A toast to moms…

Yesterday, we friends met up in one of our houses, and decided to cook lunch. We had gas and stove and the required vessels, and we thought that we could manage something decent with the menial knowledge that some of us possessed in cookery, and that it could be something exciting to do together. Well, to tell the truth, it was. Very! But we learnt a very important lesson. A lesson that everybody probably knows theoretically. Every job has loads of pre-requisites and each pre-req have its own pre-reqs in turn! Hence, to do any job, we have to complete a series of these pre-reqs patiently and efficiently to even reach the actual job. Thus, anything in this world, any specific work with a definite goal, however easy the job may be, can be divided and sub-divided into a large number of smaller tasks, mostly related with ‘ANDs’ and very rarely ‘ORs’. Hence if you consider any of those tasks demeaning to your status and neglect it, you’ll end up not doing the final job effectively.

In our case, we initially decided to make some sambhar, rasam if time permits, some sabji, and buy some curd to make raita and have a nice meal. Well, now since we had none of the ingredients, we had to compile the list of things to be bought, their quantities so that they don’t go waste and the shops where we had to get the different items. Believe me! Starting from some oil to fry and rice and vegetables and different types of dal and masala powders and what not?!? Just a look at the list, which kinda looked as long as the Christmas wish list of a 10 year old, some of us had half a mind directly going to a restaurant and ordering whatever was required and happily gobbling it! Way easier now, wasn’t it? So then we decided against sambhar and rasam and all, and decided to make the simplest fried rice. The list was smaller now and we also had lesser work to do. So we all agreed on this and got all the required ingredients. Boy! We already felt all grown up to have thought of every small detail. Seriously! How did our moms manage to think so much? Especially on a daily basis?!?

Then we divided the smaller tasks like making raita, peeling n cutting vegetables, (everyone was initially scared onions :P you know why!), boiling the potatoes etc. We had lots of funny arguments regarding the smaller details in each item, like the ratio of rice-to-water to be kept in cooker, the size of onion bits for raita, the amount of salt n masala in vegetables, and so on. And after one point, we looked at each other n started laughing! A few months ago, we would have considered ourselves most unlikely to have discussions n arguments on such topics! :D It took us more than an hour and a half to do the stuff and by that time, we were all bloody hungry! We were ready to eat anything- cooked or uncooked. Gosh! How DO working women handle all this? Especially if they have to cook for themselves, their families, for lunch too, and most importantly, a variety of items each day, and early in the morning to be on the heights!!

We took all the prepared items with loads of love and care (after all the efforts! Phew!), arranged them on the floor and we had our lunch together, happily chatting away, relishing each dish, complimenting one another and enjoying the fruits of our hard work, saluting our moms for what they have been doing for us for our entire lives without the slightest grumble, and secretly reprimanding ourselves for the times when we had whined over petty things like tomatoes pieces or coriander leaves in food and the times when we had forgotten to appreciate what they had done for us.And FYI, the food was delicious. Really, it was! But we understood that one would need lots of thinking n planning and patience to do all the smaller work. In fact I would like to go one step further n say that one would definitely need a great company for cooking- to help, to share the work, to give opinions and most importantly, to appreciate the final product, however it comes out to be.