Gastronomics

I recently got an assignment to translate a menu card. I should say, it was very tough and made me realize how much of a novice I am in the culinary department. I actually had to look for the English meaning for words like Lasagna and saute. I remember the time when I took my maiden flight as a teenager and was offered yogurt. I didn't even know what it was! And I completely hated pizza the first time I had it. I am always confused about the items in a menu card and comfortably settle down to what my husband orders for me in restaurants.
I was never fond of cooking and until my marriage, I never got the opportunity to, either. The house was always full of women who would never allow me to cook (not that I very much wanted to!). Then, on the eve of my wedding, I was running a high temperature, which others thought was due to my anxieties of entering a new family. The reality?- it was due to the fear of having to cook. Luckily, the first few days with the in-laws went smoothly as they didn't even allow me to prepare coffee. The actual nightmare started after a week, when my husband and I were settling down in our new house.

My mother-in-law stayed with us for a week and taught me how to prepare filter coffee. She made me stand next to her when she did the actual cooking. Once she left, I felt like I was at sea. I could not differentiate between tur dal and moong dal and often mixed them up in my preparations. I used to grind the batter for idli. but forget to add salt to it. And later on, I would wonder why the idlis were not fluffy, like how they used to be back home. I used to add entire vessel of leftover curd to the milk to ferment it and the next day, I had to endure horribly sour curd. But thanks to my husband's patience, I slowly improved (It' s another story that he became a better cook out of frustration!).

These days, I prefer not to put myself through such torture. Instead, I hand over kitchen duties to my mother and happily stay away from shows like Master Chef Australia and Master Chef India.

Obama comes to town!

The whole of India was excited by Mr. President's visit. He and his wife indeed made a charming pair. Their agility, in particular, amazed me since we are used to watching only ageing prime ministers and presidents who find it difficult to climb even couple of stairs to a podium. But while chatting with my daughters about missing out on meeting Obama in person , my younger daughter commented that she was happy that he was not visiting her school- she pitied those school children who would have had to slog for hours on end to practise their dances, speeches and behaviour in the presence of the president. The students' Diwali holidays would have been ruined!
I totally agree with her view. Even during my school days, a visit by a dignitary was a nightmare for the students. I vividly remember one such visit by a governor and how we were made to stand in Chennai's summer heat for hours together to practise welcoming him with flowers. We were made to wear pattu pavadai (heavy ones with jari borders) and deck up our hair with kunjalam (as though all the governor was here for, were our hairdos!). We stood there from morning to evening. With each passing hour, we wilted and we weren't even allowed glass of water. It was plain torture and by the time the governor arrived a full 3 hours late, we were totally exhausted and just wished he left quickly. The whole exercise of showering him with flowers and petals (by now, dried ones) lasted for less than two minutes and we had wasted two months practising for it. He hardly noticed us girls and there was no appreciation from the teachers either, for withstanding so much heat and thirst.
Forget being photographed with the governor or getting his autograph, we were only relieved to see the back of him and rushed to grab our bottles of drinking water.
Visiting presidents or prime ministers are a real pain for school children......... there is no fun or excitement left when they are being tortured through continuous practice sessions and extra hours of work. So don't believe the media about Obama's visit being great, ask the school children whether they really understood who they were meeting or whether they actually enjoyed his visit.