Pookal Pookum Tharunam

ᴛᴡᴇʟᴠᴇ

April 8, 2019

Sreedevi

Enna da ithu?? Nethu full ah pathut iruntharu... innaik enna da na pesuraru

I glance over the mug to see him leisurely washing the vegetables whistling. I finish drinking the coffee and move inside the kitchen to wash the mug but I have to wait behind him until he finish. He casually tilts his head and see me waiting there.

"Ohh sorry" he moves aside.

Ajay has said n no of sorries to me for the past one year. When he blocks my way, when he touches me accidently, when his phone rings loudly around me and so. But this tone of him was different.

I wash the mug and keep it in the shelf.

"Naa kichadi panna poren.. Unak okay ah?"

My eyes widen at his informal way of saying unak instead of ungaluk. I turn towards him and blink at him.

"Enna nga? Okay va? Illa vera ethavuth panlama?"

I nod at him "okay thaan"

He smiled showing his dimples.

Damn!

That smile. Where was he hiding this beautiful smile of him all these days?

He snaps his finger at my face, only then I realise that I was staring his smile. He raises his eyebrow, I shake my head and he smiles again.

Not again!

He moves to the kitchen counter and places all the washed vegetables there.
He takes all the ingredients and arranges it there. He turns towards me.

"Enna pathut nikura?" He chuckles "Vaa.." He says.

I realise that I dont know how to make kichadi. I have heard its easy but I have never made Kichadi ever. I slowly walk towards him and stand beside him who is arranging the vegetables in an order. Perfectionist for a reason!

"Enna pannanum?" I ask him completely clueless.

He looks at me confused.

"Illa enak kichadi panna theriyathu" I confess.

"Ohh apdiya? Okay.. Naa solli tharen athe maari pannu okay?"

"Okay"

"Okay first roast the rawa for 2 mins"

I nod my head and take the semolina packet. I heat the pan and pour semolina on it before roasting it. Ajay cuts tomatoes, onions, green chilli, ginger beans and carrot.

I off the pan after roasting it while Ajay almost finishes cutting ths vegetables.

"Roast paniten" I say with a pout.

Its the first time I am cooking under someone's instruction after 8 years. Back then it was my mom who used to be my coach in how to be an ideal wife coaching classes.

She used to coach me how to be an agmark wife material by always advising me on how to behave, how to dress, how to talk, how to stand, how to sit, how to shit blah blah.

The only interesting fact was cooking. She teached me cooking so that I can cook for my husband and in laws as it is the primary job of a wife. The first question that all those aunties who approach my mom after seeing me in a function, ask is - "Unga ponnuk samayal lam nalla varuma?". As I was a girl who has crossed her 20, ofcourse that question is a mandatory.

My mom was always proud to say "haan athellam nallave varum"

But I saw cooking as a basic need for survival and learned it.