Family keeps you strong!
You Are As Amazing As Your Family Makes You!
Blissful are those who love their family
There is no better place to feel safe than a family. There is nothing in this world that cannot be achieved with a little patience and a sense of humor. When you laugh at yourself the amount of pressure that gets relieved in your head is amazing.
Love and affection can solve almost all problems.
Here is an interesting story about how I learned to make roti as a newlywed.
Twenty years ago I was a complete novice to the kitchen. I had no clue how to make a roti. Being a South Indian I never thought it necessary to learn this art. But the staple food at my new marital home was roti. We need roti for lunch and dinner.
Despite receiving detailed lessons and demo sessions from my mum-in-law- I couldn’t make a single perfect roti!
Facing failures and disappointments:
During the first few days, I was in near tears as all the roti dough would get extremely sticky in my hands. Handling the dough was like handling a slime ball.
The more I tried to pull my hands out the more it got Fevicolled! The effect was interesting as well as depressing. I finally did manage to pull my hands out clean from the dough. I could now think of making a roti.
But when I did so, it was torn! I rolled it back and redid it. But then again it came apart. This process was repeated many more times much to my irritation and frustration. Days rolled by. Not a single successful roti that was edible came out of my Tawa.
My rotis were crisp and brittle instead of soft and fluffy due to rolling it out again and again to get the perfect shape. If there was disappointment on my husband’s face he hid it well!
Enduring practice:
Months passed by. I still couldn’t see much progress. I watched how my mom-in-law prepared it intensely. My family supported me thoroughly during this period. One day my mom-in-law said that Roti making is not just about knowledge, but also about practice.
I then began to get the feeling that probably patience is the key to success.
Every day I would make roti that were distributed to everyone who had them despite their faults. My family would eat them without any complaints. All of them except my mom-in-law who would later make her roti.
But I was determined to make that one perfect roti someday that even my mom-in-law would relish. I kept my standards high aiming to feed my mom-in-law one day.
A little humor can take you a long way:
Eventually, I was getting used to making roti every day. I noted every single hand movement and even breath technique while making a roti. While I was nowhere close to perfection yet on some days I began to relax.
Instead of cribbing over the misshaped roti, I made fun of them. I laughed at my roti-making skills while they made weird shapes that could be seen only on a world map! I was amused at how I could serve rotis that tasted like Papads.
Ultimately I wouldn’t give up:
The moment I learned to laugh at myself the magic happened. I calmed down a lot. That in turn helped me with my perspective. I realized there was no great pressure to become the Masterchef overnight. After all, I was going to stay married for the rest of my life.
There was going to be plenty of opportunities to prove myself. That gave me hope. With this newfound positive energy tackling roti making was less stressful. Soon I could make that one roti that even my mom-in-law would relish.
But now the bar was raised. The speed practice started. I aimed to roll, make, and serve a roti in under two minutes. In that way, the roti could reach the person who ate it even while it was hot.
All credit to my family:
Thus with the undying love and support of my family, I aced the art of roti-making in about a year. Today I am proud and happy that I can make fresh, soft roti as good as a North Indian.
But I still cannot forget Papa’s (my FIL’s) teaching sessions. He used to make roti during his bachelor life. He would be full of stories of those days and he used to say “Making roti is not rocket science! It is so easy.” Saying this he would do demo sessions. Whenever the roti fluffed up on the fire he would sing “up, up and away…!!”.
