icarustourcertainty

[icarustourcertainty]

Food is such an inherent part of my life, not only as something I need for survival but as something that connects me to the people I love most. 

See, take my Nani; she loves feeding people. She loves cooking for those she treasures, and I've never seen anything brighter than the glimer and sparkles in her eyes when she serves us her new recipes, and with the excitement of a child, she asks, "Keere? keimon hoiche?" and leans back into her self-assured experience in the kitchen as soon as my brother and I reply with, "Phata fati ekdam!". 

My mother, through all those years of my Indian household trauma, still melts my heart whenever she cuts up fruit for me after our fights. The love she poured into every tiffin she's packed for me at the crack of dawn, the things she's willing to try for her kids and their tastebuds, and the sheer passion she has for cooking and feeding those around her melt every inch of heart. 

and my brother, he's only cooked for us whenever Mummy and Nani were sick and there was no one else to feed us, but now that he's got himself a girlfriend, I often find him humming and singing in the kitchen while simultaneously in a meeting with his colleagues, whenever she's to come over.

Although I haven't inherited the magic they have in their hands, I have inherited their love for food and their love for feeding others, although it might not be something I made. 

My friends too share this love for food. our lunch breaks in school where we shared different cuisines from two different parts of India, them with their south Indian food and I with my Bengali food. The bites shared through giggles and laughter and gossip from different aluminium tins are forever my favourite school memory. 

The canteen food We'd trash talk but still chip in money to eat by the end of the day because we'd get so hungry. 

Food is something that connects me to the people I cherish, and I think it's the most beautiful connection. connection over the shared love for chai and coffee, over the shared love for haldi and masala-stained fingers after dipping them into creamy, spicy curries we got from home, connection over our love for food.