How I graduated to cooking?

For years the kitchen had been an alien territory to me. Except for a swift mission to sneak in, grab a handful of whatever I could my get hands on, fill my mouth and sneak out again. But accomplishing the mission without getting caught by the watchful eyes of my mother, remained a mission forever. Years went by and I never let that habit go.

Two years ago, when a job took me to another city, the excitement of the start of a new life and new opportunity had me on cloud nine, and then the reality dawned upon me. Not only will I have to survive a new city, but also deal with the daily household chores which were so well taken care of at home. The numero uno on the list was cooking. I had never even made myself a cup of tea. And the best i could do was make myself a treat of cup noodles by adding some hot water and waiting and hoping that things turned out to be edible.

I moved into an apartment with room mates who coincidently shared the same fate as mine and so the big question was, who would be the first one to actually start using the kitchen?!. I was certainly the worst at the culinary skills, others were a notch above me, if not the best cooks in the world. It had to be a team effort and soon we had it all sorted out. Every one would have to assume a responsibilty and carry it out a 100%. Things ranged from chopping, dicing vegetables, to kneeding the dough for fresh bread to making some rice. And after the dinner, came the most important job which none took up voluntarily : dish washing!!

I was still wondering where would I fit in all this. And since I wasnt good enough at any of the former tasks and so had to take the last one. Dish washing was something that i could do, but certainly not what i liked.

After a few weeks of laborious dish washing, I was certain of one thing, if I were to get out of this misery, I had to rise up the ranks. Starting with washing vegetables, chopping, dicing and slicing carrots and raddish for salads, I started making myself comfortable with the cooking world.

I thought maybe next, I should try my hand at eggs. Omlettes, boiled eggs, half fried - I was trying my hand at each one at a time. Few were well made while others good enough to be tossed into trash. But I guess, I was learning better as I experimented with more and more stuff in the kitchen. Then came the time to try my luck at sandwiches, salads before actually taking the plunge for more complicated food preparation. I excused myself from the elite things like cakes, pastries as I certainly know where my forte lies.

Time went by and I was getting better at managing more things at a time. Sometimes room mates used to be out for the evening, returning back late. These were the times I had to manage all on my own. Nevertheless, it was a boon in disguise. My cooking got better and now I can manage a dinner for myself. After a good, lip smacking dinner, I can pat myself for a job well done!