Anup Gupta picks his favourite read of 2022

As I get past the security check at Mumbai airport’s swanky Terminal 2, I always head to the round cake counter that’s about 100 feet away. From the first time I saw it, I was drawn not just by the interesting branding – the way Theobroma was written – but also by the stuff on display. I would drool over the brownies, and find it tough to resist the urge to indulge. It was a challenge to hold back but as I walked away, having overcome the urge, I would always silently admire the “people” behind this venture.

Earlier this year, my daughter, who loves to bake, recommended that I read The Theobroma Story; Baking a Dream, written by Kainaz Messman Harchandrai with her sister, Tina Messman Wykes. I immediately bought the book on Kindle. Even though the projected read time was around 240 minutes, it took me much longer as I kept going back to re-read parts, to absorb and enjoy the spirit, the enterprise and the determination captured in the book.

This fascinating story of the food-crazy Messman family (they had a home catering business) documents how a small initiative that started from a tiny “hole in the wall” in south Mumbai (with just four tables) in 2004 grew to more than 50 outlets around the country today. This is the story of not just how a family came together to build a business that they were passionate about, but how one of them, Kainaz Messman, spearheaded the effort and pushed to make it all happen. What touched me the most, besides the effortless writing, was this amazing Parsi family’s spirit of partnership and inclusiveness. I would recommend this book to everyone for the author’s spectacular grit that she maintained right through the years it took to build this wonderful enterprise. Most of us tend to give up when faced with a challenge. This book inspires the reader to keep at things.

Towards the end, Messman writes: “I occasionally wonder what life would be like if we had stayed small. It is unlikely that we would have written this book or you would have heard of me.” To this, all I can say is that immediately after reading the book, I hunted for a Theobroma outlet and succumbed. I admit the brownies taste even better than they look.

As I get past the security check at Mumbai airport’s swanky Terminal 2, I always head to the round cake counter that’s about 100 feet away. From the first time I saw it, I was drawn not just by the interesting branding – the way Theobroma was written – but also by the stuff on display. I would drool over the brownies, and find it tough to resist the urge to indulge. It was a challenge to hold back but as I walked away, having overcome the urge, I would always silently admire the “people” behind this venture.

Earlier this year, my daughter, who loves to bake, recommended that I read The Theobroma Story; Baking a Dream, written by Kainaz Messman Harchandrai with her sister, Tina Messman Wykes. I immediately bought the book on Kindle. Even though the projected read time was around 240 minutes, it took me much longer as I kept going back to re-read parts, to absorb and enjoy the spirit, the enterprise and the determination captured in the book.

This fascinating story of the food-crazy Messman family (they had a home catering business) documents how a small initiative that started from a tiny “hole in the wall” in south Mumbai (with just four tables) in 2004 grew to more than 50 outlets around the country today. This is the story of not just how a family came together to build a business that they were passionate about, but how one of them, Kainaz Messman, spearheaded the effort and pushed to make it all happen. What touched me the most, besides the effortless writing, was this amazing Parsi family’s spirit of partnership and inclusiveness. I would recommend this book to everyone for the author’s spectacular grit that she maintained right through the years it took to build this wonderful enterprise. Most of us tend to give up when faced with a challenge. This book inspires the reader to keep at things.

Towards the end, Messman writes: “I occasionally wonder what life would be like if we had stayed small. It is unlikely that we would have written this book or you would have heard of me.” To this, all I can say is that immediately after reading the book, I hunted for a Theobroma outlet and succumbed. I admit the brownies taste even better than they look.