How Pickled are my Emotions.

We think love can solve all the problems in this world. War, poverty, alien invasion, broken hearts, our own existential crisis - love is the solution. But to even love, you don't realize you need to fill your belly to do those following actions. Food is more like the undervalued mother of the house who is taken for granted and less appreciated. We could go out, rave about the food we had elsewhere but would forget we have some amazing lot at our place too.

We all love our food equally. We all have preferences too. And why not!? There are infinite number of dishes out there in this world, waiting to be explored and hogged upon. But there is just not food involved. It gathers family, friends, laughter, care, sadness, anger, dejection, mellowness, and most importantly, love. It brings all of this together and helps us make or break relations, inviting all the emotions that one can feel.

I am not alien to these feelings. I found love over a plate of Dosa. Lucky to find friends with whom I got to share a waffle sundae, fought for a bite, plate cleaned up in no time. Came closer to my grandma over pickle recipes. Cried over my dad’s shoulder when my very first experiment into baking got failed badly, and the cake was burnt to soot. Waited for a bus, munching over peanuts, trying to kill the boredom. We all have been there with different people, different feelings, different food.

Every person in this world who thinks food is a guilty pleasure, you all really have no idea how to enjoy your food. There is no point in feeling guilty after gorging into an insanely delectable Chocolate French Biscuit. Please do not wreck a sublime chocolate experience, it will always make you feel good. There is no such thing as a bad dessert.

Recently, I came across a lot of people who claimed/believed they understand food and gave themselves tags like foodie, gastronomic lover, and other such atrociousness. Sounds cute, but they are one amongst all of us only. Posting pictures of food and visiting every existing hotel in this world to eat out everyday will just make your tummy sick.

To know about food, one needs to start from ground zero. This is because our food has undergone a revolutionary evolution. From eating raw flesh of animals to liking your lamb meat to be cooked rare medium, we have come a long way. And that’s not all. There are ample versions of the same dish in every part of the world. We Indians know it by Khichdi, but the Italians call it Risotto. Above all, my utterly favorite Khichdi now has its own versions: Mexican Khichdi, Pizza Khichdi, Pav Bhaji Khichdi and more variants of it.

We don't know food yet. All of us are still exploring, understanding and accepting the dishes that we come across and there is a slow realization as to why the Sambhar tastes different in Gujarat and in Tamil Nadu. And it's completely okay to feel that ways. Maybe we can start by learning to appreciate our food and the people who cook it for us: be it the Chef in the fanciest hotel in your town who cooks up a storm and serves amazing authentic Pad Thai Noodles, your Dhabewala guy who makes some insanely amazing Aloo Parathas, your Dadi who pours all of her experience in her special Rajma Masala, your mother who runs behind you and calls all the time to keep a check on if you have eaten or not, or even yourself, by cooking a nice plate of hot Maggi and a cup of Chai and enjoy our own company of thoughts.

There is no fun in food if there are no emotions mixed in it. Keep them together close and tight. They’ll help you make memories, make you feel things you would not even be aware of.