Bhatukuli and wilderness

As a child we want to try all grown up stuffs including the much desired and and hated later cooking... My neighbour Nisha and I with few of her cousins planned to try out hand at cooking one day. We gathered ingredients from out homes. We planned on making dal, yellow and tasty and some steamed rice. I do not exactly how we lit that fire. I presume we sent those young cousins of Nisha to get us some wood. I was not used to lighting a choola outside home. Nisha was an expert, because they cooked partly on choolas. I was aksed to bring some toor dal, garlic, curry leaves. Nisha got rice, oil, salt, some chillies, mustard seeds and two pots and some ladles. and ofcourse there was a lot of running around for small items we left out on our planning list. suddenly we realised we needed a third vessel for garnish etc. The run to our home from the wilderness was about five minutes. It was not the run that scared us but the look we got from our mothers for stealing those precious cooking pots we were planning to use. Again a run for water for cooking... after several such rounds, we began cooking, a little bit of kerosene to start the fire, matches etc. we cooked the dal first. it took ages. we were still learning the art of controlling open fire, while the dal was cooking we kept ourselves busy by singing songs or picking dry leaves to add to the fire. Fist step of cooking dal was achieved and we decided to cook the rice next. that was easy. but it did turn a bit mushy. the last step was the most important one. to garnish the cooked dal. the whole meal depended on that taste enhancer. Nisha took it upon her to do it. she heated the oil and added mustard seed and garlic pieces, followed by green chillies and curry leaves. A bit of turmeric and salt and our dal was ready. One of the cousins was running towards us with something in her hand. It was a small bowl filled with green mango pickle to add that much needed zing to our meal. That was the first time, four seven year olds felt very grown up. Because we had cooked a great meal and it tasted great too. Even today I can smell the aroma of that dal and feel the taste of it. It is so clear in my mind. will I be able to recreate it? I don't think so.

Ranga Rajah