..are the things you end up doing for your kids. Any parent will vouch for it. As if carrying them around in your tummy for those never ending, counted-9-suffered-90-months is not enough, once out, they make you do stuff you wouldn't have imagined in your weirdest dreams. I must have been smoking something really crazy to deliver a baby, without being mentally prepared to clean the drool, the regurgitation and the mess that it made countless times a day. Thankfully, that dreaded phase is mostly over for me.. and just when I imagined there is nothing that a smart girl cannot manage with a not-so-smart maid, THIS came.
The story begins in May.. the last two months were pure bliss for Pari. You see, her grandparents were here for almost one-and-a-half months, and she was at her pampered best. Apart from the grand haul of new toys, dresses and trinkets, there was a huge variety of savoury she could gorge on at any given point of time. Dada-Dadi, and Nani immediately after, came loaded with laddus, mathris and sweets enough to provide one square meal to half the city. 'Half', because we live in Bangalore. And during their stay, anything that Pari showed the slightest inclination for, was subjected to mass production, the only constraint being the expiry date of the said eatable. After they left, I guarded them savory fiercely, ensuring they lasted as long as possible, depriving even the father of the laddus/mathri meant for the child.
It was smooth sailing for us till last night, when the last of the mathris was consumed. In the morning today, Pari demanded more of them. We offered her a laddu, and she was more than happy to oblige. However, after downing 2 laddus, she came back for the mathri thing. Now, I was faced with the daunting task of making 'mathri', something I have only 'eaten' for the last 25 yrs. I had some idea off course, like it is made of Sooji(Semolina) and needs to be deep fried. I have seen my mom making it like a thousand times, and it did look simple then. To give you a background, I got married almost three-and-a-half years ago, and though my tryst with cooking started only then, I like to believe I have fared pretty well. In any case, my take on cooking is same as on most such things. I really never found it challenging enough.. If half the world can cook, there is no reason why I cannot. The only edge which most people might have over me is practice, which I can compensate for by dropping in a little brains. I mean, I cannot qualify as a chef in a star rated restaurant, but I can fend for myself. I digress, but all I mean to say is that at that time, I did not find the task difficult, though now I do have different thoughts;-) The problem is, somehow the task did not sound right for me, I mean it sounds too elderly.. while I am still a comfortable distance from the big 30. I bake cakes for Pari, but Mathri doesn't fit in the picture. I think this is because I have mostly seen my grandmother make such things, and recently my mother, since she has also qualified for it with Pari's arrival, but I am nobody's granny. It just doesn't go well, with the way I perceive myself, and with the 24 inch-Lewi's Diva skinny jeans I am wearing. Probably, I should ask the husband to exchange it for half-a-dozen cotton saris which I can wear while making them mathri's for the dear daughter. All said and done, I did make Mathri's for Pari.. and for people who have the privilege of knowing me personally and are yet to collect their jaws from the floor, I not-so-proudly present you a picture of the same. What next, besan laddus perhaps!
p.s. I may not be proud of it, but am still open to any compliments which you may have ;-)
