Part XXIV
"Watch your girth, Ali," warned Rehana. "At the rate you are stuffing yourself up, I think we may have to discard all your clothes and buy you a whole new set you can fit into before we leave India. We may also have to pay a couple of visits to the doctor's clinic to make sure you are not exerting your heart as much as you are exerting your stomach." Ishan and Sahana giggled at the couple.
Ali ignored her warnings and went in for his third helping of the Gujarati green beans.
"Bhabhi how did you make beans taste sooo good. I hate beans but I simply love this dish," he said.
"Yes, Prachi Bhabhi how do you prepare this dish?" asked Rehana with keen interest.
Prachi gave her the recipe (given below).
Gujarati-style green bean
Recipe By : Madhur Jaffrey in Indian Cooking
Serving Size : 4
Ingredients
1 pound fresh green beans
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon whole black mustard seeds
4 cloves garlic - peeled and minced
1/2 -1 hot, dried red chilli, coarsely crushed in mortar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
freshly ground black pepper
Preparation Method
Trim the beans and cut them into 1-inch lengths.
Blanch the beans by dropping them into a pot of boiling water and boiling
rapidly for 3-4 minutes or until they are just tender.
Drain immediately in a colander and rinse under cold, running water.
Set aside.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium flame.
When hot, put in the mustard seeds.
As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop, put in the garlic.
Stir the garlic pieces around until they turn light brown.
Put in the crushed red chili and stir for a few seconds.
Put in the green beans, salt, and sugar.
Stir to mix.
Turn the heat to medium-low.
Stir and cook the beans for 7-8 minutes or until they have absorbed the flavour of the spices.
Add the black pepper, mix, and serve.
Rehana made a mental note of the instructions that Prachi was giving.
"Darling, you'll remember to make this dish when we get back, wouldn't you?" Ali asked his wife.
"Why, Ali, wouldn't you help her prepare it?" asked Milind innocently.
"Like how you helped me prepare it?" asked Prachi jocularly and burst out laughing seeing Milind's face turn red.
Prachi's thoughts went back to the first and only day she let Milind into her kitchen.
Past (Prachi's flashback)
The morning after their confrontation, Prachi came into the room bearing the tea tray and looked around for Milind. Not finding him in the room, she left the tray in the side table and peeped into the open bathroom. Milind was standing in front of the mirror, holding a razor against his cheek.
"Milind!" she yelled out, starling Milind with her scream. Milind jerked his hand and ended up nicking himself.
"Ouch!" he yelped.
"Milind!" Prachi screamed again and ran to him. The cut, though not too deep, was still bleeding. She rushed to the medical cabinet and came back with anti-septic lotion and cotton. She quickly cleaned him up and applied the band-aid.
"Sorry Milind, I always end up hurting you," she said in a small voice.
"That's OK, Prachi. But what did you scream for? Are you alright?" he asked with concern.
"Yes, Milind. I am alright but what were you about to do?"
"What would I do with a razor? Obviously I was about to shave off all the offensive facial hair," he explained.
"Why?" she asked in confusion.
"Why? Was that not the first thing you asked of me the day after our wedding?"
Prachi bent her head in shame, "That was long ago. I don't want you to get rid of something you have had for so many years. You must like it."
"It is not about what I like but what you do. After all you are the one who has to go to bed and wake up every day seeing this face."
"I have gotten used to seeing you this way. In fact this look has sort of grown on me and now I quite like it," she said shyly.
"Are you sure? Citing this as the reason, you will not deprive me of kisses later on, would you?" he asked jocularly.
"No, I will not and to prove it, here you are," she said and leaning up she lightly kissed his bearded cheek. Before he could react she ran out. Milind guffawed behind her.
After he had his shower, Milind sat with Prachi to have the tea.
"Prachi, will you mix it for me?"
She looked at him in surprise.
"Are you sure you want me to?"
"Yes, I do."
Prachi felt happy that he let her do something he never let even Nandu Kaka do for him. She quickly squeezed the lime into the tea, added two spoons of sugar and handed the cup of him.
While sipping it, he asked her, "How come you gave in so easily Prachi? I was bracing myself for a long drawn out warfare."
Prachi looked at him in confusion.
"How did you accept me so soon? I was a real jerk, leaving you as I did that night after taking the initiative."
"I did show my resentment by ignoring you for two days. I was also sarcastic with you," she said, still not believing she gave him a taste of his own medicine, however mild it was.
