My experiments with cooking

I remember with surprise that once upon a time, I hated cooking. I was in my high school then. Those days, relatives coming to visit us would ask my mom, "So, doesn't Anila help you in the kitchen?" My mom tried her best to hide my disinterest. She gave replies like.. "Actually, she knows a lot. But does not get time. She has lots to study, you see.." I then rushed to the scene with the truth and proclaimed proudly, "No, I don't know to cook one single thing!" I had innumerable fights with my mother over this. I thought it was unfair to want me to do all that. I believed that I was going to be rich and I would keep a cook. Even otherwise, I could eat from a restaurant. But not this!

But I guess some things can be learnt only the hard way. During my final year of engineering, I encountered a situation when mom was not at home for sometime and I had to cook for dad. Let me add that my dad is the worst critic a novice cook can ever have. Those days were hell for me. I used to get nightmares about how the dosa would come out bad the next day, of how Dad would get up from the table and walkaway.. I used to sit and cry thinking about all the chores for the day. Slowly I realised that cooking was not as difficult as I imagined it to be.. and I didn't dislike it anymore.

Then I started working and stayed in Bangalore with my friends. It was then that I became a confident cook. We even packed our lunch to office. But I never tried out anything new, I made everything the traditional way. I always tried to cook like my mom.. called her up many times to ask recipes. Tried to do everything in detail.. the frying, the grinding, without using shortcuts of any kind. After almost two years like that, I realised that sometimes, I was giving tips to my mom!

Now comes the latest phase.. I reach the UK. I venture confidently into the kitchen and find that I don't have a mixer to my service. Doomed! That has robbed me of 75% of the recipes I know. Meekly, I tell my roomies, "I don't know much if I don't have coconut and a mixer." They hardly paid any attention. "Are yaar, kuch bhi chalegaa.. Taste zaroori nahin hai.. Sirf survive karna hai yahaan." Okay! I definitely can do that much. Thats when I start with my experiments with cooking. I decided that I'll not make the same vegetable, the same way more than once. I'll do something different every time.. atleast a small change. That has given me a new zeal to cook.

Watch out for the results of my experiments with cooking!