Yesterday, after working on a saturday, our director bought us lunch. Since it was mini meals and i was craving for something sweet, i bought ellu urundai (sweet sesame seed balls). My director said, that was his favorite and i told him that i bought it since it was saturday. He said, you have healthy eating habits, i have seen what you pack for lunch. I replied now I have shifted to a PG from my dupleix, and i eat maggi noodles and pizza at times. Till February next year, when my chandra dasha rahu bhukti ends, i have to stay in a PG, rather than shifting to place of my own.
At times, like on sundays, am forced to either sleep less hours, or skip breakfast to follow a delayed dinacharya, or skip dinacharya and have hot dosas which gets made only during a specific time slot.
Day before yesterday, as i was slowly alighting the stairs to reach another building, i saw a middle aged cleaner bending and picking pieces of creamy birthday cake on the floor. The birthday guy was running amuck, trying to protect his dress. His face and neck was already smeared in the cream. For the housekeeping lady, what is wasted in the parties is sheer luxury. The cost of one slice of rich chocolate cake would equal that of her two square meals.
I would watch these TLC cooking shows (years ago, it used to be Nigella Lawson), or any of these cooking shows and try to replicate the vegetarian delicacies. Dad had clean eating habits. It was a pleasure to serve him and watch him polish his curd rice on banana leaf. When i would come home from college, dad would buy banana leaves, arrange keerai and make me eat. No matter, how tiring his day would be, he would come early morning or late night at railway stations to receive me or send me off.
Recently I read sadly that Reader's Digest had filed for bankruptcy. Like in Arundhati Roy's God of Small things, I too, ended up buying the heavy weight world atlas, heavy weight Interior Decoration book from RD. If i were dad, paying for those books, i would have never agreed, but dad would always let me buy, the costliest books, dresses. Except the interior decoration book, all books vanished from my life. One friend borrowed a Rs. 2.5k hard bound chemistry book (i simply loved the high quality glossy colourful illustrations of chemical reactions in that book) and never returned. And i would console myself stating, probably, in my last life, i didn't return him a costly book. After reading lal kitab, i would make it a point, never to say lies, never to possess any rusted metal objects or accept gifts or anything for free. As a kid, i used to steal things of no value, trinklets. After reading Garuda puranam, i returned my school library book (The little mermaid, sindbad stories) after a decade. Probably for persons like me, it takes danda amongst 'sama, dhana, bheda danda', to follow dharma. Now everytime, something catches my eye, i remind myself, isa vasya upanisad's - 'Ten Tyaktena Bhunjitha, Ma Gridhah Kasyasvid Dhanam'. Am wondering, if Plato had read our purusa suktam - sahasrAksha: sahasrapAt - would he have come up with this invisible ring of Gyges concept? Coming back to food...
We would hide our Champaks, Gokulams, Archies and RDs inside our school books and read the same stories again and again. In RD, there was a cute story of a couple, who would serve snacks and tea decorated beautifully on a tray, starting from their honeymoon days, till they died. I immediately started serving things, even if it was just plain water on trays, arranged to perfection. There was another family in RD, who would add a mystery ingredient in everything she cooked. After the lady dies, the family realizes, the mystery ingredient was love written on paper and i started praying and blessing while cooking. Kaimanam, that people say, won't ever come without that tender feeling of love while cooking.
I was so fussy at home about food, almost Gandhian, on timings of dinner, eating neem leaves for lunch, that my Rohini mom would get perturbed, stating that neem leaves would make one lose interest in life. Even if it was simple sambhar, rasam, curd, i would arrange it like Indian tricolour as a kid. Till my 5th standard, i would never touch vegetables. After reading science text book on vitamin deficiency, i started eating vegetables. I still remember the heap of radish from sambar on my plate when i first decided to eat vegetables. Now i can eat soaked fenugreek seeds or plain amla as if it was the most delectable delicacy in the world. My relatives would hurriedly clean up cellars, buy green leafy vegetables, or make my favourite pudhina corriander chutney when i visited them.
Right from the colour of the vegetable, the pulses i added for a day, the oil i used for cooking, everything was carefully considered in terms of nutritive value, ayurvedic and planetary impact. In PG, they cook veg and non-veg in the same vessels, make only cabbage (like in 1984) or potatoes and I eat in remorse. Till my apartmentmate, a virgo, in the body care business gave me some insights.
She said, the more you fuss about anything in life, the more nature tests you to the depths of nadir in that area. Eat whatever you get as prasad. And yes, i decided, everything is his blessing. I should rather bless the food i eat, like they taught atVethathri Maharishi's. A little bit of love, a little bit of blessings and prayer, energizes the food, even if it is taken straight from the fridge and offered, no matter how dirty our PG cooks are.
