The Diary of an Undomestic Godess

Today was another lunch at the Mexican place. It’s usually that or a sub(sandwich)… I think Mexican is my present most favored cuisine , what with all the mystique of being a famous cuisine that I’d never had the chance of tasting before, to now being something that for me is some what a good substitute for Indian food ( I stopped eating pizza and pasta a long time ago)…

I have progressed a bit though…..from nachos in New Zealand ( Americans there used to say the hostel food was nothing compared to the Mexican food you get in the States ) …who cared though!!! ..having tortilla chips for dinner was yumm!!!… I don’t eat nachos much these days … just pass me the Vegetarian Burrito!!!

But there has been some commonality in this Mexican madness, I’ve just been consuming the types of beans i never particularly liked,ever since I left India; and if you count in the meal-in-a-can bean type things ..it seems to have become kind of a staple food for me …and this from a girl who used to hate Rajma!!! …my mom never cooked Rajma at home, but we were subjected to a horrible Rajma curry every week at my undergrad hostel , not that the curry was bad , but I hated Rajma, and now I eat something similar rather often… the only beans we had at home were Kidney beans ( or black eyed peas as they are known over here) and chick peas….

But I forget.. omigosh string beans…….. they were pretty much a staple at home…how long has it been since I had beans?? ..(i mean beans in the Indian sense…;for me at least!!)…it’s been a really long time!!!! I should probably go make some for myself… it’s too much work though , do you even get string beans in the super market ???… I only buy carrots and cucumbers from the veggie section and prepping the beans ( destringing ??) then cutting them and all those Indian spices…naaah too much work…. I guess it’s my pinto and black beans for some time more …*sigh*.


I’ve never been much of a kitchen person, kind off used to enter only to wash dishes at home… my dad used to try to make me do some work and say things like , “Why don’t you start doing something in the kitchen “ , to which I would pretend I hadn’t heard … we had three good cooks in the family, mom, dad and sis.. they did a pretty good job. I didn’t see any point butting in, later on it got somewhat more frequent “ Why don’t you make me some tea ?", Dad would say. “Oh!! I don’t know how to make tea, I don’t even drink tea , why don’t you make it for yourself Pa?” I would reply ..My dad could very well make tea for himself…. Throughout my growing years he would get up early before everyone else and make tea for himself , and prepare Ovaltine /Bournvita for the rest of us… anyway it would go on “ You should at least know how to make tea!!”, Dad would say . I didn’t see the point, “ Oh c’mon Dad, I don’t drink tea, if people want to drink tea they can make it for themselves!!!" . I could sense a subtle implication that in the future my ability to make tea would be an important part of my skill set , maybe even the most important . I found all this rather stupid , and would get into an argument, I wouldn’t ever win though ,and the 5 -6 times my dad made those tea making suggestions , I had to make tea , its been 3-4 years since I made a cuppa chai , I really don’t remember what I did , but I remember it used to be pretty scary ,it was either too much milk or too much sugar, Dad used to have pretty much whatever I managed to shove down his throat , I usually had to make some for my grandmother or maybe some other person once in a while , which was when I would get comments like “too much milk, too much sugar etc ,etc” and I used to think in my head “ Arrey, why didn’t you make it yourself !!” …

That was pretty much it!!! Making bad tea was the sum of my experience in the kitchen , coming from a long line of family members who could cook, male and female,my dads one regret is that I never learnt to cook, “Why don’t you learn , you should know these things. In the future you’ll understand they’re very important”….

This was a pretty loaded statement, needless to say this was not the way to make an already disinterested me learn to cook… maybe Pops was right…….. he stayed alone for a while as a bachelor ,and I’m experiencing the joys of single living as well, nothing beats a good home cooked meal ( but nothing beats moms cooking ,I’m pretty sure about that, and I don’t have time to brush up cooking skills) .. mom was alright though ,she didn’t force me into the kitchen and would say things like “ I started cooking after I got married”. The point is if I don’t cook now I blame my parents they should have tied me to the kitchen and made me cook, there was no other way I would enter. As a result I had to bear the sympathy of helpful but misguided roommates “ C'mon!!! how can you not cook??? the way to a guys heart is thorugh his stomach, that’s really what they look for!Here start rolling out chapattis” .. “WTF!!!”



I still remember when I first came to the States , I think that’s where I first heard about the concept of cooking turns.. I was pretty amused and was telling my dad about it “You know here room mates actually take turns to cook, and it’s pretty much like everyone has to cook!!!!”, to which he replied that cooking turns happen everywhere not only in the US!!!.. Anyway my poor roommates ….so far, I’ve never taken up cooking turns ,ever!!! … I mumble something to the effect of.. “You know , I’m not really much of a cook, I usually live on apples , carrots and sometimes take away”…. And usually get out of the whole having to cook situation like that…….

Anyway couple of years later after buying cook books online ,and out of sheer boredom i do cook when the stars are favorable and ask my mom for recipes, or actually anyone who seems to be conjuring up special dishes ,( which is probably everyone except me) , ..I’ve kind of realized that cooking isn’t too bad …..


I miss my mom a lot , pretty much every second of everyday, I wish she was here in the US ...I can’t tell you about all the times that I miss her but I can tell you one of the times when I miss her a lot…it’s when I have to clean the bathroom…..I don’t know how this sounds, but other girls agree with me on this, we’ve never had to scrub floors and tubs before ,and when we have to , we remember our mothers and how much they had to scrub floors and walls to keep our homes tidy…we never realized how much work that involved ....till now!!!Mom's must really love us to do all that scrubbing .…..

What bought about this post?? I’m currently doing two wash loads of laundry …. This would shock my parents who are the "do laundry every day/ every other day" types. You know I would too, if I had enough quarters at my disposal every time I wanted to wash my clothes .I hate having to make change , not too many quarter machines here..

Anyway my dad was like why don’t you buy a washing machine; when I told him about how I have to go to the Laundromat and hence finding quarters is the biggest impediment to daily clothes washing.. I think the economics of being a grad student has an effect of on the ownership of an at home washing machine, or maybe I haven’t looked hard enough … but I like fresh smelling clothes… so not being able to do laundry as often as I want to is one thing that really gets me down …. I don’t know how many of you watch Greys Anatomy , but there’s a comment Sandra Oh’s character makes about laundry ..I wont mention it here for fear of putting off readers of this blog forever…I'm not sooo bad , but I could kind off relate to that …
I have work to do this weekend….but I intend to vacuum the house , clean the bathroom , arrange my wardrobe and bookshelf … I usually get into these once in a blue moon cleaning spurts… its all or nothing with me it seems….

Oh well wish me luck…. I got inspired reading a letter in this months issue of Self magazine people were commenting on an article in a previous edition called the “The Joys of being Home Alone” by Curtis Sittenfeld…I want to read the article.. I think a trip to the public library is in the offing…..