If Looks Could Kill

When you perceive somebody’s attention on you out of the corner of your eyes, you have the liberty to think that the person is actually staring at you. So what do you do? You can clear your throat and stall for some time before mustering up the courage to ask the person whether he has any problem. But what if you don’t have the nerve to do it? You can’t just sit there and bear the brunt of it, can you? You start thinking about the various reasons the person has to stare at you. If the person belongs to the same sex, you take enough time to run your fingers through your hair for your own satisfaction. Then you look carefully to see if the person is still staring at you. OMG! The person can’t still be gawking at you like that. Well… There must be another reason. You continue to think, pushing the other imperative things to the back of your mind. Why is this person looking at me like this? You squirm in your seat uncomfortably (you fidget even if you are standing) and turn your head the other way helplessly.

It is one of the most possible things in life that the person is looking right through you. You pray sincerely that that might be the reason and peep at the “object of enigmatic perception” and you could have sworn that the person actually smiled at you. The clock shows fifteen minutes past the time when you first realized the person’s ardent worship of your face. Fifteen minutes and you still haven’t come up with any ideas as to why the nut looks at you like you have suddenly sprouted horns on your head. You touch your head anyway to dissolve your not-so-stupid doubt. Interesting! The person has a very very good reason to still stare at you. Probably, you look like the person’s late grandparent. Enough is enough! You religiously ignore the person for the next five minutes and then turn your head to check… Gosh! This is it! You have gathered enough courage and proof to question the person!!! You close in the few yards between the person and you and…you start…

Be direct and precise. Don’t give the person any time to think. Present your arguments and just flee the scene. You open your mouth, but the person wins the mental battle. “You have something on your nose and for the past fifteen minutes I had been contemplating on how to tell you….” Alright alright…It’s not as if the whole world caved in on you……

Okay!! Let us rewind the entire situation. We will start right from the part when you actually perceive somebody’s attention on you. And you notice that the person is of the opposite sex. Your face twists into an expression of curiosity. You start your typical job. You pat your hair, but you make sure that it makes you look even more amicable than you already are. You put on an alluring look on your face and smile as you go about your work. (All the above allegations depend upon the type of personality, your aficionado has.) You gape back at the person so that even the asinine of people can make out that, you are actually ogling at the person (well, in a subtle way?). Whoa! The person’s scrutiny is giving you a chill down your spine. Yeah baby! You have enough acumen in you to decipher the fact that, you belong to a breed of specially created homo sapiens whom the rest of the intimates call “good looking”. But such a finely tuned gaze is almost driving you crazy with a special power, which you have never felt before (provided you are not a narcissist). You shift, irrespective of your posture and continue your not-so-blatant actions. Finally you start to do what our fore fathers did thousands of years ago- thinking! Why is this person staring at me like this? You badly wish for a mirror to check if everything about you is pristine……

You are dying to know the reason behind this unusual portrayal of undisguised interest. You turn away and try to get absorbed into your work. But the person’s expression of honest adulation (hey, it’s as you perceive it to be!) keeps your already blistering gray cells all the more occupied and you seem to have lost interest for anything else in life. Suddenly the driving force of your life seems to lie in that arcane reason for the gaze. You close your eyes for a moment and when you open them, you are staring right into the most beautiful pair of eyes you have ever seen in your entire imperceptible life. Intuition tells you to take the reins of the much-anticipated conversation. But the person beats you to it… (Isn’t there a vague repetition of history somewhere?) “There is something on your nose. I had been ruminating on how to reach you…”

CUTTTT!!!

CULINARY SKILLS & MEN…??

Oh yeah definitely…visualize this…A corporate businessman and his totally pepped up wife who is also working. Wife goes away on a business tour and the husband stranded in the kitchen? Nah…being independent is more like it. A fast moving world as is the case now, has no time for people who sit back and relax, waiting for others to wait on them. Everyone has to know and learn everything.

As a woman entered the household of her new home, succeeding the commencement of her wedding, the responsibility of cooking and feeding automatically fell on her shoulders. Since one of them had to do it, and the husband goes out for work, the natural logic was for the woman to do it. Later on it became mandatory for the woman to do the cooking. The best part of the whole thing is that, it is the same throughout history in the innumerable civilizations all over the world. Cooking expanded in her very own private world. Sumptuous meals always came by his side from his woman’s kitchen, and the man had no clue as to the work behind all that. The woman took pride in her work. It was always magic. The man’s eyes frequently popped out and he had a difficult time finding his voice while he tucked in all those delicacies which his wife had prepared lovingly for him.

As time went on, the woman began to look out more into the street, than just an occasional glance apart from her backyard, where she had planted a neat kitchen garden. Neighbourly chat over the fence with the woman of the next house, usually gave her the information she needed. But as it goes, it wasn’t obviously enough. What can rival, a first hand experience. Thus woman as a person stepped out into the world beyond the threshold of her house and took the entire world by storm. It hasn’t abated since then. The result? Man was taken by a sheer jolting surprise. He very perceptibly didn’t expect his woman to take up so many other “unnecessary” responsibilities. After all he is the “actual” bread winner isn’t he? But he grudgingly admitted that whatever she was doing, his woman did a good job. But his woman didn’t neglect him either. She still cooked for and fed him. Emotions and the related feelings changed. Work, career also fought for the top most position in the woman’s priority list. Man at first resented this competition with inanimate objects. But the woman assured him, that she was still cooking for him and proved it too very cleverly.

Man was satisfied for the time being. He started to become proud of his woman…how she goes after what she wants…

The woman going out for work became a familiar, just-another-matter. Man soon learned to accept that he couldn’t take some things for granted. And ah, the grand finale of the whole thing…Man realized that he had to get into the kitchen at some point of time to try his hand at cooking if he had to survive when his wife wasn’t there (with due apologies). And thus began the entry of man into the Diaspora of the kitchen and its mysteries…

Arguments can be presented in numerous ways. One of the foremost stands for the want of independence. The need and the reason for a man to depend on a woman or any other source for satisfying the growls of his stomach no longer exist. No amount of excuses can fill up this void stretching between a man expecting to be waited on and the same man ending up in the kitchen cooking a feast…With women emerging out of their subtle shrouds into the dawn, men shouldn’t be too far from divining the fact that it is high time their biased opinions about the sharing of work in the household take a complete makeover.

Secondly, cooking hardly comes under a category pronounced as a fitting punishment meant only for people sitting at home. It is an enjoyable experience by its own standards. Men can definitely afford to know cooking. Instead of making the woman feel obligated as far as cooking and food is concerned, man might as well take it in his stride and learn. Of course, after being cosseted for so many centuries put together, men will be miffed slightly when pushed out into the open. But it will very surely do them a world of good. Just as women are trying to make a mark in the man’s world, it won’t hurt, if they at least take a sneak peek into a woman’s world. But men are as sportive as they are stubborn. Over the years, they learned to enter the kitchen and the joys of cooking welcomed them with open arms.

There are millions of men who have taken up cooking as a profession. Some of the best chefs in the world are men. Biased thoughts are a fashion of the yester year. Gender discrimination is hardly the hottest topic these days. Apart from the instance where a common man has been considered as before, there are men whose profession itself is cooking. Royal chefs, men who supply food for temple feasts, restaurants, hotels etc are only some examples. These men have been working hard at it through centuries too.

As I draw the line over here, it is to emphasize how important and enjoyable the whole aspect of cooking is…and giving you the assurance for it comprises of yet another story. Yep, cooking is definitely a whole bundle of fun. Check it out guys…