"Yes, but that was nothing compared to the punishment I meted out to you for donating my designer jeans. Remember I berated you and gave you the cold treatment for four whole days? My sin was far greater than that innocuous blunder of yours. How did you have it in your heart to not only forgive me and accept me as I am but also be willing wait for me to make you my wife in every sense of the word?"
Milind seemed moved by what she said. He held her hands in his and said "I am truly blest in having you as my wife. I will work hard to make a success of our marriage for both our sakes." He gently kissed her fingers.
Prachi looked down shyly and slowly withdrew her hands.
"Shall we go down for breakfast?" she asked.
Milind nodded and joined her in the dining hall.
As it was a Sunday, Milind was home. He was busy in his study for the rest of the morning. At around 11 o' clock, Prachi went to the kitchen to start cooking lunch. She looked around for Nandu kaka but he was not to be found. She decided to go ahead and do all the chores herself when Milind suddenly sprung before her.
"What are you doing here?"asked Prachi, surprised to see her husband in the kitchen.
"Nandu kaka wanted to watch the latest Amitabh movie, Sharabhi. He is a great fan of his, you know. So I sent him for the noon show. I'll help you with the cooking, today." What she did not know then was that Milind himself had given the money to Nandu kaka to make himself scarce till evening.
"You will help me?" she asked with her hands on her hips.
"Why not?" he asked confidently.
"What can you cook?" she asked sceptically.
"Let's see," he said contemplatively and started counting with his fingers. "I can boil water."
Ignoring her glare he continued, "Then I can boil an egg."
"Other than boiling, do you know anything else," asked Prachi mockingly.
"Well," he drawled "I can make Maggie noodles," he said proudly. The instant noodles were introduced in the Indian market that year and were quite popular amongst the urban households.
Prachi threw up her hands exasperatedly and said, "You know what? I think I can do without your help."
"Please madam, take me as your under-study. I promise to follow all your commands," Milind begged, putting on a puppy dog face.
Prachi relented and asked him to cut the beans into 1 inch length as she was preparing the Gujarati green beans dish.
Milind nodded his head and took the beans from her hands.
In the meantime she got busy with the rest of the cooking. Milind briefly disappear for a few seconds and returned to his beans. Not getting the cut beans from him even after 15 minutes, she wondered what he was up to. She turned around to see his tall frame bent down almost in level with the kitchen counter. She walked up behind him to see what he was up to. She was amazed by what she saw, for there in front of her was her husband, diligently measuring each bean pod with a ruler and marking it with a pencil.
"What are you doing?" she asked in confusion.
"You said that I need to cut them into one inch length, didn't you? So I am marking them up so that I can cut them precisely at one inch intervals."
"Milind, you are impossible!" she exclaimed and snatched the beans from his hands. "I'll cut them myself. If I wait for you, we will have to skip our lunch and go directly to dinner."
Ignoring Milind's protest, she deftly went about cutting them into the required size.
Milind whistled seeing her expertise. "Prachi, that is simply great. What precision. You'll put any engineer or architect to shame."
Prachi merely smiled and was about to drop them into the boiling pot of water she had kept on the stove. Milind intervened and snatched the vessel containing the cut beans.
"I'll do that," he volunteered, emptying the vessel into the pot. As the action was sudden, the boiling water splashed out as the beans fell in, scalding Prachi's arm and making her flinch. An alarmed Milind immediately took her arm to examine the extent of damage and dragged her to the sink to keep her arm under the cold running water.
"Wait here," he said and rushed to get the ointment.
He returned in seconds with a Burnol tube and applied it tenderly on the scalded portion, apologising prefusely.
She looked at his bent head lovingly as he blew gently on her arm.
"Does it still hurt?" he asked with concern written all over his face.
She shook her head in the negative.
She then asked him to leave. "Milind, you'll be doing me a great service if you just let me take care of everything. I can finish the cooking faster if left alone."
"OK. I'll stand here and watch. I'll not disturb you," he said and despite her protest, stood in a corner of the kitchen and watched her unwaveringly as she went about efficiently cooking their meal. His eyes fell on her exposed waist where she had tucked the pallu of her saree. He quickly moved his eyes up to her face and noticed that her forehead was gleaming with sweat due to the heat of the stove. He quickly took a hand towel and walked up to her. She looked up at him sceptically, wondering what other problems he was going to create for her. He smiled at her reassuringly and bent down to gently dab the sweat beads on her forehead. She heaved a sigh of relief and thanked him.
Soon the cooking was over and she asked him to set the table which he gladly did. They then had their lunch in silence with Milind making periodic noises to indicate how much he was relishing the food, bringing a smile to Prachi's face.
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