Christmas in Delhi
My cousins made Diwali special for me and a I want to make Christmas special for them. Even though I put work into the house, I never considered inviting people over to my home. Inspired by my cousins, I decorated the place, organized minute to win it games, set up the Nintendo Switch, baked some sugar cookies, and bought everyone small Christmas gifts. I had my cook whip up some good food and I bought a bunch of liquor. Throughout the planning process, I made two realizations.
1. My parents had the party thing down packed when we were growing up.
Indian holidays were an interesting affair growing up. There were 3 other families that celebrated all the holidays with us and we had a system for who would host which festival and every mom brought the same meal. We looked forward to eating everyone’s signature dishes. I still miss Geeta Aunty’s pav bhaji, Sangeetha aunty’s chicken curry or chaats, Archana aunty’s veggie pinwheels, and of course my mom’s chole. The beauty of the system was that no one stressed about what to cook and the menu was designed to be served all at once. Everyone ate on their own timeframe (kids usually ate first and adults ate when it was convenient), but you never complained about the food being cold. I had my cousins try out the snacks and dinner at the same time concept and I’d say it was a hit (they might say otherwise). Who knew that my parents had some things figured out growing up? Looking back - it was an extremely innovative idea and was pretty counter cultural. I’m not sure how it started but it’s something I’m going to do.
2. Feeding other people is actually really important to me.
Food is a love language here in India. The top memories (and top annoyances) I have of my mother and both my grandmas is their food. They were constantly making my favorite foods and insisting on me eating. Breaking away from some of the bad habits, such as overeating and expecting warm food every meal, took a lot of effort. In my head, I have created better portion control habits and reduced my eating hours to allow my food to digest better. I get very annoyed when I’m badgered about food. But it’s funny - sometimes the things we get most annoyed about are the things that stick with us most. I constantly ask people if they’ve eaten when I travel and feel very proud to provide people meals. Whether it is a snack or a meal, I feel a sense of internal satisfaction when I’m able to feed anyone - especially family.
P. S. Why is it so hard to plan meals? With a cook who cook who cooks what I want on demand, choosing what I want to eat every day Is still difficult.
P. P. S. I want to take this moment to shoutout to Karin for being the best food organizer and planner I know. I dearly miss you and wish I had a fraction of the skills you have and it’s so much harder than I thought it was and thank you for never making us feel any pain around food.