After a long, hard walk, it was time for breakfast. Usually, I don’t like cooking. But some days I can sense why cooking can be soothing. Finally, there’s an opportunity for so many senses to take part in creating something. There’s a whole catalog of sensations in each category, touch, smell, sight, sounds, that comes into play even if the meal you’re preparing is simple.
Like that morning, for example. I just wanted a bowl of cereal. So, first went in the golden-brown, crackling cornflakes. Then I chopped up strawberries. I meant to chop up only a few, but they looked so luscious, that I cut up a whole bunch of them. Strawberries are such pretty fruits! All dainty and elegant on the outside, and cheery with almost adolescent crimson cheekiness on the inside. When you take a sliver of a strawberry, the slice looks like a plump, juicy, pink and red visceral silhouette of the Grand Canyon.
After the strawberries, came the figs – all fleshy with their suave brown and green skins. Cutting through one opened up a whole new world– it’s quite mesmerizing – the thumb-print pattern of purple, pink, and brown; the rich grainy texture, the tough edges where you have to use your hands to tear off the ends.
Then peeling whole, cheery yellow bananas and splicing them thin and perfect.
Swirling a large spoon of honey. Like pouring a strain of treacly, desert sunset.
And finally a generous splash of cold, frothy, creamy milk.
That was it. Most of the food came out of cartons – except the fruits. But it felt wholesome, somehow. I suppose cooking gets to be fun because one feels so engaged. Usually, at work, the only body part that has any tactile contact are my finger-tips…when I type on a keyboard. But while cooking…it’s the whole hand. I like the feeling of juice trickling down the palm, or using both hands strongly to break open a fruit, or licking off a few drops of spilled sweet milk.
It’s like all of you went into making something that will nourish you.
My cereal bowl, though not gourmet, looked and tasted so good. So balanced, colorful, fresh, and perfect. So much like the life one wishes to live.
Like that morning, for example. I just wanted a bowl of cereal. So, first went in the golden-brown, crackling cornflakes. Then I chopped up strawberries. I meant to chop up only a few, but they looked so luscious, that I cut up a whole bunch of them. Strawberries are such pretty fruits! All dainty and elegant on the outside, and cheery with almost adolescent crimson cheekiness on the inside. When you take a sliver of a strawberry, the slice looks like a plump, juicy, pink and red visceral silhouette of the Grand Canyon.
After the strawberries, came the figs – all fleshy with their suave brown and green skins. Cutting through one opened up a whole new world– it’s quite mesmerizing – the thumb-print pattern of purple, pink, and brown; the rich grainy texture, the tough edges where you have to use your hands to tear off the ends.
Then peeling whole, cheery yellow bananas and splicing them thin and perfect.
Swirling a large spoon of honey. Like pouring a strain of treacly, desert sunset.
And finally a generous splash of cold, frothy, creamy milk.
That was it. Most of the food came out of cartons – except the fruits. But it felt wholesome, somehow. I suppose cooking gets to be fun because one feels so engaged. Usually, at work, the only body part that has any tactile contact are my finger-tips…when I type on a keyboard. But while cooking…it’s the whole hand. I like the feeling of juice trickling down the palm, or using both hands strongly to break open a fruit, or licking off a few drops of spilled sweet milk.
It’s like all of you went into making something that will nourish you.
My cereal bowl, though not gourmet, looked and tasted so good. So balanced, colorful, fresh, and perfect. So much like the life one wishes to live.
Comments
*goes off to find poor substitute for magically described cornflakes*
Not the milk.
Not the strawberries.
Not the figs.
Darn it.
I'll never get it.
Yes, I'm in Mumbai. Navi Mumbai, actually, which is/was also home for you, right?
I'm not sure how you feel about meeting people from the virtual world, but I've recently started 'tweeting' and have met a lot of fun people. I'd like to extend that circle, so if you're up for it sometime, do let me know.
Have a good Sunday!
mukta.raut@gmail.com
Oh.