My First Time in Cooking

Unless you call making Maggi also as cooking, here is my first experience in cooking.

My cook went on a leave. And I had some time in my hand before I would leave for office. Normally, I would just while away the time and go to office without having my breakfast. If I was very hungry, I would make myself a Maggi. Don’t know what took over me that day, I saw that there were a few eggs in the house, and I wanted to cook. I made scrambled eggs.

Now, you would say, what’s the big deal in making scrambled eggs? You would know, if you were making anything for the first time. Never realized that cutting of onions and tomatoes could be such a tedious task. Now I know how much I took my Mom’s cooking for granted. This was still okay, with a few tears in the eyes and sweat in the forehead, this could be done, but then the first major hurdle was, how much of oil do I put on the frying pan? No idea. Put a lot of it, I guessed, better than having less oil. Then came other tests, how much salt, turmeric etc. Do you add chilli powder or not. Forget it, add whatever spices are there at home, afterall, everything is added in some food or the other, so nothing is gonna kill you. Whatever, but I was still a little concerned that I have put a little more turmeric than required.

And there was fear. When I had the mix ready and the oil boiling on the pan, in what way do I pour the mix into the pan that it does not splash hot oil back on me? I have seen it happening so many times and was unsure. With a lot of precautions, and very carefully I I poured it, and thankfully I was safe, no casualties.

And I was finally ready with the final product. It looked and smelt great, was not burnt or uncooked and everything was just perfect. To me it tasted great, er, okay, the oil was a little more, but then, what the hell, I made it no, and more than the taste what mattered was the whole array of emotions that went into making some scrambled eggs, confusion, anger, fear, joy, hope...what not. And this also tells me, for the first time, that cooking of scrambled eggs can actually warrant a one page post.......that too with the recipe not mentioned.

By the way, my roommate also had those eggs. He did not criticize, apart from saying that the oil was too much, and all he got the taste of was oil. I know he was lying, could not see me do something good you see. And even he cannot cook, so must have been jealous. Also, he did not praise me once for it, see, the same reason. But I know how much he liked it, fought with me for the last remaining bit of the eggs, so I know he liked it. It is another matter that he told me that he was hungry so......

Whatever, all my colleagues, my relatives in all states in India, all my friends across regions and my Mom got to know the very same day, that I had successfully cooked scrambled eggs. I could not stop talking about it you see.