This week, Sunday Scribblings wants us to scribble about kitchens. The best place in this world... Here goes:
Cook up a tale
What does one think of when kitchen is mentioned? For most of us, it is food. Some of us can even smell food. It can be any kind of food. Kitchen reminds us of shared love, laughter, fighting with siblings for bigger shares and just the feeling of being with each other. Our basic need is food and it gets fulfilled here.
From time immemorial, the kitchen has been the domain of woman. Only in this place, they come out on their own. Most females do not like to share this space with any other person. Here in the kitchen, women give in to their nurturing instincts for caring. They do it by providing the best of food to all those they love and care for. Their family, their friends. The food prepared by so much love, can only taste good. They give in to their creative instincts of preparing something new.
In the olden days the phrase “home and hearth” started with the kitchen. Only in the kitchen, the worries of the days vanished and the whole family got together to enjoy a hot meal, talking, bonding and enjoying the food. They seldom picked on food. Warm wholesome healthy food was always available and always welcome by everyone.
To answer it truthfully, nowadays how many of us sit down and have a meal, relaxing? We are always in too much of a hurry. Sometimes we just gobble it down, standing right inside the kitchen, not even tasting it. We make ourselves busy for nothing and do not even enjoy that one thing which sustains us throughout the day.
Our kitchens have become very modern, come with best of gadgets…but lost their souls. We use packaged food, warm it and think of it as a good meal. Our kitchens are no longer the same place which bonded us with each other. Holidays come, our moms made sure the cookie jars were filled with homemade goodies made with love. Now we just buy it off the self. Does it taste just as good?
Even though we have become so busy and do not spend as much time as our mothers did in the kitchen, it is still the life force of any home. The heart of any house. The place which unites a family. A place for bonding. A place for shared love, laughter and dreams.
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You forgot to mention love....
ReplyDeleteIn the old times kitchen was considered a place to get together. Love and affection were on the air.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad was on tour most of the time.
But when he was home, he insisted on eating with the whole family irrespective of age or relation...around the dining table with laughter.
Steve: yes, I did not mention it in words....but....
ReplyDeletejac: Kitchen is one place where we forget our worries.It's where we share our love and laughter along with food...
A lovely post, Gautami, and yes, you are right... the kitchen is not what it used to be. Life is so busy now that it has just become another room in the house. That's a shame.
ReplyDeleteGautami, I do agree! We have lost so many traditions (and skills); if only we could get back to "the good old days".
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of wisdom here. Food is so important and fundamental to our health, both in body and spirit, but we don't seem to value it anymore.
ReplyDeleteIt's so true that the modern kitchen feels more like a transitory place than the center of our homes. And don't get me started on pre-packaged suppers! I enjoyed this piece.
ReplyDeleteits a family institution. The best there is, where scores are settled, tradition are build, broken and safeguarded.
ReplyDeleteMy wife won't let me in the kitchen when she is cooking. We eat every dinner together and although she doesn't match a lot of food from scratch, she does enjoy cooking for us.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the kitchen being the hub/heartbeat of the home. In France, people still take time to prepare meals and enjoy them and eat fewer packaged meals and fast food. In our family, my husband's the chef! I'm the baker, although I don't bake much these days, as my daughter's off to college.
ReplyDeleteThe kitchen is where we cook up dreams and stir in love.
ReplyDeleteI so agree, that the role of the kitchen has changed so much in the modern world. Now, we are in such a hurry, we barely have time to pass through, rather than savor and enjoy our time there.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
It's really fascinating to read about the change in India with regards to home cooking and things like that--because the country is becoming so fast paced, so many of those old arts are being lost. :(
ReplyDeleteregina: In India, most kitchens are still the same as they were. But modern kitchens have lost their souls. Nowadays, most working women shun cooking and just eat out or get ready-to-eat foods.
ReplyDeleteautrice: We can't go back to good old days. We can make best use of the present ones.
kamsin: We do not even make the effort to enjoy a decent meal any more. Pity!
stacy: Modern kitchen has become a show piece. All gadgetry are there but seldom used.
ghost: Do you still eat? I thought being a ghost and all....:D
brian: Exactly my point. Women do not want anyone else to take away this one place which their own.
paris/tara: Someday I will taste your baked goodies!
tongue in cheek: Very true. Dreams are made here...love exist in the cooking, in the air...
becca: Sometimes I feel we are busy for nothing. We show we are busy. Giving ourselves excuse for doing important work as cooking. Food made with love is healthy as it contains the positive vibes.
mardougrrl: There is revolutionary changes in India going on. In some fronts, we are much ahead.
The kitchen is most definitely the heart of the house!
ReplyDeleteMy kitchen is my favorite part of my house. :)
ReplyDeleteHow true - the kitchen is the life force of every home. Hmm I wonder how come....
ReplyDeleteYou are absoluely right. Thanks for reminding me.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear that busy-ness, pre-packaged food, and not enough time to linger over meals are global maladies! We can put the souls back in our kitchens if we choose to slow down and enjoy the moment. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
ReplyDeletegautami,
ReplyDeleteWe can find the spirit in any room if we set our minds to it.
