From a Monday Dawn to a Friday Dusk...

It's 3 in the afternoon...perfect siesta time, and I am horribly drowsy after lunching on a dosa and a sweet lime juice, from Janata Cabin, the common man's lunch hub around the corner. With workload on the lighter side, and the client still contemplating on whether to go ahead with the project under such difficult economic conditions, I decided to look up dinner recipes....a completely retarded way, I agree, to while away time. It is then that it suddenly struck me, what an accomplished cook I have evolved into, over the last couple of years...thanks to marriage, thanks to my man's gastronomic over-enthusiasm and unique disability to cook, thanks to the non-availability of a decent cook across the length and breadth of Tamil Nadu, thanks to situations... But trust me, things can get quite out of hand, if you are managing a nine-to-eternity job, cooking, and, general household chores all at once. So I decided to be a little philanthropic. What follows, is a guide for a wife-cook-employee-woman (let's coin a better term...but later, maybe) from Monday morning to Friday evening:

• Get up at 7...if possible, earlier, but personally, I can't manage.



• Get the bread, the cheese, the milk, the cornflakes, the banana etc. out of the refrigerator...if you have to buy it fresh, maintain a phenomenal rapport with the watchman...or else, pluck your man out of bed...ignore the scowl.



• Steal some time for exercise...I cannot believe I am preaching this...but yeah! Adipose needs to disappear.
  


• If the maid comes early, mug up the morning newspaper while she is doing whatever she is doing.



• Get the breakfast ready...gobble and prepare for a bath...if possible, get your office clothes ready, the night before...this includes matching accessories, if that's your type...or better still, forget about your looks...that's simple!



• Have lunch at work...I mean, don't carry lunch...that's one chore gone…make do with the burnt chapattis, the not-so yellow dal, and the completely orange rasam that the dabba walla gets!



• Before taking a bath, make up your mind for dinner...should be light, to finally cut down on the flab, and should be tasty, to satisfy the taste buds...mostly his...dal and chicken, or dal, sabzi, and a boiled egg!



• Remember to switch off lights, fans, gas knobs, and water taps before you plan to leave for work.



• At work, slog it out...there are no two ways about it...is there?



• Return at 8...I know this one's a dream....but hypothetically speaking, return at 8... get the frozen meat out in the kitchen sink for defrosting...wash and cut the vegetables watching Everybody Loves Raymond. (That reminds me, I completely agree with the general belief that marriage is a non-funny version of Everybody Loves Raymond...only that it does not last for 22 minutes)



• Cook...unavoidable...however, cook a large quantity....so that you cook on consecutive days…or even less...ask people to get used to refrigerated food.



• Freshen up....this is your time....watch the news, read Arvind Adiga, watch Michelle Obama on TV… yada yada yada...



• Have dinner once the man is in. Fiddle with HBO or Discovery...or whatever.



• Call up in-laws, out-laws etc. to give them updates of your life.



• Have nightmares of a busy Tuesday and snore.



• Continue this way till Friday night, and let your hair down a bit after that.

Weekends:

• On Friday night, order pepperoni...ignore the flab...get some beer.



• On Saturday, have chello kebab for lunch...catch a late-night movie...do the grocery shopping for the next week in between.



• On Sunday, get a pedicure/massage/sauna...get physical (no pun intended...ah well, if you have time...that too)

Anyone with a better guide is free to catch me at dasgupta.debanjana@gmail.com