GOLD MINE IN THE KITCHEN.

        My wife’s cousin living in a nearby village has been living a Spartan life for quite sometime. She lost her husband a few years ago and her only daughter left with her husband to Dubai. She used to live a contented life in her small house thanks to the little money left by her husband. Due to her immense love for her husband she used to provide him the tastiest food to his great satisfaction. She transformed cooking into an art and derived immense pleasure from it. Her husband used to invite his friends occasionally to taste the delicacies prepared by her. Soon her reputation as a fantastic cook spread first to the village and then slowly far and wide. Even we used to drive down to the village taking some gifts with us to call on her and taste the fabulous lunch she prepared. The kids used to love her and hog the food to their heart’s content.

        She would accept gifts on special occasions but staunchly refuse any financial help as she considered it an affront to her late husband. We found a way out by giving her utility articles and consumer durables to make her life more comfortable. We also got her a cell phone and taught her to use it. We could give advance information about our arrival and she always willingly provided the specialities that each of us in my family liked. Seeing our ways the other cousins near and distant also used to visit her regularly more for the excellent food she provided and less out of concern for her welfare.

        With advancing years she employed poor women and taught them the intricacies of preparing chicken, prawns, and fish curries. The ladies after learning the fine art of cooking used to get gainful employment in rich households or the hotels in the city. Soon many men and women used to flock to the village to join as her apprentices and pay her well. The rich in the village and the nearby towns and our city used to drive down and take her for supervision of cooking on all important occasions such as weddings and give her a handsome gift in gold or a hefty cash packet as she liked. Her income increased and life style changed much to our delight.

        We used to visit her more frequently with less guilt and she used to receive us cordially and give special instructions to her assistants what to cook and how to cook. She used to visit the kitchen less and the assistants used to come to her for instructions. We felt happy to note the way things turned out for her.

        During the last visit she greeted us “How do you do? How was your trip and weather today?” She spoke with an impeccable accent and surprised us pleasantly. “Good to see you speaking English so well aunty.” My son complimented her. “I am doing a crash course in spoken English.” She said and showed us a state of the art tape recorder and the latest book on learning English in 30 days. “I am through three weeks.” As we praised her amazing progress she called out “Hey folks come and meet my sister and her family.”

Suddenly a small group of six young men dressed in best of jeans and T-shirts with aprons around and big white chef’s caps marched in from the kitchen smartly. “Yes aunty.” They said in unison in proper British accent.

We wondered when and how she discovered six nephews who seemed to have just landed from UK.

Introductions over, she gave them crisp instructions to make two varieties of chicken curry, one special prawns dish, fish curry, special mixed vegetable curry and a fine dessert of Ras Malai topped with chocolate sauce and dry fruits. The nephews said “Yes aunty” almost like sailors acknowledging "Aye Aye sir” to their Captain and marched back to the kitchen. Listening to the menu our mouths started watering and we proceeded to the kitchen to see those young men in action.

The kitchen looked as though it had been transplanted from a five star hotel in England.

My son as curious as ever asked them “Hi guys who are you and what is going on here?”

“You are too young to understand.” One of them replied.

“Even our English teacher may not follow you. Why don’t you answer us in simple English with our accent?”

“Simple my dear young fellow. We all came from UK. They passed a law by which the Indian restaurants cannot get Indian chefs any more. All the thriving Indian restaurants will have to close shop if they can’t find Indian chefs. All six of us are MBAs from a reputed business school but we will get fabulous pay packets if we work as chefs as the Brits love Indian curry. We heard of your aunty and have come here to go through a crash course of three to four months. We also invested money as there are many waiting to join. In the bargain we are teaching your aunty English and paying her a handsome compensation package in Pounds Sterling. Have you got the drift of it?”

By then their “aunty” visited the kitchen and told them to get going fast as the children would get hungry otherwise.

The lunch prepared by the MBA graduates from UK and supervised by the now partly Anglicised “aunty” was beyond compare. The table arranged with all the decor common in upscale restaurants in England was indeed a grand sight. The sparkling cutlery and crockery arranged properly and the chefs under training showing us the vintage of the wine before opening the bottle with care and filling my glass completed the grand spectacle.

Thanks to the new policy of the British Government we had a fabulous and delicious lunch and the kids too enjoyed every morsel of it especially the dessert.

Before leaving in the evening after playing scrabble with the “aunty” we took our customary gift. Instead she presented us a set of six glasses of fine imported crystal.