Married to an orthodox family, Mithila was nervous and desperate to get a good name. Though Arvind had already given her lessons of how the family traditions are, the ways they good, she still seemed tensed like a student who is appearing first time for the boards. Yes, Mithila and Arvind were in love and after a long struggle they had gotten married. Their traditions, customs everything deferred except for the love for each other which remained the same. They had an intercaste marriage.
It was the day when Arvind’s relatives were invited home for a feast. This made Mithila even more nervous. Taking a guess, yes Arvind is born in a strict Brahmin family who feast on vegetarian food, not even onion garlic or other foreign vegetables included in their food. Mithila on the other hand is a hard rock non vegetarian meat lover. Giving up on meat was the last thing she would have ever thought. But she had to.
The date was fixed for the feast and as a family tradition the new daughter in law was supposed to cook the famous paruppu urundai kozhambu. Had they asked for mutton kola or some other non-vegetarian gravy she would have happily danced her way into the kitchen and finished it off in a jiffy. SO she geared up for the challenge in front of her. She browsed through all possible sites for the recipes and had them practiced in her mind.
The next day she had it all set up, the ingredients, the ground paste and all other items needed to prepare the dish. And in a matter of half an hour she finished it. Arvind, his mom and his sisters tasted it and they all had the same expression. Well, did Mithila succeed? Well her mother in law was kind enough to point out that the dish was ok but it lacked the authenticity of a typical Brahmin dish. So she added whatever was needed and yes it was done. The dish was served to the guests and they were more than happy to taste and appreciate Mithila for being an excellent cook.
Wondering how this would relate the prompt? Nobody except Arvind knew that Mithila was from another tradition. But her way of cooking brought her out. Yes, his sisters were able to identify that. Her style of cooking was unique and known only to the people of her area. How did they know? They had colleagues from the same area who cook the same way. Now that they know, they casually tease Arvind and Mithila that they would let out the secret. SO even though Arvind tried to make Mithila as one in the family, her style of cooking gave out who she was. At least, to his sisters. So a wolf can only be a wolf, even if it dons sheep’s clothing.
This post is written as part of the #WoWe Blog Hop hosted by Mayuri and Rashi.
That Madras Mom 