The JOY of Cooking!

These days, I am enjoying cooking.  The blog is about her. My better half.

Cooking! Not my cup of tea

Cooking is not new to me.  But, I am hardly in the kitchen.  I have studied hotel management in college.  However, I never got interested in cooking until years after.

As I have progressed in my fitness journey, I have realized a key facet of a fit life.  It helps if you know a bit about cooking.  Knowing the art and craft of cooking helps. You can get rid of all the excuses in the world for having no control over what you eat. 

Eating is one of the triumvirates of good health in the dictionary of fitness.  The other two are sleeping and exercising.    So, when I got a chance to be on my own, I got back to my college days and revisited a few failed experiments.

Eating is one of the triumvirates of good health in the dictionary of fitness.  The other two are sleeping and exercising. 

SANJU RUNS

And for some time now, I have been cooking quite vigorously.  Maybe the passion of fitness and my research work has convinced me beyond doubt that I can have full control over what I eat if I eat what I can cook.  Many times, it does happen that you end up with empty stomachs in the office.  Simply because your wife is away or you had a meeting early that day. 

I am lucky to have a life partner who really understands my nutritional requirements and adjusts a lot for that.  If I am controlling my sugar and salt, the whole family complies with that diktat.  I don’t want to trouble them with my health needs but I love them a lot more when they do this for me. 

The big realization

So, let me share with you how the love for cooking has come back to me after many years( I got my chef degree in 2002).  When I returned from running my marathon, I came to a big realization.  I came to feel that my wife had been a big pillar of support to me.  She made sure that I take my meals on time.  She would be busy in the kitchen cooking all day long and try newer recipes. 

She would have spent a fair portion of the last 2 years in perfecting and exploring the recipes for a fitness enthusiast like me.   In fact, It has become her favorite pursuit on YouTube(  This is still the no 2, FB remains number 1).

So, when I returned from the big victory for which I had been dreaming of for the past 2.5 years, I was filled with gratitude for her.  I gave her the best gift I could, the inspiration medal of TMM.  This is the medal that you get to give to the one who inspired, motivated, or supported your cause for running.   And then, I wanted to do more.  I started looking for spaces where I could give her some luxury and comfort.

The birth of love

I noticed that she would be busy in the kitchen most of the time.  One evening, as I came to the kitchen, I could see a pile of utensils in the washbasin for washing.  This made me feel a bit uncomfortable.  I thought that day how she would be managing all this every day. (We don’t have maids at home).  I decided to do the dishes that day.  During my college days, I had done a lot of it as part of my on the job training.  I washed them all.

After washing the dishes, I felt so good that day.  I felt that I had to love it.  I enjoyed handling the crockery and the cutleries.  The college feel came back to me like when we used to do it.  It was overall a nice feeling.  And I decided that I would lend my hand to her in doing the dishes on alternate days.

Gradually, I started to find more tasks for me in the kitchen.  I would clean and wash the vegetables and keep them in the fridge.  I would sometimes cut the vegetables.  Seeing my growing interest in the kitchen, she thought of giving me a few tasks.  So, sometimes she would ask me to knead the wheat flour for rotis and etc etc.   All these tasks slowly started to invite me into the kitchen no matter how busy or tired I was at work. 

I realized that If I could do all this and still enjoy eating, I can cook.  I have cooked and learned this art.  Why not get back!  And therefore now, I am into patronizing the ancient art of cooking.  I am cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I love them all.  Initially, for the first few days, my cooking was weird.  I was getting embarrassed that this is all that I learned. My parents had paid quite a fortune to get me the degree.    

But now, I kinda love cooking.  These days I can cook palatable steamed rice and dal tadka – the two Indian delicacies that make the Indian staple diet. In my future blogs, I shall share with you the healthy recipes that I learn.  Yes, it’s a deal. I’ll tell the very basics so you can benefit and cook it all by yourself. 

Please let me know if you wanna cook something special?