SARIA AHMED: THE FLOURIST

Ever thought of having dessert for breakfast? Well, only the craving for sweets can push a person to such an extreme. A person, who always had a sweet tooth and even used to skip main courses to eat dessert, now owns an online cake studio called "The Flourist" in Dhaka.  

Saria Ahmed is a pastry chef/artist who left a career in advertising to pursue her passion for patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu, London. She also dabbles in paint on canvas. Back in 2011, she decided to put advertising on hold and pursue a master's degree. She was holidaying in Singapore and decided to limit herself to one dessert a week. On that trip she was disappointed after having a lovely-looking piece of chocolate cake which tasted horrible. 

"On that trip, after a friend of mine suggested culinary school, I realised I needed to turn my obsession into my passion," she said. She thinks that we can only win when we are satisfied with ourselves and stop living up to other people's expectations. According to her, one should do what they want because if a person fails, they have nothing or no one to blame but themselves. She had troubles with sourcing materials and ingredients for cakes she creates but she had the pleasure of working with brilliant suppliers who had gone to much length to help her out.

Photo: Darshan Chakma

To her, success is not measured in how much money a person makes or how many people know who they are, but how satisfied they are with what they are doing. "There is no yardstick for success. It means different things to different people," she added.

In order to have a more fulfilling life, one must live for today, and the only way to live for the moment is to do things that you love. Saria Ahmed is such an example of a person who chose the path less travelled, and inspires many others to turn their passion into a profession.

G. Sumdany Don is a professional trainer, and wants to inspire the youth of Bangladesh. He has a fascination for radio, TV and media in general and secretly wants to become really famous one day. He can be reached at [email protected] or www.facebook.com/donsumdany.