Coming back to Coimbatore was never my first choice. It just
happened!
I found a job and there I was with my bags packed.
This city was no stranger to me, having done my schooling here with
some lovely memories of school.
This was during my initial days of stay, when after two months of
staying in the company guest house I moved to a rented house. A place
close to office at a distance of 10 minutes walk. A quiet
neighborhood & a colleague of mine staying upstairs. This sounds
perfect but the only issue was this area didn't have good restaurants
close by where I could go in late evenings to grab a quick meal. It
even lacked good grocery stores. To top it all the city sleeps early,
very early. The shops get shut & the roads get lonely
sooner.(This could be due to its location away from the city &
close to airport).
It was one such evening when I had to stay late at office. When I
returned home it was already past nine. It had been only few days
that I had moved into the new house & I was still not good with
handling the kitchen. Handling cooking & kitchen was never me.
Iam not a good cook, neither am I a bad one! It is just that the
cooking is not my thing. I struggle, I manage even today. But I do
turn out some interesting stuff on the plate...... sometimes!
Yes, that night I was hungry & tired. Didn't have the strength
to make dinner. No place to go out & buy food. There was of course Dominos to deliver pizzas but strangely they are never
willing to deliver after 8pm. I wonder how they did business, but
only in Coimbatore I got such surprises. So here I was figuring out
what to do. All I could was to boil some rice, though I wanted to
eat something better. I simply wished I never came here.
Hardly knew my neighbors. I had been looking out for stores that
sold prepacked food but found none & I remembered all that I
could bargain for in Chennai at such situations.
Frustrated I asked him, the God up there that if he were the one
who showed me this place with no other alternative, then why add more
discomfort? I have come to stay in a city not in favor of my
career goals but only following the signs he laid. And here Iam stuck
unable to step out knowing very well that there aren't any eating
joints near by. As I was recuperating with such thoughts &
wished he did some magic ......................................................................................................................
My door bell rang. I asked who it was & heard a familiar voice
on the other side.
I opened the door to see Gowri, my neighbor's wife. She was holding
a steel bowl covered with a lid. There hung a travel bag from her
left shoulder. She gave me the bowl saying she had made excess daal &
as she was leaving that night to Chennai ,she is giving them to me.
She was slightly hesitant though, probably wondering whether I would
accept. I was more than willing & all I knew was that I was heard.
The bowl contained some freshly made tadkha daal. My favorite. It
was an apt dish, seemed it was just made for me. Here I was with
regained strength cooking my rice for a complete dinner.'
A dinner worth the wait not alone but with someone who walks you
through life teaching you, guiding you, showing you, preparing you
for tomorrow, making you a better you!
____danny dhanya
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