Lead Kindly, Cuisine
Text and photographs by Rhoda Alex
I have always had a love-hate relationship with the kitchen. The ratio between cooking time and eating time is so wrong.
In our apartment, thankfully, rays of light peer through gaps in the trees and neighbourhood blocks, just enough to awaken the jars, vessels and cupboards in the morning — this makes time in the relentless food factory worthwhile. Even the most mundane ingredient lights up with the touch of the distant sun.
It is a very forgiving place, though, and embraces our hunger without a grudge. And, of course, the lockdown ensured more time inside the small room.
The Corona crisis changed my outlook a little bit. The knowledge that many were going on empty stomachs for days made me grateful for the provisions. Yet, the act of chopping, preparing, spicing, baking didn’t do the trick … but clicking while cooking surely did! Adding a garnish of a few words to the pictures helped alleviate the pain of transmigrating souls of vegetables and meat. It’s a way to authenticate my time spent in the kitchen; lead kindly, cuisine, amidst the encircling gloom.
File away
to the waiting pans
like our migrants
uprooted twice.
In the wee hours
she is up,
just a wisp of a lady
she tends to her dreams
before the craving
for a cuppa takes over!
Bright yellow
turmeric powder against
a blue plastic lid.
Abstraction is a strange
phenomenon.. like
our good ‘ol manjal
sold to us
as curcumin plus.
Hands down
the best packaging design ever;
it still remains a wonder
how the rot reaches the middle
without any sign of breach.
Hiding beneath the sheaths
of the banana flower,
young ones are
protected and nourished
till they are ready
for prom night
one day.
Oh Nautilus,
you nudge us on
to shed
to outgrow
to molt
every skin that
binds and controls.
Sometimes she
waxes
sometimes she
wanes
sometimes she
is voluptuously full
sometimes she
is invisible
# allphasesmatter
Rhoda Alex calls herself a Communication Artist. A book designer for more than 10 years, she dabbles with photography and writing and is passionate about exploring grassroots culture.
