Manage Meals Every Day?

My friends ask me how can you just manage to prepare meals every day and carry it? My answer to them has always been it's a matter of practice and you should not have expectations from anybody.

I believe I have learned from my mother and my sisters. My school days were actually difficult for me in terms of Travelling. I failed to understand who coined the term FIFO. That did not work for me at all. Like every other day, my school bus used to come at 6:45 am to pick me from Ashok Raj Path, opposite to B.N. College, Patna. I was lucky enough that Mummy used to get up early to prepare meals for me. Gradually, my sister Shalini took that responsibility for a limited period. I used to enjoy my window seat on the bus, seeing people traveling with different means of Transportation. My energy level used to be so high and this was the reason to organize assemblies like Reading News, Singing National Anthem, etc. I loved them all!

My school bus used to do Daily two trips and I was the permanent member of the second trip even though I used to board the bus first in the morning. Ideally, that did not happen ever. Many times, I used to get down near to Nidhi's House and walked down till home. That was around 3 to 4 Kilometers. From Govind Mitra Road to Ashok Raj Path, I used to walk and reached home. That was the only way to reach home early and take rest. Otherwise, I used to reach home between 3:30 to 4:00 in the afternoon. I just used to reach home, change my clothes to have lunch. I was neither interested in heating the food. With all my energy, I just used to place everything on a plate and gulp it down hurriedly, If I was hungry for ages and did not have food at all.

By working from Morning 5'0 clock, my mother used to sleep at 7:30 or 8 PM. That time, we used to prepare dinner at our house. My responsibility was to knead the dough and baked the chapatis on Fire. I used to just hate the entire process and tried to skip it. My sisters used to save me for doing those things. Still, I had to do it because I did not have another choice. My sisters used to reach home at 7 PM after attending their tutions. Gradually, I started liking the baking part of chapatis. I started doing it on my own. My next challenge was to do everything on my own which I almost started doing it. This was the stepping stone. The Major challenge was to knead the dough properly. I was always a bad student and I did not learn that properly. I always used to get scolding what did you just do? How will I prepare Roti now? why do not you do things properly, etc? 

I used to get annoyed with those things and used to cry in front of all. I started accumulating all these anger into my heart and wanted to show everyone that I can also knead the dough well and prepare good chapatis. I remember all my sisters left Patna for studies from 2001 onwards. 

Gradually, I started doing things on my own. I started preparing food at festivals. I started cooking for myself. During my college days (Patna), I and my mother used to cook every day and ate.

The day passed, and we finally landed to Bangalore and my mother told me very frankly that, she cannot cook for me because she was not been able to adjust herself with the climate. I again was dependent on my sister that they would help me. Finally, one day I realized that I need to do on my own again and stopped asking help on an everyday basis. Whenever it was needed, I used to ask my sister. I started cooking on a regular basis and I used to prepare extra chapatis for mom and sister. 

In the midst of that, I learned to cook Idli Sambhar, Uttapam, Dosa, Chola Bhatura, Rice Daal (mom's style) and also curry of Capsicum mixed with Onion and Tomatoes. I still cannot forget the taste when I prepared for the first time. My friends at MBA appreciated the way I cooked those vegetables. The started appreciating all my food like Sattu Paratha, Potatoe Fries and etc. From there I started gaining confidence that I cook well. 

MBA days got over in July 2012 and I had to start going to the Practo Office. My joining was from 1st August 2012. My food becomes famous amongst all my friends there. That motivated me to cook well and do things on my own. I started to help the mother during night time also.

Now, at present (from 2012 to 2019) I cook on my own and do not expect anything from my mother not even to prepare a tea for myself. These days, I go to the Gym also and back at 9:30 PM. After that, we prepare food together and then had it. 

I believe you all understood what I have tried to share with this article.