Friday, 5 June 2015

How I learnt to make love while making food or the other way round…



Somewhere there they promised an age old existence of a construction made to order with direct access to a human heart with a palatable dish of choice. I grew up aspiring to tread that path and eventually received professional training only to realize it deserves perseverance beyond imagination to cook up smoking hot dishes or cold cuts, be it a star category consortium or a roadside sack. Hence I decided to delight my friends and family with occasional whimsical experimental specialties, both national and international. To my surprise they turned out to be good at times and sucked more often; however I never gave up. It was one of those times when I meet this fellow through Facebook. His profile seemed to be that of a nerd one with witty comments and never mentioned his interest in culinary skills apart from display pictures with pork sausages or meatballs or a can of beer with gleaming eyes, delighted indeed at the very sight of the morsel.

So a continued and prolonged conversation for a month or so during which we were busy seeing different places or people, brought us to a deal where we could plan a meal, a three course one and the market to supply us with the resources happened to be near the place I reside. We zeroed down on Prawn and Parshe, Bengali sentiment you see. Brecht was the poet I as reading those days and followed and practiced the poem mentioned below,
“We were not friends to one another then
And yet for love love it did not seem to soon
And so we lay there in each other’s arms
Strangers to each other than the moon.

We’d likely fight about  the price of the fish
If we meet at a market stall today
We were not friends to one another then
Although in one another’s arms we lay.”

The reason to quote this text is its uncanny resemblance in real life. Obviously you will not decide to make love to a nerd basis on his bargaining power and ability to fast calculate the market price of fish weighing somewhere about 300 gms. Okay, this memory purely constitutes my ability to observe and remember and does not certify a keen interest level. Having said that even if you think it does, I can’t help it.
A long stroll led us to the nest of this bachelor bird. His house was neat except for empty alcohol bottles crowding the entire shelf of a wall. He expressed his intention to sell them in the long run and befriend an old monk with the revenue amount.
However we started with the food preparation with beheading and dressing the prawns. Deveining prawns followed with a glass of Screwdriver and all I remember after that was the hissing sound of the Parhe mach as I let them roam free in the steaming hot mustard oil. Perhaps the weather was pleasant, the screwdriver was queerly strong and the bed had an admiring assurance of comfort; this mademoiselle finds herself waking up to an immediate audience listening patiently to her blabber and completing all the household chores.
About the food, though the complaint was related to usage of salt and decapitated portions of poor fish, the magic of hunger seemed to be a solvent. And what followed was we opened lips, closed, looked at each other and decided we are sleepy and should sleep and assist in making the bed and darkening the room. It was just six in the evening and we finished our delayed lunch or early supper , still dizzy in head and not sure whether can step into the right direction if start to walk. You cannot sleep alone in such a terrible state you see; you will be dreaming all those horrid dreams and wake up in the middle screaming. To avoid execution of an innocent dream, you need to assail for comfort in each other’s arms. That’s what humans do until you recover your senses.
Later on many  an evening, all alone in my room, I looked at myself for a long time in my glass. And I ended by recalling myself as I was, before that evening. “ I am much changed. Am I not?”










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