My husband cooked, my dear ,and my daughters shed tears.

My husband cooked, my dear ,and my daughters shed tears.

I found out after my marriage that my husband did not know the ABCD of cooking and he was not interested also in that department.Suited me fine ,since I was the undisputed queen in that area.When we had guests home for dinner or when we had a party at home,he would help me most certainly, by setting the table,arranging the sofa sets and chairs to fit in all our friends etc etc.
But this happy and peaceful state of affairs,my dear,did not stay long like that anymore

We were at Secunderabad and .my daughters were in the third and first standards.My eldest sister and brother in law’s shashtiaptha poorthi was to take place at Chennai.There was no way my husband could take leave and my daughters were having their exams at that time.So my husband offered to take care of the home front and the kids and I left for Chennai,I would be coming back in a couple of days.Here I must tell you ,that we had only a part time maid and no cook and my husband was averse to taking hotel food for a couple of days.He told me flamboyantly,”Oh,I can take care of the kitchen, my dear.I will cook and just wait and see, our daughters would want me to cook atleast during week ends”
“That is fine”said I murmering to myself that I would have some rest during week ends atleast.

So, Mythili went to Chennai ,my dear and stayed there for five or six days maximum.When I talked to my husband on the phone every day ,he sounded cheerful and my daughters also sounded peaceful and happy.I returned from Chennai and landed in Hyderabad.I thought that only my husband would come to the airport to take me home.But he had come with our daughters to the airport and all the three of them gave me such a warm welcome that an onlooker would have definitely felt that they My family and I were meeting after several years.Such was the excitement of the children as well as their father in seeing me.
We went home I asked them in general,”So how are you three?Did you have a a nice time ?”My husband smiled and my daughters gave a shy smile.
After tucking in my daughters in their bed, I asked my husband ,”I hope the kids behaved well and you had no problems in taking care of them..Were you able to cook?”


That was enough for my husband to pour out his tales of woe to me.
He said,”Mythili,the day after you left ,that day being a Sunday I thought I would make a fantastic lunch for the children and we decided to skip the breakfast and have straight lunch.I kept the cooker on the gas stove and and tried to light it,no.!To my utter horror I found out that the cooking gas was over.But you know me very well,Iam a never say die person,so I took out the kerosene stove, which I remember,we had kept in the loft.I dusted the stove,poured kerosene into it and it would not light.Then I saw that the wicks had gone deep inside and I had to bring them up.I used all my skill and tried to bring the wicks out.That done again I started the stove,no it was not lighting.Then our daughters suggested,”Appa why don’t we buy new wicks for the stove?.That idea sounded good.I went to the shop nearby and bought new wicks .I sat with a determeined thought that I would give the kids a fabulous lunch in another half a hour’s time.
But,mythili,inserting those wicks in their holes in the kerosene stove, proved to be a mightier task than meeting year end targets.After struggling for half an hour and not bieing able to put the wicks in the stove,I went to our neighbour’s house and requested that lady,your friend Padma’s help.She took one look at me and tried to control her laughter and I did not know why?Later on I came home and saw myself in the mirroe and I could hardly recognize myself.My face had somehow become black and my TShirt whad patches of black colour and I smelt of kerosene.
By that time,my dear I lost interest in cooking but our kids,you know ,they are priceless gems,they waited patiently for me to finish cooking.
Your friend Padma took the stove and wicks from me and within a matter of few minutes she readied the stove.I was stunned,I asked her,”How was it possible for you to put the wicks like that?”She took out a wirelike thing and said,”This was with the wicks,you know?You failed to see that.You can put the wicks in a second using this “

Ok,I made carrot sambhar and alu subji.One thing troubled me,mythili”said he.”What is that,”I was anxious”I sked the kids,how is the food?.Both of them said,”Daddy the food is superb. Sambhar is very nice.But when I tried to serve them a little more of sambhar,they refused saying,that was enough.I was confused,but I had to rush to office,so I did not even take food ,I had my meal in the office canteen that day and after this episode I made arrangements for food to come from the hotel,so we are ok”said my husband.
I listened to him with sympathy.My heart went out to him.He never told me all this on the phone,since he did not want to spoil my carefree days in Chennai in my sister’s place.
I went to my daughters’ room and chatted with them as was my usual routine, everyday.
I asked my daughters,”So Daddy made excellent food for you,sweet hearts?”

My daughters looked at each other,kept me in suspense for some ime and then my elder daughter told me,”Amma,Appa tried to make food Amma.He worked so hard in the kitchen to make lunch for us ,you know? ,we felt very sad for him at that time.And then he served us food,Amma with so much of affection. But…” She stopped and looked at her younger sister to complete the narration.My younger daughter continued,”Amma,daddy made very good lunch,but ,you know the carrot in the sambhar had not cooked ,they were raw and in the alu subji, he had by mistake, put too much salt,youknow,we could not eat it,however much we tried to eat it.Poor thing A ppa must have felt very bad,no?”
Both of them had tears in their eyes.My elder daughter said,”Amma please don’t ever tell daddy that the sambhar was not good or that the subji was salty,he will feel very sad.So what if the food was not ok,our daddy is the most affectioanate daddy in the entire world”.(Here I must tell you that bith my daughters feel that way,about their father even today).
My younger daughter hugged me and said,”Amma,please do not leave the three of us and go anywhere,Amma,we three missed you a lot!”.
My day was made.My husband’s tryst with cooking brought out the finer feelings in each of us in the family.It was and has remained a treat for me, to remember this incident very often and feel contended and happy that God has been good to us.
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