My journey in the world of cooking

My mother is an excellent cook and she used to preside in the kitchen. As a result only when she was away or she was ill (which were rare occasions), could anybody else enter the kitchen. I, being the youngest of four sisters, never had anything to do with the kitchen. Later on I became quite opposed to the idea of learning to cook because I was opposed to the general belief that a girl has to know cooing since she has to keep house after marriage. As a result, when I stepped out of my house in the world, to join Infosys about six years earlier, I could not even cut vegetables, let alone cook anything.

Fortunately the first roomies I got were all elder to me. They very kind and they petted me and spoiled me as much as my family had spoiled me. They never let me do anything in the kitchen and hence again my entry to the world of kitchen was delayed. Then some of my roomies moved out (some got married, others went onsite) and new ones came in. By this time we had got a maid who used to cook for us. So again, no cooking. The first thing I learnt to cook was khichadi, which Anupriya(one of my roommates) taught me. It was such a disaster that I could not think of entering the kitchen for quite a long time again.

Meanwhile my roommates kept changing, and then came a time when we had dismissed the maid (bored with her cooking) and got a tiffin service. Now while half of the girls enjoyed the food, me and Sejal found it very spicy and could not continue. And then began our experiment to cook. Sejal only knew how to make chapattis, and I could not even do that. Both of us being beginners, we quite enjoyed our experiments in the kitchen and learnt little… very little, till we all of us got bored and got a new maid again. I had started toddling…

It was only when I changed my flat and started staying with Sanjana, did the journey take a new turn and my learning began in the actual sense. Sanjana would make the chapattis and I would make the vegetable (with my mom on the phone). Apart from asking recipes from my mom, we also used to try some new stuff that we heard from our other friends. The sabzis that I used to make were just edible and Sanjana never used to complain. So the status was that although I had learnt to cook, I was not accomplished and I rarely experimented.

Last year I moved to Mumbai, and there again we had a maid for cooking, and so I lost my practice. As the days to my wedding were approaching, the maid was worried, she used to say, “aapka kaise hoga? Aap kaho to mai aapko thoda bahot kuch sikha du?” She actually taught me how to make poha. Two days before my wedding, my eldest sister taught me how to make aate ka seera (with special comments from everyone else present). This was because a new “BAHU” is generally asked to make something sweet in the sasuraal. As it turned out, my wedding got postponed and I hardly spent a day in my sasural and did not have to enter the kitchen there at all. It was such a relief to me, not having to cook there because I had not wanted to spoil my first impression there (I was so confident of my culinary skills).

Now more than 6 months after my wedding, I don’t hate cooking as much, because the gender equality problem is solved – both my husband and my brother in law help me out in the kitchen. I still call up my mom, my sisters, friends for recipes, but now the food I cook is tasty(not just edible). Both the men in my house love to eat – capsicum ki sabzi, palak paneer, corn palak, chole puri, kofte, baingan bharta, bainga bhaja, French beans, chocolate cake, aate ka seera, kheer, aalu parathe, pizza, sandwich, varieties of milk shakes, gulab jamun, varieties of rice. Most – not all of the recipes are borrowed… but still I am proud that at least I can now cook stuff which my family likes to eat. I hate making chapattis still, but after six months of practice, the time taken has reduced considerably and most of my chapattis are now round. There is still a lot to learn, a lot to discover, a lot to experiment but hopefully the journey now onwards will be more enjoyable.