this one's for you, Mom

since we are born of our parents, it's natural that we are a combination of the genes of two people (the first step), our grandparents (the next step) and our fore-parents (not forefathers, please; the next step)... nothing new, you may say...
certainly not in what i have stated, but new is my latest avatar... that of a cook, who is cooking willingly, experimenting recipes and enjoying food after a long while and mind you, i have even cut down on my intake (in both the quantity as well as cutting out certain things totally, like sweets) since i am thoroughly enjoying what i am ruffling up.
what is the secret of this transformation? my erstwhile recruit, G, very very neatly put.
he had been cooking and cleaning since May 2008. initally a very pleasant chap, but suddenly got worldly wise... his speed of work increased, he started calling shots on what was to be cooked (no chana dal since it takes a long time to boil, only masur dal; no non-veg since he is a veg), no interest or time in learning to make any of my recipes since is "buzy".
i was seething inside but tried to make the best of what i had at hand since cooks are not easily available here... so in the meantime, i had started to make the odd dish that i wanted to have cooked. it was only making things more and more convenient for G who cared less and less.
his ways became more and more irritable and his timings more and more eratic; missed calls became common in an effort to intimate me that he would be late by a couple of hours since he was stuck with some odd job (read quick cash) at some odd place. SMSes also became cool with a cryptic note, "Please call me back."
finally it reached a boiling point when citing visa work he pleaded absence for 5 days, mind you through an SMS again...
if i can manage for 5 days, why not longer... so while i thought about it very hard, i replied to his message the next day, asking him to come on Feb 1 to collect his 3 day's salary...
since then (and it is more than a week now), i am the chef at home. it is grand freedom, to say the least. i decide what i want to have; i decide when i want to cook; and i decide at what pace i want things done, not in the pace set by my erstwhile bionic "buzy" cook...
and i have ruffled up kofta, bhape ilish and cholar daal
yesterday and both meals were silent, except for B's and R's clean plates and licking fingers.
while cooking, i was recalling the way Mom used to do when she used to... so all the credit goes to her...
muaaaaah, Ma, this is my way of saying, "I LOVE YOU."