolutely hate thalis. There’s always more food on my plate than I could ever finish, and most of the time I don’t even like half the dishes on it so I only eat what I like. Then I start to feel guilty for the food wastage, but all the same I’m still not going to eat it because I can also get unlimited amounts of the food I actually like. It’s not really a big deal, though. It’s not like I have thalis frequently enough for it to bother me.
I think that describes me pretty well. I tend to stick with the things I’m comfortable with, which, admittedly, are not many. And it’s just so easy to stay in my comfort zone when I have the opportunity to. I don’t care if I get scolded for it. Sometimes I want only the puri-bhaji, and sometimes I only want the rice. Does it mean I won’t have anything else? No, I’ll probably have dessert too, but I won’t touch the rest. Many people would say I’m childish or that I don’t eat nearly as much as I should, but it’s what works for me. I eat food I don’t like throughout the year. On the rare occasion I go out for a thali, it’s so much nicer to drop all pretense and just do what I want.
Nice to see you here, we’re a little surprised that you made it to the end of this article, most people tap out before they even find the link to the newsletter. But now that you’re probably craving comfort foods of your own, we bid you a very warm farewell, we’ll keep the goodbyes short.
Bon Appétit.