Omg, this prompt is so close to my heart. As someone who loves to eat, the world seems like a haven for food. Growing up in an Indian vegetarian family, I relished Indian, home cooked meals and street style food also known as Chaat!
When I moved to Singapore a couple of decades ago, Singapore had a limited palette of the food I had so grown to love. With my tastebuds craving for some authentic taste, I had to give up my cool and modern woman facade and make my way to the kitchen. That’s where my humble journey of cooking began.
From long phone calls to my Mom whose day would start two and half hours after mine, using a dollar ten calling card that promised me an hour long talk time, I would ask for the recipes and directions on the go and cook food. After several hits and misses, I did turn into a fairly decent cook. My food was edible and didn’t completely lack taste. Then came my girls, and I started spending even more time in the kitchen. My body kinda got used to the drill. The taste of my cooking improved while the edible nature prolonged.
And over the past few years, I have learned to appreciate my cooking through the lens of my family. And to my delight, some of my best recipes include traditional deserts like Moong Daal Halwa, Gulab Jamun, Besan Laddoos, etc. At the same time, Chaat is yet another one of my favorites and a favorite of my family too. They claim I make it well.
After years of spending time, effort and adding love, most recipes I try turn out well. But the best food still remains – Food for thought. When I first started cooking, I had a poor mindset. I looked down upon cooking. I thought being modern meant a woman who goes to work, dresses up like people from the west and spends her time engaging in intellectual conversations. Little did I know how far from the truth I was.
But life has a way of teaching even the worst students. Soon I was faced with times when I was left with my child in a foreign country with little or no house help, while my spouse needed to travel on work. As a result, I had to go through the compulsory drill of cooking food. I wanted my kids to eat organic, home cooked meals without any preservatives. That was when I first realized the value of home made meals. That is when I also realized, cooking is a life skill. Unlike my growing up days when I was asked to focus on grades and career while my mother or the cook prepared food, I have taught my girls to cook food early on. I have drilled this fact into their brains that their health and house is their own responsibility. And relying on house help should be treated as a luxury.
After years of toiling in the kitchen on a daily basis, I so realize the contribution it makes to health, both physical and mental. Food is energy. And that energy begins its work from the time the person cooking it plants the seed of making a dish. When done with love, the food acts as a blessing.
Food for thought – Isn’t it meditative to be able to toss the best mix of fresh ingredients on a daily basis to create your own platter? To create your own calories? No matter how much you grow in your professional sphere, you will need to eat, sleep and live like a human. So if you are anything like my younger and superficial self, get into the kitchen. Get real!
P.S. I may have changed countries. My passport may have changed color. And my children may not share the exact same Taste buds as me. But my taste buds are still Indian. And the art of cooking that started out as compulsion for the lack of choices, has now become a part of my life. I am now confident I don’t need to rely on anyone to eat delicious, nutritious food at any given point. My best dishes, well, they are yet to come!
Sangeeta Deshpande 
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