Road to a Bachelor's Kitchen : The 'so called' Inception
Road to a Bachelor’s kitchen is all about my struggles
(including strategies, failures and patch ups) while cooking. I would rather
say that I thought to take an initiative (after Ankit praised my food) to help people
out there to put their heart out in cooking commonly available dishes at home.
This is neither Hell’s Kitchen nor a typical Khana Khazana cookery show so
fasten your seat belts for a non-stereotype cooking journey.
But wait!! I already feel like a celebrity. So why not begin
this never ending saga with a brief history of time surrounding the cooking
talent that I managed to grow. So here it is....
It had been a childhood dream of mine to ‘sometimes’ be a
scientist or a doctor or an actor or maybe someone with lots of money to shell
out. But then came those nights when my beloved ‘Buaji’ (Dad’s elder sister) used
to wake me up at midnight, cook something for me, while me sitting on the
kitchen sill and watching the process, however eating happily later. This was a
frequent activity which down the line began sowing seeds of cooking enthusiasm.
Few years later it was the turn of ‘Tayiji’ (Dad’s elder brother’s wife) who I
would consider as the pioneer in driving me towards cooking. At the age of 9 I
had successfully learned to make ginger tea and omelette. By the age of 11 I
was a self-proclaimed chef trying to master in making maggi, pasta, noodles
with tomato puree and anything which cannot be called as a proper meal of the
day. But as the old folks say (or I guess I just made this on my own) that the
slightest of the blunders can lead one to the dungeons of despondence.
It was a winter evening
when I thought to cook maggi. However in the process of cooking I got reminded
of another activity. With a wrong estimation of cooking time, I started working
on another activity and by the time this got completed, maggi turned yellow to
black with big dark spots in the utensil. Something had to be done to get away
with murder. I rushed towards the backyard to clean the heat radiating utensil
but the curtains came in between out of nowhere leaving behind a big noticeable
hole! To add flames to the misery, mom appeared simultaneously. What happened
next is something I don’t want to express. Readers’ understanding is highly
appreciated.
Days turned into years and there was no sign of cooking zeal.
It was food crisis during engineering phase which ignited the withering coals.
However due to unavailability of cooking apparatus, the only cuisines that I
gave life where ready to make soups, maggi (revisit), mashed potato salad;
anything that was possible or nearly possible to cook in an electric kettle.
The best can happen at the right time. It was time for the
dormant volcano to turn active. Corporate life makes one very busy and equally
jobless at times. Well such moments brought back the cooking glory which was
once merely a ruminant of history. With the kitchen set up, it was time for the
real show; moment for some serious cooking.
Excellent choice of words. Nothing other than what you wrote could express certain things which you mentioned. And yes for the record you cook very good Maggi, definitely better than me and Ankit (no offence).
ReplyDeleteNothing short of philanthropy for the helpless bachelors, clueless whether to add one spoon of tea, or five, to brew a cup of it. I can vouch for you being a super-chef though; the chapatis and curry were perfect the other day! Will look to learn a thing or two from your experiences. Keep spreading the joy!
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