Milk Buttermilk Butter Ghee and much more!

Scene 1:

Dropped son at stop for school bus and on the way back picked up milk packets from centre .

while tea was on, milk was up for boiling I was on daily task list one by one.. collect malai ,warm left over milk ,set curd , make buttermilk for day.

Took vegetables out from tray and started cutting it.

"So much work you have in the morning." exclaimed my sister in law who was watching all these morning silent movie.

Really?

Ya..we really don't do all this in USA.Just take out milk can  from freeze and make tea.

Canned milk so no need to boil.Curd doesn't set well of that milk so no question of setting curd.

No curd no buttermilk.

Skimmed milk so no malai no butter making no ghee making.

and there I am thinking >>all this may be comes naturally in many of Indian house holds..We have grown up watching mothers /grand mothers doing all these activities and as we set our own kitchen many of that we picked up unknowingly.

Scene 2:

All of them were meeting for school reunion.Separate groups at separate tables chit chatting. from Carrier to kids Politics to kitchen all subjects under the sun are touched upon.What to give in tiffin for kids, how household things are never ending 

"shee!kon karnar te tup and all" She said 

"Me karte mala ghari kadhavalelach tup avadata" one replied

"Ho na tya baherachya tupala ti taste yet nahi "  other replied

"Ani mahag pan kiti padata te" one more voice.

some on table were house wives ,some teachers, some who had own cooking business"

May be she said it at wrong table..

As a kid I remember relishing dollop of freshly churned super white soft loni (makkhan)

My mom used to give it to me "loni sakhar" and Sweetness and softness of that freshly churned loni is unbeatable.

I remember during vacation times when i used to visit my aunt who was doctor by profession used to churn butter for us for morning thalipith breakfast.

You can swear by Amul maska to spread it on bread but for thalipeeth you need to have this home made loni(white makkhan) and it really has taken me ages to make that perfect loni at home (Aai sarkhe)

Sometimes when you get too lazy and collect malai for more than 15 days and you get that sour taste and pungent odour to loni. You don't feel like having it and make tup out of it but tup tastes equally bad. :(

Sometimes you managed to come up with good loni but you keep it more time than required on flame and then ghee gets that burnt smell...another failed attempt..

then u realised even pan in which you make it matters and after several trial and error you zero down to one pan and wish it remains intact forever.

"Tup kadhavane" disate titake sope nakkich nahi.

These mundane tasks and simple conversations triggered something within me.

I am not linking the simple process with any profession.In some profession by default we get more time to look after household matter, in some profession it comes as a choice.

Sometimes we need to star dietician to tell us homemade ghee is best for weight loss.

Do we still underestimate household work or look down upon those who prefer to do it all themselves?

Having cook at home is it status symbol?

With busy lifestyle, long hours at work some tasks look tedious but we need to choose our battles wisely.With some planning and time management and sharing tasks can be done?

Is it just a time crunch or is it ready availability of food or is it laziness or following western trends?

We surely need to give it a thought.