Spoonful of Stories

The other day I overheard two aunties discussing. The 1^st one said, you know; that Gujju girl married a Punju. The other said, my neighbor’s boy got married to a Catholic girl. Don’t know how she will cope in a Kannada family. The gossip monger went on and on…frankly, I don’t understand the fuss about this. If the girl, boy and the families are happy then why the need for others to talk. But that’s the way it is. So, when I, being a Maharashtrian Brahmin married a Bong I am sure many aunties may have gone “Aho tai… tumhi aikla ka… asa kasa..”. But hey, who cares. We and our families were very happy and excited about this marriage and that’s what matters most.

Every day is a new adventure for us. Managing home, office, taking care of everything without any elderly supervision (this has its pros and cons though). Making mistakes and learning from them, and finding happiness in small things, c’est la vie.

When my in-laws came and stayed with us for the 1st time, we were excited but a bit nervous too. They planned to stay for a month. I wanted everything to go well and frankly it did. I must say, my in-laws are very cool.

That month was a bong feast for us, with me trying so many delectable dishes. We thoroughly enjoyed having dinner together, telling them about our work, getting to know each other’s relatives through various stories, relishing every bite with some spicy gossip to add flavour to it. My mother-in-law is a great cook. She enjoys cooking and was more than happy to feed us something new everyday (specially for her son, as he is staying away from home for almost 17 years now). Cooking his favourite food, taking care of my liking at the same time and preparing something just because I like it. We were in for a treat.

• 

• 

One evening my husband said to me, the best momos are from Noth-East. ‘Mumbai ke momos ko woh taste kahan’. We both being foodie, continued discussing about various types of momos for quite some time. My mom-in-law ventured in saying, let us make momos at home. I am not sure if that’s a good idea, I said; since I always thought that will be cumbersome. But as two of the best chefs were with me (Mom-in-Law & husband) I said, “Okay let’s do it”. But you have to teach me from scratch so I can make them later.

We made steamed chicken momos with red chutney and to my surprise, they were not that difficult to make. It was fun cooking with both, my Mom-in-Law guiding us at each step.

All four of us savoured hot steamed momos with spicy-tangy chutney and some old Hindi songs in the background. Oh yes, music is always in the background when we are having good food.

PS: my husband and I cooked momos many times after that, and they were delish every time.