A Piece of Home !!!

  

It was a bright sunny day.. I woke up with a smile, refreshed from my 7 hours of sleep.. But the not so refreshing thought followed pretty soon ..It was only Tuesday..like a kid I spread my fingers and counted the days..Wednesday, Thursday and Friday..Oh no..3 more days for the weekend..(I lived for the weekends, u see..) It is just 3 more days G, I consoled myself and went through my morning rituals before getting to work .. 

After an hour of hectic number crunching, my outlook announced I had a new email.. As much as i wanted to take a peek, I left the email unattended for a few more minutes concentrating on the work at hand..Finally the crunching done and taking a quick peek at the email, I jumped up and ran to the kitchen..I never knew I could run so fast..I had to, after all the email was 30 mins old already and I would be lucky if there was anything left.. The email was from my colleague MM.. homemade chocolate cake in the kitchen, it said..i knew what that meant..DB (his wife) had baked the cake..

 DB is one of the best cooks I’ve known..All of her dishes are sprinkled with something more than just love and passion..a little magic i called 'the touch of home'.... The tastes, smell, sight and flavors always bought back a piece of home and that to me was special, since i lived continents away from home.. Take the chocolate cake for instance..One bite and I traveled back in time to my childhood and the fond memories of mom’s famous chocolate cake..  

In the warm and homely kitchen, mom baked cakes when we came home from school..She started from scratch and all the kneading and mixing was done by hand..Like eager beavers my brother and myself used to wait on our tippy toes to help mom with the eggs and milk..Stepping on broken egg shells and slipping on spilt milk..It was always an adventure..’Throw the blame on your sibling’ game we used to play and the little tantrums we threw, deciding who gets to lick the spoon and who gets the bowl..The number of visits to the kitchen to look at the baking cake and the running commentaries that followed.. The relentless questioning ‘ is the cake ready yet..huh mom..is it..is it?'
Thinking about it now, mom must have been a saint, for she patiently answered the same question a zillion times..  Finally the much awaited cake is ready..The heavenly aroma fills the house..My brother liked the cake with icing but no sprinkles and I liked it with icing and sprinkles..After a few more tantrums, buckets of  crocodile tears and hours of  negotiations, we reached a compromise..Oh..the bliss of parenting..Half cake with sprinkles and half without..Mom must have been very good at geometry.. for her measuring and sprinkling skills were flawless..Even myself the tantrum queen (according to my bro) had nothing to complain about..and then comes the yummy part..The first bite.. It is always the best..

Now back to the present, I’m much older and far away from home..But taking a bite into DB’s cake that tuesday morning, I was transported to the very minute when as a little girl I took my first bite off mom’s chocolate cake.. I had a few smudges of icing on my nose and face, just as I had 23 years earlier..but dint bother to wipe it off, for i was the little girl once again and was home with my brother, mom and her wonderful chocolate cake..Just like my precious memories of home, I savored the very last crumb of  DB's cake with the biggest, goofiest smile on my face..

Unlike before the thought of 3 more days for the weekend, did not make a difference, for the memories of home were fresh in my mind and that was enough to cheer me up for days to come..

Thank you MM and DB.. for saving my just another Tuesday and giving me a piece of Home !!