How I Learned to Cook… A Newly Married’s Take
A pretty, young, smart IT professional working in a big city and with a marital status-Married. Ya, that’s me. And by young, I mean marriage is the last thing on any of my friend’s mind. They might start thinking about it in the next two years or so. Guessing my age, I would leave up to you. But, how I got myself into this married status makes for another good story which I may share later on. And no, it is not a love marriage!! (I have a few people asking me this very first question after hearing my marital status :-)).
Coming to the point, this post is about the strong connection between marriage and food.
I do have a very strong connection with food for that matter since childhood. In fact am a self proclaimed Foodie. Relishing on my mom’s cooking at home or hunting for good places to eat out is the closest association I have had with food. Till now.
But suddenly things changed. Once you are married, you ain’t no wife if you fail to serve a finger licking curry at the dinner table. It is not like I was being forced to cook, but that is the common notion and everyone around you will be dropping hints that now is the time to put on your kitchen gloves. In fact, pretty cool people they are, my in-laws as they never criticised my cooking but they did expect learning. And as for my husband, I found the desire to be able to cook for him stir inside me. Damn those “the way to a man’s heart through his stomach” sayings. And the fact that he is already a better cook than me and helps me out, makes me wanna learn even more.
Coming back to food, ya food. Every Indian wife shares a deep relation with her kitchen, pressure cooker and spatulas. Once you get married, you automatically marry these stuff. You may have had a terrible time at office the whole day but what to cook tonight is the thought that will take hold of you once you leave work. Well, there is the occasional, let’s have a takeaway or just have maggi and sleep.
Sooner or later, you will realize that this thing for cooking takes deep roots in you. You will find yourself thinking about what to prepare for hubby dearest. That brings up the next challenge of controlling his growing tummy. Once a man is married, for every kg he puts on, his colleagues will have a comment on the lines of, ‘Wife must be cooking for him really well’ :-p
I have had a rough start with those watery tasteless curries. It also took time to figure out the balance between the uncooked and the over cooked. And yes there were burns too and am not just talking about the food. But I had determination. And today one and a half years post my marriage, I believed to have done pretty well. To my mom’s disbelief, I have mastered quite a lot of dishes and keep on trying something or the other new. (I remember, my mom getting on the verge of tears when I first told her, I made chapatti all on my own). Till date, she finds it difficult to believe that her little girl whose idea in life was watching her favourite serial while food being served, has come this far.
