The Joy of Cooking

As the nation comes to term with the lockdown I find myself looking for specks of optimism and productivity. The first three days seemed awesome. Not much work, no need to go out, no gym. On the fourth day I started missing the very things whose absence I was enjoying.

All hell broke loose on the fifth day when the maid informed that she won’t be able to make it till further notice.

My first thought wasn’t about the cleaning. It wasn’t about laundry. It was about food. More importantly, it was about cooking.

Now, I may have sounded entitled. Please, read me out.

You see, from a very young age, my mother had taught me cooking. I was in my single digits when I first made ‘aaloo ki sabji’. Since then, I have cooked several dishes, achieving some level of proficiency in a few. I enjoy cooking, at times. However, cooking is a time consuming process.

When I shifted to the new city, I had decided that I will focus on my health, beginning with following a healthy diet. In my experience, one of the best ways to become healthy is to change one’s diet. Exercising becomes secondary if your job makes you move about a lot. Now, in my previous city, I had the luxury of ordering food online. Sadly, that doesn’t exist here. I can order food online here too, but successive consumption would make me fall in love with khichdi and that is one affair I do not wish to have.

My issues arose after a few days when I realized that cooking and cleaning, along with a regular job and exercises are tough tasks to perform as that leaves one with hardly any time to pursue other interests.

After a lot of deliberation, my flat-mate and I decided that we’d hire a cook for ourselves. We did, and suddenly, life became supremely easy. I discovered the joy of having some time on my hands. My workout timings increased by 60 minutes (it was almost nil earlier). I discovered the peace of having an additional hour to sleep every morning. Earlier I had to worry about getting what-to-eat based on my laziness to cook that particular day. Now, I could actually get healthy groceries and have them, fulfilling both my tummy and my soul.

And then, the bloody covid-19 struck.

It is one thing to loose the regular supply of groceries. One can always optimize the limited resources one has. But, loosing the comfort of one’s cook is another game altogether.

Disasters, by design, test human will to an extent unbeknownst to us. We do not realise the extent to which out creative juices can flow unless we make them go through the trials of a tiring time. I believe for me that time was now.

We had the resources in the kitchen. We just needed to muster up enough will power to make something out of them. After all, how long could Maggi float my boat?

The first day began with a bang. Served on the table were rajma (kidney beans) and masala rotis (a version of masala parathas, just healthier). Mind you, it was yummy. This was the easy part. Cleaning the kitchen was the difficult phase.

You see, just like I don’t cook often, I don’t wash utensils often. This doesn’t mean that I can’t was them. So, Day 1 ended with yours truly washing the dishes, clearing the kitchen platform et al. total time taken for end-to-end process: 4 hours.

Day 1 was an eye opener. I had to not only look for easy-to-make dishes, I also had to look at a less utensil consuming process.

In essence, I had to use my post graduate degree, replete with the knowledge of supply chain, to streamline the cooking process.

Day 2 was better, with the menu consisting of dal-chawal. Day 3 came with eggplant and potatoes. So on and so forth, the journey continued.

I have lost count of the number of days that I have been cooking since. Over several experiments (some good ones, others forgettable) I have come to a conclusion that I enjoy cooking. In these days of uncertainty, cooking is one of the activities that make me get out of bed. It’s an activity that, for some reason, gives me hope.

This is how I discovered my joy of cooking.