Gizmo collectors!

Dear Sri,
To celebrate my satisfaction at having indexed your “ramblings”, I was reading through the titles. I happened to read this, the name, catching my fancy.
This is a super narration, I bet. I loved the part where you narrated about your mother.
It keeps her occupied usefully – your wife has the advantage of the preliminary work for cooking, being done neatly, lovingly and ofcourse to the best of her satisfaction.
I am old fashioned enough to believe that our energy, call by the name vibrations, goes into our cooking. Just imagine; you have been lucky enough to eat the vegetables, lovingly cut by your mother and fondly cooked by your wife. You have the best of both worlds !
No mandolin, no Meena for you !
I nostalgically remember my grandmother’s instructions to me that keerai and cabbage should be cut as fine as hair (not a nice comparison, though!). She used to tell me that the vegetables cut neatly for cooking should tempt the person to eat as soon as they are cooked.
Your humour is at its best in your words
The vegetables came out of the ordeal in such shapes and sizes that a teacher would have found them handy tools to teach geometry to high-school students.
Yes, we see all these gadgets in the local exhibitions, now called Trade Fairs !
They very often chop our fingers better than the vegetables !
Love,
Chithra.

Dear Cheeniya sir,

Reading your write up, went on a flashback journey.When I got married, I had my MIL's MIL a grand old lady staying with us aged around 87 at that time. She used to ask us to get all the vegetables for the next day cooking in the evning and used to slowly start shredding & cutting in the aruvamanai. To be honest till date I just can't use that, for me it is only knife. After a few years due to her poor weaksight and inability she could not do that work. Though at first it was very difficult for us as we were used to have the chopped veg in the morning to cook. Now we have to do that and then start cooking. The grand old lady passed away at the age of 96.

My mother's mother who is 77 now, used to do all the cooking etc but lately due to her ill health she is not able to do rather people do not allow her to do. From her son, dil and grand daughters (son's daughters). The reason they give Patti you are old take rest and you do not know how to cook the modern items. So we will take care. When I recently met her I felt very bad though she has become very frail atleast giving her a little importance would boost their purpose of living also.

In my house it is totally different as we both are working, my mil aged 76 is still incharge of the kitchen. Though on weekends we do special dishes (thanks to chittu patti) for the kids & all. I do not interfere in her cooking though I feel that things could have made much better, she has pride in saying that she has cooked everything and it is also easy for me...............

Dear Lalitha,
Total injustice!
You write
Cheeniya Sir
But
Chittu Patti !
Rant
Love,
Chithra.

I have to write cheeniya sir because if I address him as thatha and chances are there he will not read by fb.

And you will always be a nice dear lovable patti.Big Laugh

Originally Posted by Chitvish

Dear Sri,
To celebrate my satisfaction at having indexed your “ramblings”, I was reading through the titles. I happened to read this, the name, catching my fancy.
This is a super narration, I bet. I loved the part where you narrated about your mother.
It keeps her occupied usefully – your wife has the advantage of the preliminary work for cooking, being done neatly, lovingly and ofcourse to the best of her satisfaction.
I am old fashioned enough to believe that our energy, call by the name vibrations, goes into our cooking. Just imagine; you have been lucky enough to eat the vegetables, lovingly cut by your mother and fondly cooked by your wife. You have the best of both worlds !
No mandolin, no Meena for you !
I nostalgically remember my grandmother’s instructions to me that keerai and cabbage should be cut as fine as hair (not a nice comparison, though!). She used to tell me that the vegetables cut neatly for cooking should tempt the person to eat as soon as they are cooked.
Your humour is at its best in your words
The vegetables came out of the ordeal in such shapes and sizes that a teacher would have found them handy tools to teach geometry to high-school students.
Yes, we see all these gadgets in the local exhibitions, now called Trade Fairs !
They very often chop our fingers better than the vegetables !
Love,
Chithra.

Dear Chithra
I fully agree with you that there could have been a better example for how keerai and cabbage have to be cut! You have blogged about Home sweet Home. What makes the home sweeter is the food that is cooked with so much of love and affection. No recipe of yours can be palatable without this essential ingredient which is not measured and added like the other ingredients.
The emotional satisfaction that elders get out of participating in such small chores can be felt by everyone around. So you also use these gadgets to cut your fingers? That's very interesting. My grandma used to tell me that when they went looking for brides for their sons, they would look for minor scars in their hands to see if they are good in household chores!
Sri

Dear Lalitha
That was quite an interesting nostalgic trip on which you took us! Most of our elders were excellent cooks and they had a legitimate 'professional pride' in cooking food for the family. When they grow old and become incapacitated, they feel miserable for not being in a position to contribute anymore to the family. Unless they are given some work, they even feel side lined. They were extremely innovative and never needed any recipes!
My mum who is in her mid nineties is not able to perform any chores like even cutting vegetables. So my wife uses her to bring the hot beverages prepared for my grandchildren to a 'drinkable' temperature! And the pleasure with which my mum does it is unimaginable!
Sri

Nice work but looks biased to me! Why the emphasis on women collecting kitchen gadgets? What about the men who love to acquire more and more electronic devices just to watch the same movie using different recording/duplicating techniques? What about the men who love to go DIY and get a nervous jitter everytime they see a new kind of saw or lawn tool?? I think there are equal number of gizmo collectors in both genders. Kitchen equipments are just to save time & energy so the DW can spend more time with the family though I can't say the same about power tools or entertainment electronics - these most often seem to boost the "owner's pride and neighbor's envy" like the Onida ads.

Anyway my take on gizmos is this "vallavanukku pullum aayutham". So unless you are a bad workman trying to blame your failure on the innumerable tools that you possess, I don't see the need to complicate one's life by owning so many gizmos... half of which one doesn't even have the time to explore completely.

-L.

Dear Lavanya
The purpose behind my writing this thread was certainly not to start a gender war in gizmo collection! I just wanted to focus on the feelings of elderly people in the matter of participating in the family chores. Most of them have a fear of being looked upon as useless burden by the younger generation. They want to do some little thing or other to show that they are not to be written off completely as yet. Though morning milk is delivered at door steps by delivery boys for a fixed monthly fee, I have seen old men walking to the milk booth every morning to collect the milk as their daily routine. They thus feel happy that they are of some use to the family.
I am not questioning the utility value of these gizmos and I concede that they are really useful things to have as long as they dont make others become redundent!
Sri

Replacements are always are threat whether one is getting older or not. In this world where we always strive to prove our worth to others thereby reaffirming our place, the fight to remain indispensible shall persist forever. Sometimes I too need to reaffirm myself that I can do something and that I am still efficient but then again DH comes in to say you don't have to prove anyone your worth but yourself... if only self satisfaction was so easy to come by :rolleyes: ...

-L.

Dear Sri,
I too have all the cutting and chopping gizmos possible but nothing like having an elder doing it for you, you pay fo the gizmo there is no way you cdan express your joy in having your mom, grandmom doing it for you.
Great thought, you are lucky!!!!