We keep the book of memories shut in our system but when nostalgia hits, the book of memories automatically opens and the pages start fluttering with a gush. Trigger for this fluttering and flickering can be any. Before Diwali, it is a custom, not written in any book, but passed on from generation to generation, to thoroughly clean the house. Transition in the weather, from extreme sweaty summers to mellow winter makes one more active and surcharged and this cleaning agenda is mostly taken very seriously and diligently in most of the households in India and more so in north India. It is assumed that Goddess Lakshmi visits our home and blesses during this festive season. For her arrival the houses are made ultra clean. In my case this ritual cleaning is also done because since my marriage, for the past almost 37 years, Diwali is celebrated in our ancestral house where I live and it is a kind of a reunion of brothers, bhabhis, children and grandchildren. On one such cleaning spree, when I was cleaning a glass almirah, which contained crockery, I was imaginatively thrown 30 years back. Exotic dinner sets, collected from different places, all kinds of glasses, lovely tea sets, trays, casseroles, cutlery stacked disorderly and full of dust stared at me, looking dull because of disuse.
I belong to that generation of women who reveled in showcasing their culinary skills, served in a colonial style, in the best of crockery and other accompaniments. The sight of these prisoned pieces of crockery and glasses was the trigger that made me go in the flashback. Even as a busy working woman, the delights of cooking were a part of our femineity those days. More importantly it was the pleasure of cooking and experimenting new dishes, pleasure of sharing, pleasure of getting appreciation that kept the ball of cooking rolling. And it was not an easy sailing. The best of dinners and lunches were planned on shoe string budgets. Events were planned well in advance, keeping in view the availability of temporary helps.
Even ice-creams and cakes were prepared at home. And in the process so much got collected.
Ice-cream bowls, glassware bakeware, desert cups, candy bowls, cake- making tools, cake making revolving turn table, plastic dough, bench scrapper, cake cutter, cake decorating nozzle set, ice cream scoop, ice cream pan, buffet ice-cream server, dispenser, ice cream heavy cup, ice cream buffet freezer, stick ice cream cup, whisks and forks, heat proof silicone spoons and spatulas. The list is endless. Pushed in the remotest corners , huddled out of sight ,hiding places for cockroaches and litter of all kinds of insects, these precious pieces of yore cry for use and attention. These redundant objects, that shone bright once upon a time and were the life of
sumptuous and fun-filled parties have turned into a clutter. I remember some of them I had collected from big malls on my trips to US.
Times have changed now. Is it because the services of Swiggy and Zomato were not available at that point of time that we liked to cook at home then? Or is it that this generation has become so busy that cooking is no longer a priority? Or is it that partying in restaurants, clubs and five stars is a preferred option? Or is it that because of the more inflow of money, this generation is not bothered for any kind of budgeting? Or perhaps all these reasons put together has made the paradigm of cooking and eating shift.
As for myself, a confirmed old timer as I am, I take out these precious possessions out of the prison today and plan a great inhouse party at our Diwali reunion this time making cakes, ice creams, pastas, pizzas using my collection to the fullest.
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