Bake Corona

I have stopped calling friends in the Lockdown.  After the initial  "How are you, Do you have live-in house-help and What are you cooking", there is nothing more to talk. I cannot bake. My simple Aloo Gobhi and Yellow Dal, do not stand a chance in front of the cakes and breads being baked by my friends. My children see the the same posts on the "Gram." We do not live in GuruGram. A friend s super cool daughter taught me that it is not cool to say Instagram or Insta. The Uber Cool say 'Gram'. Children are convinced their Mom is not a good cook. She does not plate out exotic meals or fancy desserts. I am not going to brave the virus to go looking for Cocoa, Baking powder, Baking soda, yeast. I will first have to find a baking tray in the lockdown.  I did not even know that Baking Powder and Baking Soda were two different things. In Jharia, I knew there was a 'Khaane wali' Soda. We did not have a Pressure Cooker in our house. It was considered unsafe as it could blast and burn people just like the LPG gas cylinder. So every thing was cooked on the 'Chulha', a natural resource of energy i.e. coal and wood. We added little soda in the Chholey when it was cooked in open fire to make them soft. Later, Mom came to know that adding Soda is bad in the food and we switched to Eno. Indian Moms are so indigenous, I tell you.  Eno is a medicine we eat when we have 'gas' in our stomach. It is the bloatedness and heaviness which comes in when you eat in excess when there is no Lockdown. We drank Pudin Hara or had Eno. Pudina Hara is a green pungent liquid which was considered more natural than Eno. People travelled with Pudina Hara for picnics and train journeys. 

When I got married and came to Mumbai....Naah, Nothing like that happened . I was studying and working in Mumbai. My parents paid for my education and my hostel rent. I do not have a rags to riches story to tell you. Neither do I want to tell you that I struggled a lot to reach where I am today. I was in a hostel and when I got married, I moved into my husband s apartment given to him by his company. Uff, that was not the point. The point is that my neighbour used to add Soda in all her cooking. She said soda makes Dal 'Ek ras' (One juice) and keeps the colour of the vegetables in the 'Sabji'. green. 'Sabji' is the Hindi word for  Vegetables and the cooked vegetable is also called a "Sabji'. I promptly told her my Mom's learning about eating Soda. My neighbour who was a born and brought up in Mumbai, did not like advice from a villager. She said a pinch of Soda never killed anyone. It is better than what the New Gen eats in the name of Pasta, Pizza and Burgers. One-Love.  

Baking was a word learnt in school in Dighwadih during my English class. A Baker bakes Bread, A Baker's Dozen is 13,  the Lord said Let us Break bread together. We were a six children and my Mom and Chachi were always cooking to feed six hungry kids. Normal meals were good enough and one Sunday trip to Skylark, Hind Hotel Dhaba, Frankie, Puchka, took care of all our food cravings. Mom was saying now the virus will go away fast, as people do not meet and the bitching has almost stopped. I told Mom, "You are not on Twitter so you do not know what the real world is like".  She laughed and said they will continue to do so virus or no virus but right now others are not interested in falling for it. Okay, so why did you not teach me baking? She said because I did not want to add any artificial ingredients to your diet. My Nutritionist says not to be a kitchen Queen by adding Hing, Soda, artificial sweeteners, taste enhancers, Kitchen King  n types Masalas. But when will I learn Baking? There is such a social pressure on me to bake in the times of Corona. Keep hearing my children say " Ma, aap bhai kuchh Bake Karo na......