THE INDIAN MOTHER COVID LOCKDOWN CHALLENGE – All that smothering and cooking

The Lockdown

As I write this, most of you anywhere in the world will be like me – in a lockdown.

This is unprecedented in the recent history of mankind. None of us and possibly in the last 5 generations before us have experienced a lockdown because of a worldwide pandemic.

I am divorced and don’t have my kids living with me most days.

And my insane traveling schedule in my work pretty much meant that I see them usually on weekends only.

So it was a real delight when the lockdown happened that my ex and I agreed that the kids will stay with me for the duration of the lockdown.

The Daily Grind

I worked from home of course like everybody else, and had my fair share of zoom meetings.

Usually in a presentable shirt and well combed hair, but with dreary funeral worthy shorts or even boxers.

Such is the infamy of technology.

And I turned into an Indian Mother, and I mean this in the most respectful way.

Was it the housework- the insane daily chores I have not had to face since becoming a working adult 30 years ago?

Doing the laundry, folding everyone’s unmentionables, the washing up after the incessant cooking, making cocoa and other hot drinks, and generally fussing around like an anxious mother hen.

But it was the cooking that I became like a suffocating smothering indian mother, who wants to keep their child under their sari and attend to their every need until the child reaches 45 years of age.

I alluded to this phenomenon in my earlier blog about Indian mothers under the section “The magic of the sari – Amma loves you.”

If you want to learn about Indian mothers, look no further than the highly cerebral and hugely entertaining BBC series GoodnessGraciousMe.

In that series, there is a recurring skit whereby the Indian mother will say to the children something to the effect that “ Amma can make it at home for nothing…”

So I became an Indian mother and asked my kids what they wanted to eat every day for all 3 meals.

Everything they threw at me, it was:

“Pfffstttt – that is nothing. Vai you talk about Cafe offspring ? Amma can do it at home much more betterer and much much more gooder ……..”

Slowly over time, I noticed that the proposed meals became more and more adventurous and menus became more involved.

I think my kids were challenging me.

Even if they weren’t.

Challenge accepted.

And so the Indian mother covid lockdown challenge emerged.

Here are some of their requests and exuberant cooking escapades:

Prawn Mee Dinner with prawn toasts