– Kavita Mukhi, Mumbai-based eco-nutritionist and director of Conscious Food AlthoughI pride myself on being self-sufficient and independent, the simple but simultaneously intricate art of cooking I learnt rather late in life (and am still trying to perfect), because I was lucky to have a mother who is an excellent cook. She can single-handedly rustle up meals for our 11-member family, and accommodate half a dozen unexpected guests as well. With help she can turn out lavish dinners for 50 people at short notice. Moreover her wonder meals are rustled up inexpensively, without waste, and making do with current stocks of raw materials. But though we were unaware until recently, a price was paid. Mother‚s needs at all levels were put aside. Her music and art never got time and attention, because our needs always came first, and every ache and pain was brushed aside. Some went away and some became part of her being. She never took time off because the family, her staff, her guests, all had to be fed, clothed and housed.But in the everyday hurly-burly, anyone else in her kitchen was a hindrance to her flow of preparing menus and meals. Only when I had my own kitchen was I able to begin my culinary experiments. And recently I have begun cooking food that not just satisfies the palate and taste buds, it also satiates the hunger of body cells. Now this femme formidable is laid up in bed with nerve pain. She keeps telling me to slow down though she never rested herself! But even when bed-ridden, she can‚t reconcile to eating out, because restaurant food is unhealthy and “an utter waste of money”. She rightly criticises people who won‚t pay the household help an extra Rs.500 per month, while spending ten times as much on dining out!I‚ve battled constantly with her over cooking basic simple food, not worrying about each family member‚s preference and letting a cook take care of everyday chores. But she simply can‚t serve a minimal meal and needs her table to look full and inviting. Right now, however, she can‚t run the kitchen but still manages to direct it from her bedside. The positive side of her predicament is that although in pain, she‚s getting the much needed rest her body has been screaming for all these years. If she only had listened to her body‚s warning signals, she would have eased up before severe pain set in. The moral of the story is that if we don‚t pay attention to symptoms and begin to treat the cause (the real cause i.e beyond the germs and virus illusion), the body has no option but to refuse to cooperate and force you to rest. How and when we heed the signals determines our health condition. Curiously, most people have difficulty in accepting the self-evident truth that there‚s more to healthy living than popping pills that temporarily suppress pain and discomfort. Even with alternate medicine, if lifestyle changes are not made simultaneously,…
