Where it all begins….
This is dedicated to all the girls born in the 70s, 80s or even 90s and had a set of grand parents in a smaller town/village that you visited during summer holidays. And if their home was surrounded with grooves of mango trees, abundant greenery, the lingering smell of neem trees, plenty of sunlight and a group of girls, you will know what I’m talking about J Even otherwise, you can relate to this post J
Those were the summer holidays when we literally did nothing except sleeping well, eating well and playing till the sun set. Even a simple dish made by my grand mother filled up the whole room with aroma. And everyday there would be a fresh string of flowers to adorn our plaits and most of the time it will be from our own garden. Those terrace floors full of sheets of pappads drying in the sun must have been a great aerial sight. The sun dried pappads would then travel through the country to all those uncles and aunts and would last them till next summer. Ho, and the honorable (?) job of taking care of the pappads from those hungry crows always was bestowed upon us kids. And what fun it was? Sometimes, the entire family would get dressed in minutes to go and catch an afternoon movie. I don’t remember the movies but I can’t forget all the hungama around getting dressed up, packing snacks, filling up the water bottle and catching an auto. It was fun. The Friday evening temple visits, listening to my grand parent’s stories that began with ‘in those days’ and the lack of television all made it better.
The best part of my summer holidays were when I and my aunt (she was like a big sister to me) would join other girls who were there for holidays. We would have our own kitchen in the garden. And it wasn’t entirely a make believe kitchen because we actually made rasam, payasam, pongal, rice etc. in those small earthen pots. And believe me it turned out absolutely tasty. And the onus of stealing rice, dal, jaggery, tamarind etc. from my grand mother’s kitchen was always on me. The reason being even if I got caught, since I was small and my grand mother’s pet :D, I could get away easily. The toy kitchenware was amazing. They were earthen, wooden, steel and plastic mostly. The more variety you had, the more popular you were in your group :D. We were all passionate about cooking. Though being small, I had to only do those cleaning and cutting jobs but it somehow seemed very important then. And that I believe is when the interest for cooking was sown inside all the young girls. I love cooking today and trying out new things. Even though I don’t guarantee the outcome every time :D
Why this nostalgic post? The memories were dusted and brought to front because of a gourmet kitchen set that we bought for Adhya recently. It is pink and girly. It is very beautiful with all those modern equipments. And she literally loves it. I’m not going to compare the two kitchens here because I believe that both are awesome in their own way. They fulfill the job of making a little girl happy and make her believe that she is a chef, and that’s all that matters. J
But as I watched my sous-chef prepare me ‘hot’ tea and see how happy she was, I couldn’t help but travel down the memory lane J I sincerely hope she gathers more beautiful memories as she grows up J
Till then, Breakfast, anyone?
