Wednesday 15 April 2020

Lockdown diary 4 : Lockdown tasks


I have been observing the fans in my home. Most are going round 24/7 these days. I wonder - should I calculate the number of circulations per minute. I think about this as my activity for the day and give up on the idea before I even let it settle in my mind. Too much work...I tell myself.
I have already finished most of the daily household chores - vessels back in their shelves, house clean and tidy, clothes in the washing machine. Now the only remaining tasks are preparing breakfast and then lunch. I am trying to use a technique I learnt some time ago to remove the site of a sink filled with dishes and utensils that would accumulate post cooking meals and replace it with a clean and tidy washing area. But the new image doesn't seem to brighten me up. Maybe I should use another tool, I tell myself - maybe I should make the image of my washing area very small - small enough for me to not notice it and enlarge all the other things such as serving bowls with yummy food, beautiful cutlery and dishes, fruit basket and a spic and span kitchen platform. For a few minutes I day-dream - me relishing yummy food, but these images fade faster than they appear as I wake up to realize that the serving bowls will be filled only if someone cooks and the kitchen will be spic and span only if someone cleans it. I remember the lines I read in "Who ordered a truck load of dung", where the author states that the "hardest part of anything in life is thinking about it". I promise myself to not think and just do what I need to.
I tell myself, I shall finish this post and then start cooking. Yesterday I had thought of making thaalipeeth - a Maharashtrian delicacy in the memory of all the plates that were destroyed during the 'banging of thaalis'. However by evening I found that I had run out my mom made thaalipeeth flour and thus had stuck to making dal and rice with a potato fry. It dawned to me that my biggest hurdle in cooking is deciding the menu. Once I cross this hurdle, I get engrossed in the sounds of cutting, chopping, the sizzling tadka, the aroma from the masalas and the site of various colours creating a riot in my wok. I love cooking...I really do and that's my motivation...
And I am back to thinking - what should I cook today? I don't know yet. Maybe I shall know when I enter the kitchen...what do you think I should cook today? ...And while I am clicking a photo of my fan to add some visual effectiveness to my post, my son comes to my table with this - a bowl of noodles...and I am all smiles...thank you Adu...I love you...


Originally posted on Facebook on March 24, 2020

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