For most of my childhood, cooking was something I avoided. Mummy was always there to create delicious meals for us, and I saw the kitchen as a mysterious place that required magical skills way beyond me. My contribution rarely went beyond laying the table for family dinners or helping with a bit of chopping and salad preparation.
Things changed when I moved to my Tauji’s1 house during my undergraduate years. Three days a month, the kitchen was off-limits for my Taiji2, and that became my time to experiment. My early attempts often ended in burnt meals, but with gentle encouragement and persistence, I started enjoying the process.
Over the years, cooking has become one of my greatest teachers. It has not only made me a better homemaker but also an efficient manager at work. Mornings in a busy household, before rushing to work, meant ensuring all four gas burners were being used productively. From planning, prepping, cooking, eating, packing, and cleaning, everything had to be done within a fixed time frame. Living in a joint family setup with my in-laws, spouse, two children, and visiting relatives meant there were always multiple food preferences to consider.
To manage it all, I found myself planning menus in advance, keeping ingredients ready, and finding creative ways to use whatever was available if something was missing or about to spoil. It made me environment friendly way before it became fashionable as I was able to “Reduce” wastage, “Reuse” many ingredients and “Recycle” food like turning leftover kichadi to theplas.
This process taught me more than plain cooking. It taught me collaboration, resource management, multi-tasking, adaptability, and decision-making. I learned to optimise limited resources, maintain inventories, and plan for contingencies.
I began prioritising office tasks the way I would plan a meal: deciding what needed attention first, focusing on essentials, eliminating distractions, ensuring my team was firing on all cylinders, being creative in our client offerings. I became more confident in taking quick decisions and taking ownership of outcomes, slowly transforming into an efficient Manager.
On a personal level, it has made me more patient, creative and empathetic. Preparing food for others taught me to understand and respect different tastes and choices. It made me more mindful and appreciative of the diversity of people and cultures. Being hands on, I could better guide my help and children on the chores. It opened my heart in a way no other activity could ever do. I developed a deep respect for the effort that goes into everyday work, whether it is cooking, cleaning, or organizing.
I proudly remember an anecdote shared by my 80-year old cousin Mausi.3 As a young child, she was visiting her Bua4 (my Nani5) in the village, unannounced with no telephone or electricity or running water. Nani served her a 10-course meal on a Thali and it was the best meal Mausi ever had in her lifetime. My Nani could transform a humble soaked moong dal ground by hand on stone silbatta6 to an MPV (multi-purpose-vehicle) by making bhajia, chila, halva, dahi-bada, pakodi curry, bedmi-puri. It’s sad that advance of technology has dampened our culinary experiments instead of enhancing them further.
I often tell my younger colleagues of both genders, that basic activities like cooking, cleaning, and managing a home are very essential skills, just like swimming and driving. If you do not know how to manage your own house, how will you ensure if someone else is doing it systematically or just taking you for a ride?
My Nana7 used to say, “जैसा अन्न वैसा मन” (As is the food, so is the mind) and the energy and emotions of the person cooking the food gets transferred to those who eat it. With age, experience, and growing awareness of lifestyle diseases, I now appreciate the wisdom in his words more than ever. My most cherished childhood memories are around all us cousins crowding in our Dada’s8 house and fighting over puris being shelled out hot one-by-one by Dadi9 and Aunts.
It’s heartening to see many youngsters picking up on our grandmothers’ hobbies of knitting and embroidery as ways to digital detox. Let’s add cooking to the list big-time. It’s said that “Health is the Biggest Wealth” and home-cooked fresh meals are the simplest, cheapest and most sustainable (“सरल, सस्ता और टिकाऊ”) route to achieve good health. Explore this journey and you may be surprised at what lies in store for you.
-By Neelam Gupta, a mother from the Hindu Parenting Community. Neelam is an MCA and works as a Senior IT Manager with a leading IT firm in Mumbai, India. She’s passionate about cooking and keeping herself updated on latest developments.
