My Tryst with the Ladle !!!

It was a bright Sunday morning. Having got up a bit earlier than usual, I was wondering how I was going to spend the rest of the day. I had hoped for a fantastic final day's play of the Perth test match, but unfortunately the match had got over on the penultimate day itself. I was really racking my brains as to how I was going to kill time. My mom showed up at that instant and told me something that really took me by surprise. Here goes the exact conversation.

B - Bharathram ; M - mom

M : ( Entering the room ) enna da, enna pannitrukkey ?

B : ( Sitting in front of the comp ) Onnum illa ma, summa than irukken

M : Seri , appo onnu pannu !!!

B : Enna, kadaiku ponumaa . . . athellam poga mudiyathu po ma

M : Athu illa da, inniku nee than samaikaanum !!!

B : ( Flabbergasted ) Ennathu , samaikkanuma ???

M : Aamaa da, nee than inniku samaikkanum.

( Music Blaring )

B : Yen, yenaachu unakku ? Udambu yedhavadhu sariyillaya ?

M : Muthala volume a kora da !!!

( Noise reduces )

B : Aam, ippo sollu . . .

M : Adhellam onnum illa . yenakku konjam vela irukku . So nee than panrey inniku . . .

B : But ma . . .

M : No further arguments. Poi kulichitu vandhu samaikka aarambi

B : Aiyo , sunday adhuvuma yen ma ipdi padutharey :-(

Hesitantly, I headed for the kitchen after a bath. I told my mom that my previous experience was a very bad one. This couldn't convince my mom & she told me don't worry things will turn out well this time. Being a Sunday afternoon, I wanted to have something special for lunch. But all I knew was just rasam & potato curry. Just as I was about to begin, my mom told me that instead of having rice for lunch, she suggested that I make roti & Dhal Makhani. I couldn't stop laughing at her suggestion & told her " Maa, naa rasame thataka buthaka nu than veppen . . . Yenna poi roti ellam panna solriye maa . . . " She then told me the entire procedure of making the dishes.

I first cooked the Dhal in the same manner as how rice is cooked. Then came the part of preparing the gravy. Tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger . . . my head was just spinning !!! One single dish - so many ingredients. Three- fourth of an hour is all that it took me & hot Dhal Maakhani was ready. Next was probably the most difficult part - preparing the rotis. Preparing the dough was relatively easy but rolling them was very difficult. Requires lot of practice, if you want them to be circular in shape. Well, mine was neither a circle nor a square. I would term it amorphous, but definitely palpable . . .

Phew !!! Preparing one simple dish had completely drained my energy. After munching down my lunch, I sat back & realized how our mothers toil hard in the kitchen day in and day out. And all, that we ve been doin is to eat nicely & chide her if the dish doesn't live up to our expectations . Spare a thought yaar !!! Atleast one day in a week, if we all take our mother's place in the kitchen - not only would it be relief for them, but would also enable us to learn cooking which would prove immensely useful to us in the future. Long live our mothers !!!