Sometimes, you are required to make some really tough decisions. Consider for e.g., my dilemma when my mom asks me, "Yettaka mavil mukki varakkanno, atho neyyil varathaal mathiyo?" which translates to, "Do you want plantain fritters or plantains fried in ghee?". Plantains fritters are made by deep frying sliced plantains coated in a sweet plain/wheat/rice flour batter and are every bit(e) as good as plantains simply fried in ghee and topped with a smattering of sugar. I almost decide on fritters when I think of its crunchy coating, but then the sweet, buttery taste of the batter free version comes to mind, and I just can't make up my mind. I try to shift the burden of decision making back to my mom and ask her to make whatever she likes. But she can never decide either (like mother, like daughter), and after a lot of "Say what you want" and "Make whatever you feel like", I am forced to pick one.
I welcome the occasional power cuts in Bangalore. Any excuse to switch off the TV so that the family can spend some "quality time" together is fine by me. But imagine a time when there was no power at all, the only source of entertainment being an old radio and some periodicals. Hardly a bother when compared to starting the kitchen chores at 4 in the morning, drawing buckets and buckets of water from the well (god bless whoever discovered the motor), grinding and powdering kilos of rice with various kinds of mortars and pestles (my food processor is such a gem), getting all black and sooty while trying to get the firewood to burn (can't imagine not having a proper gas stove). With none of today's modern machinery for farming (which was the main occupation of most people in Kerala), the men had a tough time too. The kids were not spared either as they had to walk a long way to their schools, most of them bare footed.