Every action is an offering to God. More so is eating. What ever be it, even if it is drinking plain water, everything is an union with God. Why fuss over colour, combinations, recipes, cuisines, nutrition, timings, quality, quantity. Whatever, unto you.
At times, like on sundays, am forced to either sleep less hours, or skip breakfast to follow a delayed dinacharya, or skip dinacharya and have hot dosas which gets made only during a specific time slot.
Day before yesterday, as i was slowly alighting the stairs to reach another building, i saw a middle aged cleaner bending and picking pieces of creamy birthday cake on the floor. The birthday guy was running amuck, trying to protect his dress. His face and neck was already smeared in the cream. For the housekeeping lady, what is wasted in the parties is sheer luxury. The cost of one slice of rich chocolate cake would equal that of her two square meals.
I would watch these TLC cooking shows (years ago, it used to be Nigella Lawson), or any of these cooking shows and try to replicate the vegetarian delicacies. Dad had clean eating habits. It was a pleasure to serve him and watch him polish his curd rice on banana leaf. When i would come home from college, dad would buy banana leaves, arrange keerai and make me eat. No matter, how tiring his day would be, he would come early morning or late night at railway stations to receive me or send me off.
Recently I read sadly that Reader's Digest had filed for bankruptcy. Like in Arundhati Roy's God of Small things, I too, ended up buying the heavy weight world atlas, heavy weight Interior Decoration book from RD. If i were dad, paying for those books, i would have never agreed, but dad would always let me buy, the costliest books, dresses. Except the interior decoration book, all books vanished from my life. One friend borrowed a Rs. 2.5k hard bound chemistry book (i simply loved the high quality glossy colourful illustrations of chemical reactions in that book) and never returned. And i would console myself stating, probably, in my last life, i didn't return him a costly book. After reading lal kitab, i would make it a point, never to say lies, never to possess any rusted metal objects or accept gifts or anything for free. As a kid, i used to steal things of no value, trinklets. After reading Garuda puranam, i returned my school library book (The little mermaid, sindbad stories) after a decade. Probably for persons like me, it takes danda amongst 'sama, dhana, bheda danda', to follow dharma. Now everytime, something catches my eye, i remind myself, isa vasya upanisad's - 'Ten Tyaktena Bhunjitha, Ma Gridhah Kasyasvid Dhanam'. Am wondering, if Plato had read our purusa suktam - sahasrAksha: sahasrapAt - would he have come up with this invisible ring of Gyges concept? Coming back to food...
We would hide our Champaks, Gokulams, Archies and RDs inside our school books and read the same stories again and again. In RD, there was a cute story of a couple, who would serve snacks and tea decorated beautifully on a tray, starting from their honeymoon days, till they died. I immediately started serving things, even if it was just plain water on trays, arranged to perfection. There was another family in RD, who would add a mystery ingredient in everything she cooked. After the lady dies, the family realizes, the mystery ingredient was love written on paper and i started praying and blessing while cooking. Kaimanam, that people say, won't ever come without that tender feeling of love while cooking.
I was so fussy at home about food, almost Gandhian, on timings of dinner, eating neem leaves for lunch, that my Rohini mom would get perturbed, stating that neem leaves would make one lose interest in life. Even if it was simple sambhar, rasam, curd, i would arrange it like Indian tricolour as a kid. Till my 5th standard, i would never touch vegetables. After reading science text book on vitamin deficiency, i started eating vegetables. I still remember the heap of radish from sambar on my plate when i first decided to eat vegetables. Now i can eat soaked fenugreek seeds or plain amla as if it was the most delectable delicacy in the world. My relatives would hurriedly clean up cellars, buy green leafy vegetables, or make my favourite pudhina corriander chutney when i visited them.
Right from the colour of the vegetable, the pulses i added for a day, the oil i used for cooking, everything was carefully considered in terms of nutritive value, ayurvedic and planetary impact. In PG, they cook veg and non-veg in the same vessels, make only cabbage (like in 1984) or potatoes and I eat in remorse. Till my apartmentmate, a virgo, in the body care business gave me some insights.
She said, the more you fuss about anything in life, the more nature tests you to the depths of nadir in that area. Eat whatever you get as prasad. And yes, i decided, everything is his blessing. I should rather bless the food i eat, like they taught atVethathri Maharishi's. A little bit of love, a little bit of blessings and prayer, energizes the food, even if it is taken straight from the fridge and offered, no matter how dirty our PG cooks are.
Every action is an offering to God. More so is eating. What ever be it, even if it is drinking plain water, everything is an union with God. Why fuss over colour, combinations, recipes, cuisines, nutrition, timings, quality, quantity. Whatever, unto you.
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