Cravings

My parents are pretty clear about food. It is a basic need for sustenance. Period. To the contrary,  I have had an intense long and ongoing love affair with food. The earliest hint, now that I look back upon it, was the way I enjoyed the variety my hostel gave us. We had days designated for different cuisines.  One day was a kerala breakfast,  another was a continental lunch, some days regular north indian, south indian and some days street food style stuff. It probably sounds very fancy, but it wasnt. It was a fixed menu of each of these cuisines that we got and most kids hated it. But that never dampened my appetite or my enthusiasm.  To add to this, a wonderful wonderful bakery.. even today, smell of freshly baking bread triggers major nostalgia in me.

Through the years there came a passing interest in joining hotel management course after school -something literally unheard of in those days.  But someone then told me that it involved a lot of chopping heads off raw fish and that instantly turned me off, not to mention that it was literally unthinkable as a career those days!

Anyhow, cutting to the chase, I couldn't be further away from a career in food than I am now, but the love of it has only grown. I have found that in my most trying times, the only thing that helped get my mind off things was to open one of my mom's cookbooks (she had plenty, having done a cooking course from PUSA Institute many decades back) and find a recipe to match the contents of our /pantry and delve in deep. I did this through boredoms, heart breaks, exams, and whatever things that trouble a teenage mind. Although time and my natural propensity for utter laziness has considerably reduced my cooking, every now and then, I cannot resist a craving and find myself scrounging the fridge for something to feed my itch.

Today, the bountiful rain brought with it misty clouds and a beautiful breeze. Going into our makeshift kitchen, i pulled out a package of sausages - which, believe it or not, I have had the opportunity to purchase after 5 whole years - mayonnaise eggs and bread. With the window of my kitchen overlooking the stony hills swathed in pashmina like clouds, I dunked a dollop of butter into the pan,, heard it sizzle, and smiled. Took out two sausages and caramelized them in the butter, seasoned with nothing but salt and pepper and pushed it to a corner. Swished some more butter in and whipped up some soft scrambled eggs (NOT bhujia). Two slices of bread with a thick coat of mayonnaise received the warm contents of the pan. With a splurt of ketchup, the two were sealed.

I sat in my balcony, with my sandwich and a cup of tea, feeling the cool breeze in my hair and the divinely delicious sandwich warming up my insides. My final word is, the world just ain't right without sausages.

The suprise guest

   Now that I have humongously more time on my hands than Ive had in the past 3 years, reminiscing has become a hobby and writing has become pleasurable again. When I go through my blog pages, I realise that the few times I have blogged in the past couple of years, its been triggered by some frustrating activity. But now that all that is in the past, I seem to be slowly recalling the good memories, which I really dont want to lose!

   One such was the day that I came to my office in B, to find a familiar face waiting outside. I didnt recognize him immidiately but called him inside and made him take a seat. Then he handed over a piece of paper to me, which read that 'My spoken word is not always very clear so I have had someone write this down. You were very kind to me whenever I visited your office in J and I simply felt like visiting you. I have not come to ask for anything else'.

   Instantly I recognized him. It was my very first posting in place called J. This person is physically handicapped and slurs in his speech too. I dont recall what I did to help him then. But I do remember that he would come often to my office and I would make him take a seat and try very hard to understand what he is saying. Back in those days, I was a bit on the impatient side, so I remember taking the effort to be specially patient with him given his speech issues.

   This man had travelled 8 hours by bus, west to east, all alone, just to pay his respects. He reached at 5 am and asked for my office and waited there till I came.

   I remember how overwhelmed I was that day by his affection.. No matter how many things may go wrong in one's line of work on a daily basis, one act like this, from a total and complete stranger, makes everything seem almost worth it.  I may not be the best and the most competent officer in the country, but if I have touched someone's life this way, it makes me think that possibly, I havent drifted all that far away from the people I am supposed to serve..

   I tried to chat with him about his village, the rains, etc. for a while. Then gave him breakfast, some money to cover his travel costs and put him back on the next bus back to J. The smile he had on his face the whole time, was certainly and absolutely worth way more than the meeting I had to reschedule.