Tasting wisdom

The actual wisdom is near us, we get it from the life around us, from the people around us. That is the authentic and proximate wisdom. Most of the lessons that have made my life simpler were acquired from life around me.

There are many lessons that my parents gave me while growing up, but I did not care then. It’s only now that I have started noticing their impact on my life. These lessons were nowhere written in the books, contrary to my belief that I had as a child that every lesson is taught by the books we read. Only those who hold pen, are custodians of wisdom, I believed for a long time.

These lessons have started to make sense since I have started living away from my parents. While I was cooking yesterday in afternoon, I quickly recalled the lesson my mother gave me while I was still a teenager-very angry and arrogant.

Once my mother asked me that it was time ,I should learn how to cook meal. I remember getting angry at her and saying to her in high pitch “I don’t want to spend my life cooking for a man”.

She was prompt and replied to my agitation by saying ,“You need to know cooking ,not to feed a man, but to feed yourself .Even if you plan to remain spinster throughout ,you still need to know how to cook, The less dependent you will be on others for you needs ,the more independent life you can lead”. Doing your own work, will teach you respect the labour and value for labour.

I feel lumps in my throat when I type this. Mummy –had I not learned to cook food, I would have hard time surviving in Delhi, when you almost have to starve at times because there is no healthy option available .There are certain lessons that only age can teach can teach.

No ideology is ever practiced with an empty stomach. I always associated cooking with something done to please men of the house, which is true as well. But now I associate cooking with passion, love, to unblock the creative channels and to pamper myself and my body. Cooking and cleaning is for both the gender. Play ground is for both the gender. Kitchen is for both gender .Irrespective of what body you carry, it still needs to be fed and pampered.

This can be linked to so many things, when you arrange for your own food-from buying groceries to buying salt and then traveling to kitchen and making your food. This way you value food, you waste it less. Same with money when you earn it yourself, you learn to value it more.

The arrogant “me” calms down every time I do my work on my own. This keeps my body fit and mind sane. This is what dependency on everything has done to our bodies-rusted it and then we need to make unnecessary expenses to keep body fit. Phew.