Cooking Carries Away All My Senses

     I regret many times I criticized my mother for the dishes she served.The list of reasons goes like- too hot and spicy,same dish for today also, not ready yet, no sugar, smell fishy or cockroach(our kitchen was cockroach ridden and we didn't have airtight storage or refrigerator on those good old days) and even taste spoiled if reheated.Now I realize the effort that goes into making food and the fact that she did the dishes,washed my cloths and made my bed all alone for not I paid her but out of pure selfless love.My wife is lucky for we started living together after this realization.
     Recently I was thinking that no other job but  cooking requires the vigilant service of our all five senses.As we proceed , we need to touch to see the texture and consistency, look to see the color change, wait for the aromatic smell, sharpen our ears for a number of sounds like that of boiling , breaking, whistling,crispy-bake and we need to sprinkle  tasting  at every stage before a  final tasting.It is a kind of licence test. Ok to serve but add a pinch of salt more.     It is from our small kitchen in room number 312 ,first floor, Qasar Thoufeeque, Abha, Saudi Arabia. Busy preparing stuffs for a salad that is my contribution for a  potpourri party.I take my hat off to Mr. Jineesh who baptized me into cooking while we were sharing the dorm during my teacher training days.He taught me how to make 'Upmavu' and I became a fish curry specialist towards the end of the year among five of us(so I continue to believe).

Dear Kazantzakis....you gave me Zorba and he refuses to leave me.

       This is one of the books  I revisit every now and then for it changed the way I live my life today.Despite the fact that it was on our reading list for post graduation,I never found myself reading it in original. It was one of my crazy classmates during my BEd, Yasoda that is what I preferred to call her for it seemed to me she was the wife of Lord Buddha in her earlier birth,made me read it.Here I have got it to let you  take a puff....

“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’ 

Which of us was right, boss?” 
Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.” 

― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.” 
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery?” 
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek