Lesson learned - Always follow the recipe

Although I am not a cooking aficionado,  I love virtually gratifying my palate by browsing through the culinary blogs and looking at the captivating pictures of all those gastronomic delights. Also, my favorite TV show during college was MasterChef Australia in Star world, where amateur cooks create marvelous mouth watering dishes that fill me with a strong drive to get into the kitchen and start cooking at the very moment. It was at the peak of the motivation to be an expert in culinary crafts that I created a blog named 'Platter Express' two years ago  to compile all my cooking experiences. As the great chef in the movie 'Ratatoullie' says "Anyone can cook!" then why not me? But, unfortunately I have not taken another step  forward in the direction to fulfill my dream. So, the blog still remains in a state of  hibernation without even a single post to its credit.

As Mummy/Papa left for India two weeks back, the ownership of the kitchen was temporarily transferred to me and it has been my mini-experiment lab for the last few days. The most valuable lesson I learned is never improvise and stream in my naive ideas into the recipe and spoil the dish. I must wait until I learn the basic lessons of cooking,the fine art of  balancing salt,spice and the rest of the ingredients  before I try out my own twists to the recipe. I followed this principle to the very end when I cooked the Kadala curry yesterday. The dish turned out to be  quite okay until towards the end when I got this splendid idea to make the dish even more outstanding. I took the left over Coconut Chutney from the fridge and poured it into the curry. I was strongly convinced  that this would elevate the status of the dish from a mediocre one to something smashing and superior, a Thai-South Indian hybrid, I told myself. Alas,that was the brutal end to a palatable,innocent curry. It tasted really bad, I tried saving it by adding more coriander and chilly powder which unfortunately didn't bring any remarkable change. I  was really hungry as I was planning to have my breakfast after preparing the curry and hence I somehow managed to gulp  it down along with the puttu. The pangs of hunger masked the horrible taste. Today morning the dish landed in the trash because not only did it taste bad, but it also seemed to be spoiled, maybe because of the left over secret ingredient that was added to it in the end.

Lesson reinforced -Always stick to the recipe :-)

A wish list to begin with...

I remember the seven year old me standing in front of the framed photo of  Jesus kept  in the hallway of our home and asking in the politest way possible "Eeshoye,enikku oru apple tharaamo?" (Jesus,Can you please give me an apple?). I was putting to test the novel and most exciting fact I learned at Sunday School that day. Miss.Clara, our Catechism teacher told us that whatever we ask Jesus would be granted to us, under one condition that we do it with utmost belief and sincerity. Now, belief is a tricky thing, she continued to explain, with a story. Once upon a time there was a very old lady who lived alone in her cottage. There was a huge mango tree in front of her house and every morning she would wake up to find her courtyard blanketed by a thick layer of deep-yellow fallen mango leaves. The old lady would  pick up her broom and would begin cleaning the mess, muttering to herself on how unfortunate she was to begin everyday of her life with such a laborious and unpleasant chore. So one fine day she was enlightened, she remembered how Jesus has said in the Bible that even a mountain could be moved from its place if requested faithfully. If a mountain can change positions why can't a mango tree do the same, she thought to herself. So she began praying earnestly to God that the mango tree be moved to the backyard so that she could start her day doing something more enjoyable,maybe sip her morning coffee reading the newspaper sitting on the long arm chair in the verandah. Each day morning she would get out of her bed with great hope, expecting to see the tree having miraculously moved to the backyard. But unfortunately nothing strange or unusual happened. At the end of three days, the old lady lost her hope and became really agitated. She told God "Anyway, I knew that nothing magical was going to happen. But I just wanted to try in case it works!". The moral of the story is when we ask stuff from God it shouldn't be with the attitude the old lady showed, but with full confidence that however improbable it is it would be granted,Miss. Clara concluded.

 I can't imagine why I asked specifically for an apple that day, maybe I decided to use the apple as a starter and later follow it up with my grand demands. But when I asked for it, I would say I had full faith, I expected an apple to pop up from the bare, scarlet, heart of Jesus right into my hands. But then faith is not a quantitatively measurable entity, so I can never tell whether I had enough of it. Anyway, I am now mature enough to understand that apples won't pop out of portraits like from a wending machine.

Is it because we don't have enough faith that our desires sometimes go unfulfilled? I definitely don't think so, although I don't have a logical answer to the question.

I had thought about updating my blog earlier this month on my birthday (when I turned 26, still getting adapted to the transition from 'Chechy' to 'Aunty') with a wish list and a side menu of resolutions needed to fulfill them. But as the genes of procrastination are impregnated in my genome in its extreme malignant form, it didn't happen until today. I get an occasional urge to write down my wish list coupled with revolutionary resolutions. It gives me a transient, false sense of happiness, as if all my dreams have been fulfilled, a virtual journey to the point of  complete accomplishment. The motivation evoked by the resolutions also wanes off in a few days when I am back to my usual lazy self. But for me it is a way to boost up my low spirits, to bring some order and a sense of direction to my disorganized life.

1) To learn swimming by June 2014 before my residency begins.

2) To be half way through the process of learning a foreign language by June 2014 (Spanish being the chosen one right now).

3) To update my blog weekly.

4) To pick up the habit of reading books.

5) To be regular, systematic and organized.

6) To build up a happy family.

7) To be the pediatrician I dream to be.

8) To travel

9) To utilize time productively

Hope the energy drive lasts longer this time :-)