I just came to Chennai from the south of Tamil Nadu for my educational purpose. I rented a Paying Guest room and stayed with three of my roommates. Bored eating all the time outside, we planned to cook in our room. Initially I was a bit excited as I am not accustomed to it before and I thought about exploring it. Weeks passed and I bought all the essential culinary items. For the first time we planned to make curd rice as it was not a herculean deal. We kept raw rice in the pressure cooker and placed it on the stove. After some 10 -15 minutes we were perplexed as no whistle emanated from the cooker. After some time we found that the gasket of the pressure cooker was improper. By that time we found that almost half of the rice was overcooked and it stuck with the cooker unfit for eating. After eating something we toiled relentlessly in cleaning the bottom part of the cooker.
After all this chaos, my mind went back and I reminisced how I would nitpick the faults in the food which was offered by my parents. Days went by, and we started to explore further in cooking. On weekends, we started to make some curries. While buying vegetables I was appalled at how to pick the right vegetables and also to be economical hand in hand. While homemakers know the impacts of the economy and the inflation better than those who pursue a career in it. Their agility to switch over the recipe that gratifies the tastebuds of the tongue with mitigated burden on the out of the pocket expenses is amazing. This is one of the finest examples of sustainable and effective utilization of the resources. I leant that cooking is not a cakewalk and it requires meticulous focus. Even a slight delay in turning off the stove may wreak havoc on the entire process. It also requires a practical mastering of ratio and proportion without which getting the ideal taste is impossible.
Both mental and physical strength is inevitable in cooking. The endurance to stand for hours in the scorching heat of the flames, careful handling of the vessels and the laborious post cleaning of the vessels vindicates that. In our country, homemakers are the unsung masters. Their work is seldom recognized. Those who work outside are treated with much reverence than those engaged in home should change. At the same time, the grit of those who work both outside as well as taking care of the household works is remarkable. There was a time back in the society where women were subjugated to men and the cooking or the household chores is entirely a burden upon them. But now the trend has changed and men are also contributing their part to it. Gender equality in the world can be made possible only when the changes come within the home. To all those busy people, take a break, cook something and enjoy the process you would know to learn a lot of things behind it which you might have thought as very simple.
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