The 4 P's of Cooking

My mom is a great cook .She always pampered us with sumptuous meal so, my dad and other relatives always had this big misconception that i will also inherit the same quality from her (much to my grandma’s disappointment, who considers that I have not inherited anything from my mother (neither her looks nor her culinary skills). She always says that my parents has pampered me a way too much. But I don’t think that is their fault, like any other parents they always asked me to just focus on my studies .Though my mother do taught me some basic things before I left for Pune, like making chapatti, dal and rice (which obviously don’t require much of effort).I must confess that making chapatti was most difficult (especially to come out with proper shapes).For the first few days my dad just keep on asking me “which country’s map is this” (He is a PhD in Geography BTW). After days of practice and under my mother’s strict supervision i learnt to make “Phulka” (which actually made my mom so happy that she didn’t gave me any cooking lessons after that for a very long time)
My sessions for cooking formally started when I was at home and waiting for my joining date. My mother thought that I have learnt enough of 4 P’s of marketing and it’s high time for me to learn some ABC of cooking now. She had already prepared a mini (I should say it rigorous) training plan, which includes:


1.Training day (whereby she will teach me cooking, precisely I have to just look at how she cooks)
2.Practice day (Whereby I will cook under her supervision)
3.D- Day (Whereby I will cook for the family without her supervision and they will
judge)


So after thumbs up from my dad, “I know you can do it” expression from my grandma and “mom I am out for dinner” from my brother I entered into kkkkkkkkk--- kitchen


Day 1: Training day: “Cooking is an art” my mother said (Researchers are still confused management being an art or science, how can she say this about kitchen so confidently? hmm thing to ponder about).So,today we will start with simple dal,take out yellow one from the container she said. I took yellow dal but it was a wrong one.So, here it goes: “By your age I was married and taking care of such a big family. Look at you, can’t even distinguish between pulses” (It’s not my fault if there are two pulses with same color ).Anyways, after “do it like this”, “mix it like that” and lot of fights I finished my training day.


Day 2: Practice Day: So I had to cook that day under my mother’s presence. She asked me to fry onions till they turn golden brown and then add tomatoes and spices, after saying this she left. I put onion for frying and started waiting for them to turn Golden brown. But before I could see them turning golden brown , I saw my mom’s red face and” what is this smell, I asked you to fry them not to burn them”. I looked at my golden brown onions (damn when did they turn black) and here it goes: “What are you going to do once you are married. Even if you will put a cook, how long will your husband eat a cook’s food, someday he will ask you to cook then what will you do” (Is it a mission or vision statement?).Thank god she didn’t say the melodramic line ”Way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. I don't know how much of cooking i learnt that day but i surly learnt the difference between different shades of brown.


Day 3: D- Day: That day my mother didn’t entered the kitchen at all and announced that today I am going to prepare food. With wishes from my father, skeptical expression from my grandma and “ I am out for dinner” from my brother again I entered for my agnipariksha . I cooked, served and waited for their expressions. It was good (edible I should say), my mom smile showed triumph of a good teacher. I thanked God that at least today I didn’t get any thrash from her. But then after dinner she entered into kitchen and here it goes: “What is this? Who is going to clean this mess? Were you cooking food or playing with all the items here? Any Tom, Dick and Harry can cook (Damn, them why did I take all this pain) but you should know how to cook with elegance”. I just wished that she is not going prepare another training schedule for the same. Thank God she didn’t but yes I realized that 4 P’s exists in cooking also, which every trainee should keep into account:


Patience
Persistence
Proportion
Pain