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When I get time, I listen to music, or read books. If any is left, I blog!

Saturday 10 April 2021

Spilling The Beans

Both my mother and wife were excellent cooks.  Under their loving care, I hogged, commented like an expert, and chose the next day's menu.  Whenever I volunteered to help, my wife would tell: “No, butter-fingers, for heaven's sake, no!”  Her respect for my uncanny ability to drop, topple and litter was 'sacred'!

Things changed.  Nobody is around any more, to feed me or shoo me away.  Today, I use my unrestricted access to the kitchen, not to help anyone else, but help myself to survive!  On day one, while attempting to make Chapatis, I made a sticky mess of the dough.  Somehow I managed to roll it into shapes beyond Geometrical definition, ending up burning some and half-baking the rest.  A friend consoled: “When you are the only one to eat what you cook, why worry?”

As if possessed, I plodded on to recreate cherished tastes.  Overcoming my deficiencies wasn't easy.  I couldn't distinguish Mustard seeds from Sesame, Aniseeds from Fennel, or Cumin Seeds from Caraway.  Unsure of the time the cooker took to boil, rice often ended up either semi or over cooked!  Then came COVID 19.  As eateries shut shop, I began dreaming about the day when ready-to-eat food could be directly downloaded from the internet!

It was amidst such wild thoughts, that I stumbled across a YouTube cookery site, where preparing food was made to look like kid's stuff.  Encouraged, I began to experiment.  The slips “'twixt the cup and the lip” were numerous!  Yet, I carried on.  Today, I can just about fill my stomach, also fulfil my appetite to some extent.

However, my Primary school days and the weekly 'Craft' classes, where we learnt to stitch, draw, paint and so on, often come to mind.  No one then had the vision to include Cooking in the syllabus, or familiarise us with basic recipes and common ingredients.  If kitchen didn't excite me all these years, and remained just an extension that came with the house, I now know whom to blame!

 A kitchen is the shrine, a cook the priest, the table an altar, and belly the god!
Charles Buck

16 comments:

  1. As it is said that if you want to enter into anyone's heart,enter via stomach.... that's what the respected ladies of our life know and mastered. Thus, they are always in your heart, right?
    Kitchen is the "SANCTUM SANCTORUM' and the energy generation block of our existence.
    Home-cooking is the finest therapeutic skill which the male folks are inept to adapt. Therefore, they mostly land up being "butter fingers" or a mere taster. The chemistry of dishing a delicious "sambhar" or a sumptuous "fish curry" always a distant dream for the males. So, enjoy the half-done or a burnt "avial" with a sprinkle of shattered ego and gulp it like bitter pill.
    Enjoy the process and relish the outcome, however it maybe. Cheers....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, absolutely true. I am trying to live up to those expectations.
      Thanks a lot. Please visit again.

      Delete
  2. Nice blog. In kitchen,experiments & experience make everyone excellent cook who are ready to work without laziness. Also worries won't affect & time passes soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agree with you totallly.
      Thanks for the feedback.
      Please do drop in again.

      Delete
  3. Dear uncle, it is always pleasure reading your article. More than kitchen stuff or cooking, I was touched by the facts that our own people who pamper us , loves us unconditionally are no more with us and what they are leaving behind are those beautiful moments which we want to cherish.. At times, we don't realise the joy of those moments when we are living in them but when they are gone, we are going back to those beautiful memories and caressing them again and again in the most delicate parts of our heart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Reading your feedback and getting motivated are two key things I always look forward to. Not just that, your response reinforces my belief in fond memories and good friends brightening up an otherwise dull life.
      Thanks Mandar

      Delete
  4. Really true Rajan. As you said the cookery videos are of great help to newly married couples staying away from parents.
    Parents should encourage their children (irrespective of gender)  right from young age to be part of the activities  in the kitchen which will surely help them in  situations when they have to manage of their own with no one around to assist.
    Continue writing Rajan..All the best .

    Johnson.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Johnson.
      I hope what your wrote encourages parents to get their children (irrespective of the gender) interested in cooking. In the days ahead, this would indeed make life meaningful and enjoyable.
      Please visit again.

      Delete
  5. Naveen Chandra, Pune8:29 am

    Nowadays well written pieces are extremely rare. I liked the topic, the way you developed it and also your style of narration. Hope you will update the blog regularly with sensible and readable content. Best wishes

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Naveen. Really glad to know that you liked my writing. I would try to update the blog regularly. Only hope, suitable topics come to mind.
    Hope to see you again.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nostalgic memories of Valiachi and Geetha. Both were good cooks. We cherish their memories. Still necessity is the mother of invention. Through your trials and errors and through youtube you have become a very good cook. Actually men are better at cooking than women. You can find examples in all good hotels and catering units. Love your blogs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Asha. Compulsions do transform a person. That's what happened in my case. No complaints at all, not that it really matters much! Keep visiting.

      Delete
  8. P. G. Rakshit10:33 am

    You write so very well. Your topics have lot of variety. Can't you update this blog at least once every week? I do not understand why people of your calibre are so lazy and lethargic.

    ReplyDelete
  9. You have caught me, RG! No doubt, I am a lazy writer, but more than that, I need a topic about which I can write convincingly. Thanks for being frank. Let me see how best I can correct it.
    Please visit again.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous11:04 am

    hey buddy, are you on to book editing or book writing? after seeing your response here, i would contact you again. thanks
    dennis d

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Editing? Yes, but selective.
      Book writing? No, not at all.
      Thanks for asking.

      Delete