There are guests and there are guests. There are guests who seem bent on eating us out of house and home. Then there are those who eat none of the things I have cooked for them as I would have had no idea that they were vegetarian or on a diet or simply had poor appetites. Then there is a third type of guest—those who partake of whatever I put before them, relishing everything and complimenting me on the food. These really make my day. The other day, a strange thing happened at our house. We had a visitor at breakfast time and so we made him comfortable in the dining room and pressed him to have breakfast with us.
As I heated the griddle to fry dosas, I offered him a slice of chocolate cake. This was for him to nibble on while his dosas got ready. The strange thing that happened was this: He shook his head and refused the cake! Now let me explain that this was no run-of-the-mill cake, but a masterpiece that was created by the hand of my aunt, Prema maayi, who is an expert baker. She belongs to the same class of cooks as Anatole, God’s gift to the gastric juices—the Anatole of P G Wodehouse fame. The only difference is that she is for real and not the figment of an auth-or’s imagination.
Now, this guest took a look at the spongy creation with the moist chocolate filling, eyed the firm chocolate frosting and then actually said “no” to it! He said he wasn’t diabetic or anything like that. He explained that he wasn’t too hungry. It was news to me that one had to be hungry to eat chocolate cake, that too Prema maayi’s!I looked at him in awe.
I hadn’t thought that a person existed on earth who had the willpower to resist this most marvellous and sumptuous delicacy. The temptation of sweets is too much for me to resist and it is well nigh impossible for me to say no to any kind of cake as cakes are topmost on my list of favourite sweets. My husband brought the uneaten slice into the kitchen and placed it on the counter next to me. Now cakes, especially Prema maayi’s creations, do not last long in my vicinity. It disappeared in seconds and my face wore a beatific smile as I proceeded to fry dosas for our guest.
Pragati Nayak
Email: pragati.16017@gmail.com