Sweet Deals

Just Desserts

Credit: Maklay62/Pixabay. com 

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Welcome to the Karma Café!

There are no menus. You will get served what you deserve.

~ Unknown ~

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Sujata sighed in bliss as she tucked away yet another juicy rasogulla. 'Pure nirvana!' she thought and shuddered that her initial reluctance in accepting Swara might have cost her this chance. Sujata had expressed a perfunctory disapproval at Swara's Bengali parentage; it was more from a force of habit of never accepting anything at first instance. Her husband never spared a chance to tease her about this habit, albeit in the privacy of their room; he remarked that unlike all new mothers, she had not even liked her own children at first glance, Sanskaar was too red faced and scrawny while Uttara was too tiny and mousy.

But a couple of meetings with Swara had her completely lost in the charm that Swara could exude. She was not blind to the love that her son had for Swara; Sanskaar was always open with his emotions and did everything with an ardent passion, be it loving Swara or handling the business, which was the reason Durga Prasad had all but declared him as his successor and she knew the toll those responsibilities could take on him. So when she realized that Swara was actually a source of quiet courage and a true pillar of strength for her son she accepted her willingly and completely.

But what had tipped the scales over irrevocably, was Sharmishta's rasogullas, which she had made for the engagement party. Sujata had not only shamelessly eaten more than what etiquette deemed appropriate but had gone so far as to boisterously demand that Swara's only dowry must be an expertise in making rasogullas. So enamoured was she that she insisted that Swara make the same for her rasoi rasam and along with the extravagant shagun, affectionately christened Swara as 'goolu'. The name stuck, much to Sanskaar's perpetual amusement and Swara's eternal consternation.

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Laksh unpacked his lunch with a great deal of trepidation. Ragini was not the best of cooks though it was for lack of talent rather than for a want of effort. Although he loved her to a fault, he wished that she could restrict her culinary experiments to simple recipes as the chances of disaster were lower; there was a limit to the number of ways a simple meal could be ruined. But Ragini, partly in her enthusiasm to cook for her husband and their family and partly out of gratitude at being allowed to work even after marriage, usually went overboard.

Initially, Ragini had been quite upset with her culinary failures and their constant ribbing. But soon she realized that it was in good humour and actually began enjoying the badinage as the siblings placed bets as to what would be burnt and what would be served raw; with even Bade Papa and Sujata joining in occasionally. That stopped once they caught on that Ragini was not as bad a cook as she made out to be and actually manipulated the failures to ensure that Laksh or Sanskaar won most of the times. The longest running joke in their family was that the potatoes that she had once boiled in their early days of marriage could be used to hammer nails.

So he was pleasantly surprised to find a perfect meal; a Bengali style Cholar dal, panch phoran baby potatoes and rice that was fluffy and tender, with each grain separate and cooked to perfection. He actually pinched himself to convince himself he was not dreaming before proceeding to finish his lunch in a record time. 'It would be nice if such lunches became a habit,' he thought and made a mental note to convey his appreciation to Ragini as well as to find out what catastrophic celestial event had entailed her to cook such a delicious meal.