Burnt dinner = Homesickness

Last evening, I sat down trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Usually, I wash my hair on Thursdays. So after gym and the hair wash, I don’t have much time and I usually end up cooking something light like eggs or bread or anything ready.. So I stepped into the kitchen to just heat up my ready to eat rotis and I planned on having it with yogurt. But I also had to make salad for lunch. When I took out my basket of veggies, I realized my mushrooms were starting to go brown. I decided that I will sauté them quickly with some schezwan sauce and be done with it. One thing led to another, and I started chopping chilli, tomatoes and onions to make some curry instead.

After I finished frying the curry and putting the mushrooms, I put some water in it to stew a bit and I went to call my parents. I have to call before 7.30 pm to catch my dad before he leaves for work. I made the call and sorted out my gym bag for the next day in like 2 minutes. I was still talking to my mom and went into the kitchen to see my curry, and there, I smelt it burning.

Oh god! I ran to it and my curry had disappeared into a black coal layer on my kadhai and my poor mushroom looked shriveled up. My voice just dropped really low as I told my mom what happened. I just got so upset that my dinner was ruined. She told me to take non burnt stuff and to have it if it wasn’t smelling. I did that because I couldnt just throw my dinner away. Plus, throwing food makes me really upset. So I gave a deep sigh and told my mom that I will call her later after sorting this mess out. I was already done talking to dad.

I took out the mushrooms, and they were alright. They were edible enough. I put the kadhai in sink with water to loosen the black stuff inside and proceeded to finish off my dinner. I felt so so sad while having it and I started missing home a lot. L

I called my mom again after the dinner and she said my dad had already finished a long lecture delivery on how one should stand by the stove while cooking and how my mom should also do that to avoid burning milk and everything. Just to clarify, my dad wasn’t being mean to her, but he was upset because I lost my dinner and that was his venting out. Yes, he vents out by giving weird lectures. I laughed it off and told them I was finished eating and lied that it was alright.

After the whole talk, I was feeling very homesick. I was missing home cooked food, and all the love and the pampering. There are times my mom also ends up burning the food, but it doesn’t matter when you all are together. You just make do with it. When staying alone, getting up in the morning, going to work, working out, making dinner and sleeping is such a regular schedule that you get used to it, and you think you are doing good. But when things like some ache, some burnt food, some cold and cough show up, they disrupt your schedule. That disruption makes you realize how important your people are for you. How they being there, makes everything, even these troubles seem so much easier to deal with. They are the reason why you don’t just live, but you thrive. Sometimes being alone is way too lonely. Siggghhh. The only thing I can do is speak as often to my parents as I can. If not in reality, they are a part of my life here, virtually. And they do make things so much easier even while being thousands of miles apart.

I decided to change my mood and started to talk to mom about random stuff like Corelle dinnerware and anarkalis and what not. It made me feel better, so much better. After our talk, I got my laptop out to start watching my shows, and for once, I was glad that the Big Bang Theory had a really fun episode yesterday.