Culinary art I suppose is one of the god’s gifts to all those great cooks of the world. The list surely would top with my mothers name followed by my whole array of aunts, uncles and cousins, who are not only experts in getting the authentic Iyengar Cusine right for those perfect taste buds, who are all well versed with those buttery Panneer butter masala and those crispy gobi manchuriens.
Well for someone like me, cooking is not only an art but rocket science if I may term it. I would prefer more into analysis as to why hp/Compaq merger did not work or rather understand the market behavior during the slowdown, may be to do a little more justice to my profession I prefer to exercise my brain on how to train cross functional teams.
Well now that my wedding is planned for late February, there is enough pressure for the D day, to add a little more spice to this is, one hell a statement from all “Learn Cooking” This source of statement comes from all possible channels right from my mother to my fiancé who knows my culinary expertise is an absolute zilch. Well every time I hear that I feel like yelling to the sky “Why me??” Every time I try to ponder for an answer through various source I get to hear various hilarious response in my head ( my opinion)
Girls should know cooking; - My brain is already questioning “What about the opposite sex?” They sit and eat??? Well I love to as well.
It’s important that every Indian woman know cooking so husbands are happy- the next I can imagine is a TV ad where a happy family is portrayed while newly wed wife is serving her husband and mother in law eating in all silence, while husband gives some hard core exercise to his taste buds and tries to break the silence while saying “ Tumahara Kaana , Maa ke haath ke Kaana se accha hain” ( Your cooking is more tastier then mom cooking) While the Wife blushes and mom all shocked the camera rolls to the oil she uses.
I try to relate this, and then I get horrified, I can never do this! I say to myself “Hey I don’t need a certificate for being a good cook!” I'm not a foodie by nature, but I certainly would need an edible stubance for food.
Well before I lose the essence of this blog let me share my most awaited sought after experience of the day. The day could not have started more perfect rather imperfect after the aftermath of my experience. I wake up to the call of the milk man, get my self a sizzling hot cuppa well brewed coffee( I did my own) and sit back and relax savoring the aroma. Then my phone rings, mom on the other end, we exchange quick talks and few important stuff, later goes the instructions “ Keep the Rava Idly Batter ready by the time I am back home” Well I know this is my chance to learn the great skill and I readily agree and pounce on it.
Once I am done with my daily routine, I realize I have ample time to even make my breakfast and follow this instruction from mom; I set my self to make the most basic south Indian breakfast the great good old upma. And my upma is ready in straight 4 mins thanks to the makers of microwave and MTR for coming up with instant dishes.
Well fortunately for me the Upma is not only edible but also good to taste, my sister gobbles up the entire chunk on my pestering and dashes out… alas now I am left with no breakfast.
The speed of my learning adds to the motivation and I say to myself, why wait for amma to make the idly, I can bake them myself while I set my self to do it. After the entire process is complete I go back and open my book on “ How to Manage Cross Functional Teams”, while on the stove my Idlys are getting baked ( I assume) 15 mins up, I go, turn down the stove and carefully place the cooker on the all polished granite slab! My Fiance calls in to check how the day is faring, I answer the call with all excitement to update him on my new initiative he calls me responsible and flowers all the good praises on me !
All is fine till here, I am happy, my mood is good; I know I can survive the tales of married life.
Then there is big horror in store for me, I open the lid only to find my last two trays are no longer idlys, my last try is a watery idly soup while my second tray is a full fledged idly cake while only my top tray appears like what looks like Idly’s…. as I clean up the mess. I think on how to get the damn thing right and what went wrong, while I fail to hit the answer, my mom shows up at the door and say’s I was all right except that the water level in the stem container was a little high. Now this is something to learn.
Well for someone like me, cooking is not only an art but rocket science if I may term it. I would prefer more into analysis as to why hp/Compaq merger did not work or rather understand the market behavior during the slowdown, may be to do a little more justice to my profession I prefer to exercise my brain on how to train cross functional teams.
Well now that my wedding is planned for late February, there is enough pressure for the D day, to add a little more spice to this is, one hell a statement from all “Learn Cooking” This source of statement comes from all possible channels right from my mother to my fiancé who knows my culinary expertise is an absolute zilch. Well every time I hear that I feel like yelling to the sky “Why me??” Every time I try to ponder for an answer through various source I get to hear various hilarious response in my head ( my opinion)
Girls should know cooking; - My brain is already questioning “What about the opposite sex?” They sit and eat??? Well I love to as well.
It’s important that every Indian woman know cooking so husbands are happy- the next I can imagine is a TV ad where a happy family is portrayed while newly wed wife is serving her husband and mother in law eating in all silence, while husband gives some hard core exercise to his taste buds and tries to break the silence while saying “ Tumahara Kaana , Maa ke haath ke Kaana se accha hain” ( Your cooking is more tastier then mom cooking) While the Wife blushes and mom all shocked the camera rolls to the oil she uses.
I try to relate this, and then I get horrified, I can never do this! I say to myself “Hey I don’t need a certificate for being a good cook!” I'm not a foodie by nature, but I certainly would need an edible stubance for food.
Well before I lose the essence of this blog let me share my most awaited sought after experience of the day. The day could not have started more perfect rather imperfect after the aftermath of my experience. I wake up to the call of the milk man, get my self a sizzling hot cuppa well brewed coffee( I did my own) and sit back and relax savoring the aroma. Then my phone rings, mom on the other end, we exchange quick talks and few important stuff, later goes the instructions “ Keep the Rava Idly Batter ready by the time I am back home” Well I know this is my chance to learn the great skill and I readily agree and pounce on it.
Once I am done with my daily routine, I realize I have ample time to even make my breakfast and follow this instruction from mom; I set my self to make the most basic south Indian breakfast the great good old upma. And my upma is ready in straight 4 mins thanks to the makers of microwave and MTR for coming up with instant dishes.
Well fortunately for me the Upma is not only edible but also good to taste, my sister gobbles up the entire chunk on my pestering and dashes out… alas now I am left with no breakfast.
The speed of my learning adds to the motivation and I say to myself, why wait for amma to make the idly, I can bake them myself while I set my self to do it. After the entire process is complete I go back and open my book on “ How to Manage Cross Functional Teams”, while on the stove my Idlys are getting baked ( I assume) 15 mins up, I go, turn down the stove and carefully place the cooker on the all polished granite slab! My Fiance calls in to check how the day is faring, I answer the call with all excitement to update him on my new initiative he calls me responsible and flowers all the good praises on me !
All is fine till here, I am happy, my mood is good; I know I can survive the tales of married life.
Then there is big horror in store for me, I open the lid only to find my last two trays are no longer idlys, my last try is a watery idly soup while my second tray is a full fledged idly cake while only my top tray appears like what looks like Idly’s…. as I clean up the mess. I think on how to get the damn thing right and what went wrong, while I fail to hit the answer, my mom shows up at the door and say’s I was all right except that the water level in the stem container was a little high. Now this is something to learn.
I go back to my book on cross functional teams, as I flip the pages( I know I am not able to concentrate) I think back on all that happened, horrors grip me, I am totally flabbergasted.. .“How will I manage the great iyengar cuisine? Will I be ever able to mix the pulliyogere in its right proportions, I question myself. At this rate I wouldn’t even come anywhere close to making stuff like koolambu, kootu and keraiamdu my daily basic food which involves list of masalas and hard core processes.
Management processes are a lot more simpler then the cooking process you can be assured of that.
Then I wonder how women manage both cooking and work. There are series of unrelated question hitting my mind, without waiting for a minute I go back and put the book on the shelf while I pull out the book on Authentic Iyengar Cuisine…..I know lot of effort has to be built- in for me to achieve the level of mastery that my folks have been tagged with. With detered hope I enter the world of kitchen… invoking the blessing of Nala know for his culinary expertise.
