My Favorite Part Of My Home
Our homes reflect our personality, tell a lot of about who we are at any point of time. It’s not just the adornment of related substances of what the person does — say an artist, a businessman, or a lawyer, but also reflects the attitude of that person towards many things.
Sadly, these days, in India, homes have become concrete matchboxes of EMI generators, with the owner spending most of their time in the commute, or in their office. They don’t get to enjoy their home. That’s a different issue.
Everybody has a favorite part in their home. The reasons would be different and totally personal. To me, the favorite part of my home is the Kitchen!
The Kitchen
When Kitchen comes to our minds, for most of us, it is the jangle of the vessels, sounds of the water flowing, and the whistles of the pressure cookers. As long as we get the food on the table, we don’t usually care about what happens in the kitchen, and the feelings of the people involved in the activity there.
But to me, kitchen is a wholesome experience, that transforms my personality. I would say it has everything that is needed for the development of a holistic person. I am a Computer Science professional basically, and most of my childhood, youth, and work life was around books, computers, and objects related to the profession. It didn’t give me much chance to play around with objects, which was a significant missing part in the wholesome development. When I started getting involved in my kitchen, I got so excited by the possibilities of learning and exploring myself.
Mind-Eye-Body Coordination
The first thing that struck me was the improvement in my mind-eye-body co-ordination. My mind was telling me to do something fast. My body was ready to do it. But I realized that the Eye was not looking at the object to follow through, because of which there was impatience, frustration, and breaking of household objects due to mishandling! So, I decided to follow through with my eye — on what to look at, and then do the work. This not only improved the work, but also gave a sense of purpose of the work, instead of making it look just frivolous.
Dexterity and Right amount of Force
Either it be applying the right amount of pressure while cutting vegetables, or adjusting the water levels in the pipe to the right amount for the correct duration, you need to use the right amount of force. If you exert unnecessary force, you will be messing things up, breaking stuff. If you apply less force than required, you won’t get your work done.
Add this ability along with the ability to handle objects, which is dexterity. These two qualities are very valuable, and the first step towards achieving them is the first topic — the mind,eye,body co-ordination.
Multi-tasking, Sequencing, Efficient usage of Resources
Those who are familiar with India’s cooking know what it takes to multi-task, sequence, and how to efficiently use the resources. Enough said! Because it involves handling a variety of things with different lead times, and remembering the nitty-gritty details of doing stuff at the right time with accurate precision.
Typically to make a South Indian curry, a Saambaar or a Rasam, along with Daal, it would involve at least 10 different action items to be done at the right time. With an item cooking in each of the 4 burners of a stove, you will feel like an Indian God(dess) with 10 hands, at least mentally. You should try it out! You won’t feel the need then to enroll in a Productivity Program with a Life Coach!
Kitchen is not just work, and not just somebody’s work!
I often see tempers rising, especially from the people who are ‘assigned’ to take care of preparing the food, because, they feel ‘used’. I was in a Literary program recently, and one famous author declared ‘We should be paid. Because all we do is cook, cook, and cook!’ While I understand the frustration that other household members are not participating in kitchen activities (hopefully they would after realizing the benefits of it after reading this article), it is not the activity of cooking that needs be condemned, but the attitude of the people who think Cooking and Kitchen is below them. They think that only some people in the house needs to take care of it, which is foolish, because they lose all the benefits and fun of it!
When someone cooks with all that anger and frustration, imagine what happens to the food that is being cooked. I don’t know if you have come across something called ‘vibes’. All your anger and frustration gets downloaded to the food that you cook, and imagine what happens to the people who eat that on a daily basis!
So, it is very important to be joyful, pleasant, and with an attitude that you are in the process of making something that enhances other people’s lives, and be mindful of that throughout the activity, irrespective of how much pressure you may be in.
Outsource, and you are not in control of your destiny!
Food is an important component of building ourselves. Once in a while, it is okay to order-in or eat-out, to get a sense of feeling free from our monotone, but eating outside-food regularly puts your life’s destiny in someone else’s hands whom you don’t know. You won’t know what kind of attitude with which they cooked that food, so you are taking a bad chance.
To be A Chef
To be a Chef, and be the Maestro of your kitchen, is an enchanting experience! Even if you are not the Chef and just an assisting cook, just enjoy the activities in the kitchen. As mentioned above, it gives you a lot of possibilities for holistic development and personality growth. Don’t miss that opportunity!
Love, and Love.
