Many years back, there was a time when my mom was transferred out of Mumbai and my dad was in-charge of the kitchen. We ate routine breakfast on weekday’s. Mom was home on the weekends to cook us something special or non-routine. If mom couldn't come on weekend, then it was troublesome for dad because he had to cook us something interesting now.
One such weekend - I told him that I wanted to eat Uttapama since we had the batter. He made me one with chunks of raw tomato and onions garnished on it. Not IN the uttapam like my mom made but ON it. I found it weird. Mom cut all sorts of veggies with the curry pata and put them in the uttapam and made a veggie uttapama which I was used to. Dad’s uttapama had only 2 veggies on top of it.
To think of it, it looked pretty but the naive and stubborn little me wanted my dad to cook it like how mom did it. He told me that this is how the top chef’s in the world do it. I obviously didn’t care. I was so stubbornly set on my ways, my past, that I didn’t want to accept a way different from what I was used to. I don’t remember much but I remember eating it quietly.
Months after he passed away, I was flipping channels and saw my dad’s uttapama being taught by some chef. Even now, when I was searching for images, this is what I got.
There are times in our life that we don’t realize that the change in our life is actually something great or something classy... Maybe something special.
I know that it is meant for our learning… and I hope we all continue learning without hurting others.