As Mac Davis sang: "you've got to stop and smell the roses".
If we can remember what it was like then we can bring it back.
rel
My dad did all the cooking when I was younger :) I see many families eating from the microwave in front of the tv...me included. Sad :(
ReplyDeleteWonderful post!
i remember those days when i help my mom in the kitchen, baking some cake...
ReplyDeleteit was warm and loads of fun
yes, the kitchen is the soul of a home... lovely post, gautami!
ReplyDeleteHope u r well...
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing me back to the kitchen..I just dont get the chance as much to be in the kitchen...I recall as child when I use to be asked to cook when I was 14 - 16 I use to be so happy as all the cook books will be scribbled with poetry...It was my domain to cook and dream and sprinkle my food with poetry ...i was crazy now I think of it LOL
Thanks for such reminder ...I miss the kicthen days where I day dream
Nasra
You've touched on something so important, that togetherness that comes naturally in the kitchen, that is sadly diminishing in our modern society. Great to see that even with all the conveniences, people out there still try to keep the togetherness alive. Great post.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Gautami. I agree with you about eating being done too quickly. Taking time together at a meal really helps keep the family connected!
ReplyDeleteYou describe really well how family dynamics and the feeling in a home (and thus larger society) all stem from the kitchen.
That's what a kitchen should be like all right. My grandmother's was like that - actually my grandparents on both sides. With them, the kitchen was really the main room for both food and conversation.
ReplyDeleteI really like your point about how kitchens have changed. We have to work harder to create community in our kitchens now, but I do think it's possible. I think it's just that for a lot of us we have to plan for it, it has to be deliberate.
ReplyDeleteYou're right - people stand eating over the sink out of the pot to save plates!
ReplyDeleteThe soul has gone out of many kitchens in today's society.
Always look forward to visiting you G!
Take care,
Frances
Kitchen it is!
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
i do all the cooking
ReplyDeletei think i'm missing out :)
"Our basic need is food and it gets fulfilled here."
ReplyDeleteApart from that, though, love and other needs get fulifilled in the kitchen, too. And I'm not talking about an eager couple on the kitchen table.
Nice piece!
ReplyDeleteI don't know...my own kitchen (I'm 30) is full of cooking smells and laughter and love and it's absolutely the meeting place in the house. Making the kitchen be "what it used to be" is a choice, and not always an easy one; if people can't find time to nourish their bodies and souls with real food and real time spent over that food, to me that's quite tragic as it's what life is all about. To me, at least.
Thanks for your comment on my Scribble :)
We make ourselves busy for nothing and do not even enjoy that one thing which sustains us throughout the day.
ReplyDeleteNo truer words. Great take on the prompt.
true words. yes, I would have to say bonding too - as the song goes; you'll always find me in the kitchen at parties!
ReplyDeletethat's probably because it's the only place you can hear the conversations.
I cook, but kitchens represent work and cleaning to me. So they aren't my favorite places as my family members won't even wash dishes.
ReplyDeleteThis touched me as so true. true that the kitchen is my domain where I cook up the love and nurturing for my family.
ReplyDeleteYour words about our kitchens having lost their souls are so very poignant - and unfortunately, hold a lot of truth.
ReplyDeleteA very wise post, that I will remember as I step into my kitchen today...
I will a large kitchen one day. It will be great where we can all congregate. Just as it has been and just as it should be.
ReplyDeleteToo many of us retreat eating food on our laps in front of the box.
Shame.
Good post Gautami
The most satisfying thing is making a meal from scratch with no boxes, wrappers, or microwaves involved.
ReplyDeleteYour words inspire me to continue to find the soul of MY kitchen.
some men like to be in the kitchen too--somewhere recently I read about marriage being strengthened in the kitchen where both the man and woman shared cooking.
ReplyDeleteIn India, are people as busy as here--no time to sit down and eat? I enjoy eating and conversation, but often find myself working at mealtimes
The kitchen is such a wonderful place to be with family. I enjoyed your post and wish for more time there and not hurried. I get that on the weekends.
ReplyDeleteThe kitchen was always the heart of my home and my mothers before me, even though we both worked. Food preparation and family meals need to be revisited. It's the very important glue holding a family together. Unfortunately North America life is lacking in this area! Personally at this juncture I’d like to be liberated from the kitchen. Yet I know the significance of dining as a family! Very powerful post!
ReplyDeletehttp://rainbowsreflectraysofthesun.blogspot.com/2007/03/kitchen.html
ReplyDeleteOk my take on kitchens
Gautami, I was surprised to read that most women don't like to share their kitchen... I am definitely NOT a kitchen-sharer (at least not the work... I like company), but I always thought that was unusual. Glad to hear otherwise.
ReplyDeleteAnd my photo is finally up on my post, by the way. (Sheesh.)
That is why everyone is always gathering there. Good to see your blog again.
ReplyDeleteThanks my friends,for your valuable inputs.
ReplyDeleteAs I see kitchen is a place for sharing, caring of food, love, grief, hopes, bonding.....lot more. We all seem to agree on that.I loved writing about it. I loved it as much as I love cooking.
Hope all of us make a little effort to spend more time in there...just sharing....love..